GLOBAL TOBACCO TREATY WILL CURB FREEDOM, NOT SMOKING, LIBERTARIANS SAY

LP Website ^ | 05/21/03 | George Getz

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

=============================== NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
===============================
For release: May 21, 2003
===============================
For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone: (202) 333-0008
E-Mail: pressreleases@hq.LP.org
================================

Global tobacco treaty will curb freedom, but not smoking, Libertarians predict

WASHINGTON, DC -- The international anti-tobacco treaty that the U.S. government has suddenly embraced won't reduce smoking in other nations by one iota, Libertarians predict, but it will infringe on the right of adults everywhere to smoke.

"This treaty proves that politicians and bureaucrats are hopelessly addicted to running other people's lives, no matter which nation they're from," said Geoffrey Neale, Libertarian Party national chairman. "While this document will further empower the international nanny state, in all likelihood it won't deter people from smoking."

In a speech before the 171-member World Health Assembly on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson is expected to announce that the U.S. has abandoned its opposition to the international anti-tobacco treaty.

Formally called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the multinational agreement seeks to combat tobacco use around the globe by imposing higher cigarette taxes, cracking down on smuggling, banning advertising and outlawing sales to minors.

Libertarians' main objection to U.S. participation: It's none of the government's business whether people smoke.

"American politicians have no right ordering Americans not to smoke -- much less people halfway around the world," Neale said. "Smoking is a personal choice, not an international crisis. Adults should have the right to engage in behavior that hurts no one but themselves, as long as they're willing to accept the consequences."

Americans who support the treaty should be reminded that trying to "protect" people in other countries from smoking cuts both ways: The U.S. government would get power over individuals in other nations, but foreign leaders would get the same power over us.

"Do you really want bureaucrats in Brazil, China, and Zimbabwe to have the power to decide whether and where you can smoke, and how much it will cost?" he asked. "If you think it's hard to fight City Hall, imagine trying to fight the United Nations."

Finally, Neale noted, evidence shows that higher tobacco taxes, anti- smoking campaigns and more stringent regulations don't curb smoking anyway:

* In Australia -- where cigarettes cost about $4 a pack, most tobacco ads are banned, and the government sponsors massive anti-smoking campaigns on TV -- smoking rates are about the same as in the U.S., according to a study by the University of Sydney's Department of Public Health.

* In the United States, the teen smoking rate has increased at the same time that states boosted taxes, outlawed smoking in public places and launched public education campaigns, according to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The study found that smoking rates among high school students rose from 27.5 percent to 36.