Smoking ban a Pueblo issue, say supporters

Opponents of the suspended smoking ban say it was brought to Pueblo by outside groups, including one partly funded by a company that sells products to help people quit smoking.

That's only half true, say backers of the ban. The antismoking ordinance is something a lot of Pueblo residents want, they say.

The ban was suspended Wednesday after city officials certified petitions submitted by members of Puebloans for Common Sense in Government. According to the city charter, the ban now must be reviewed by City Council and either repealed or put on the ballot for city voters to decide.

Bar and restaurant owners who formed the backbone of the Common Sense group said they feared the ban would cost them customers and didn't like being told what to do by City Council.

The ban prohibited smoking in almost any indoor public area and required employers to make sure their workers didn't have to work in smoky conditions. The city is now governed by the old smoking law, which allows designated smoking areas and doesn't have the same employee-protection requirements.

While addressing members of the Common Sense group Wednesday night, attorney Joe Losavio said the ban was based on a sample law written by a national antismoking group.

Losavio also said one of the groups that helped get the ban enacted receives money from a foundation set up by a founder of Johnson & Johnson, a company he said sells smoking-cessation products.

Supporters of the smoking ban admit that the ban's language came from a national model. And, they say, help to get the ban came from the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance, which is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The foundation was established by a member of the family that started the Johnson & Johnson company and owns stock in the company, according to a foundation spokesman.

But according to a company spokesman, Johnson & Johnson currently doesn't sell products to help people quit smoking.

Jeff Leebaw, the company's director of media relations, said Johnson & Johnson once owned the Pharmacia company, which makes nicotine gum and other smoking cessation products, but sold it two years ago.

The ordinance creating the ban was based on a sample law distributed by Americans for Non-Smokers' Rights, which is a national no-smoking group. Pueblo activists for the ban were assisted by the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance, according to ban supporters.

The Colorado group received $340,000 from the Johnson foundation last year. Executive Director Chris Sherwin said the state group uses the money to provide education about the ills of tobacco and to help communities enact no-smoking laws.

While CTEPA helped Pueblo's local antismoking group with educating the public and getting the ban enacted, Sherwin said the ban was very much a local Pueblo effort.

"This has to be something that is generated in the community and supported in the community," Sherwin said. "We don't work with the community unless they are ready to do this."

The Pueblo group that pushed for the ban is called Clean Indoor Air Pueblo. Its members have worked for the past few years to prepare for and then push for a smoking ban, according to several participants.Representatives of the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, local hospitals and the City/County Health Department belong to the group, as do a number of private individuals, according to members.

Jennifer Beasley is the local representative of the American Lung Association of Colorado and has been a leader in Clean Indoor Air Pueblo. She moved to Pueblo a few years ago from Denver where she worked in the Lung Association's asthma programs.

Beasley said the Indoor Air group wasn't happy with the city's existing smoking ordinance and started telling people about the dangers of secondhand smoke, especially to employees of smoky businesses.

Eventually, Indoor Air was able to talk to City Council members about the need for an indoor smoking ban in public places.

Dr. Chris Nevin-Woods, director of the Pueblo City/County Health Department, has testified to council about the dangers of secondhand smoke. But she kept the health department separate from the Indoor Air group while it was pushing to have the ban considered.

"I had purposely not had the health department taking a lead because I felt it had to come from a community group if it was going to work in Pueblo," Nevin-Woods said.

Council members Bill Sova and Ted Lopez Jr. attended a meeting by the health department and the Indoor Air group to discuss the dangers of secondhand smoke, according to Sova.

The groups said they wanted to introduce a smoking ban and Sova said he thought it was a good idea.

Afterward, the text of a sample smoking ban was given to City Attorney Tom Jagger to review. He said he customized the law a little and added a section allowing smoking in freestanding bars that made less than 25 percent of their revenue from the sale of food.

City Council had the first reading of the ban in October and then delayed the hearing until December. After changing to ban to include all bars, council members Sova. Lopez, Mike Occhiato and Bob Schilling voted to pass it Dec. 9.

Those supporting the ban, which went into effect Jan. 1, said it doesn't matter that the actual text of the law came from a national group and not Pueblo residents.

Gail Newell, program manager for a local tobacco prevention program funded by national tobacco settlement money, said those who oppose smoking bans always claim that national antismoking groups are behind the bans.

"I think you're always going to hear that" she said. "I think it's easier (to craft a smoking ban) if you have a model to work from."

"It had already been used in other communities," Nevin-Woods said of the model ordinance. "It had been looked at and legally examined already."

The smoking ban was a goal of a lot of Pueblo residents, so the origins of the ban language aren't the point, Beasley said.

And neither is the act the the local group got help in advertising and strategy from the state CTEPA, she said.

"They've not come in and told Pueblo what to do," she said. "Everybody's who's on the (Indoor Air) coalition is local."

The Indoor Air group has a mailing list of about 300 local people and counts several dozen of them as active participants, Beasley said. The suspension of the ban has only helped the Indoor Air group get more volunteers.

"People aren't happy and want to help and make sure Pueblo votes yes on this," she said.

The volunteers are still active, calling businesses to either thank them from staying nonsmoking or ask that they do so, Beasley said.

Bill Sova, who is now president of the City Council, said dismissing the smoking ban as the work of outsiders trying to tell Pueblo what to do is just "ridiculous."

"I think PU could learn a lot from other cities," he said. "Look at the economic gains a lot of our northern neighbors have. I don't think Pueblo should be afraid to learn what other successful communities are doing."

attorney Joe Losavio said the ban was based on a sample law written by a national antismoking group.

Of course it was. All the national anti-smoker groups are littered with lawyers who have nothing better to do than write anti-smoker, anti-business ordinances.

Losavio also said one of the groups that helped get the ban enacted receives money from a foundation set up by a founder of Johnson & Johnson, a company he said sells smoking-cessation products....Supporters of the smoking ban admit that the ban's language came from a national model. And, they say, help to get the ban came from the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance, which is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation was established by a member of the family that started the Johnson & Johnson company and owns stock in the company, according to a foundation spokesman.

Let's be honest here, guys...RWJF is the PRIME stockholder and it's justification for existence is the War on Smokers. RWJF is worth more than all the tobacco companies put together, yet it pays no taxes under the IRS rules of "charitable" organizations.

But according to a company spokesman, Johnson & Johnson currently doesn't sell products to help people quit smoking. Jeff Leebaw, the company's director of media relations, said Johnson & Johnson once owned the Pharmacia company, which makes nicotine gum and other smoking cessation products, but sold it two years ago.

And gave the millions of dollars they got for it to "charity," no doubt.

The ordinance creating the ban was based on a sample law distributed by Americans for Non-Smokers' Rights, which is a national no-smoking group.

Founded by Stan-the-Sham Glantz, self-described "anti-tobacco lunatic." Without the War on Smokers, Glantz would still be a low level functionary at UCSF with his degree in Applied Mechanics, but because of the millions of dollars his crusade brings them, he's head of cardiology!

"Education" or indoctrination? If they were held to the same standards of truth everyone else is supposed to be, they'd all be out of business.

"This has to be something that is generated in the community and supported in the community," Sherwin said. "We don't work with the community unless they are ready to do this."

Fortunately for them, there are nanny busybodies in every town who can be pressed into duty for just such meddling.

Representatives of the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, local hospitals and the City/County Health Department belong to the group, as do a number of private individuals, according to members.

And anyone who disagrees with what these authoritarian jerks do will be facing the million-dollar propaganda campaign perfected in Kookiefornia and Florida. The ACS spent $6 million making sure the populace was properly deceived in Florida, opponents managed to raise a couple thousand dollars.

They're not satisfied screwing up one place, they move and take their fascist ideas with them.

Eventually, Indoor Air was able to talk to City Council members about the need for an indoor smoking ban in public places.

And here's another place they gain the upper hand. These people are pros at deception, they have all the slick propaganda materials already printed for them by the national flacks, they sweep into a town and immediately move on the local politicians, sometimes even being given office space--FREE--in city offices.

Those supporting the ban, which went into effect Jan. 1, said it doesn't matter that the actual text of the law came from a national group and not Pueblo residents.

Well of course it doesn't matter to them! they are the carpetbaggers!

Could that be because "national antismoking groups are behind the bans"???

The only antidote to this cancer of totalitarianism sweeping across our country is for the people--YOU--to get involved and stop it. If you believe in private property rights and individual liberties, no matter where you stand on smoking itself, GET INVOLVED! Contact the folks fighting to keep private property rights sacrosanct in Pueblo and ask how you can help. The enemy is organized and backed with millions of taxpayer dollars to defeat you. Show them that WE, THE PEOPLE still run this country...not a bunch of special-interest activist elitists with a Messiah complex.

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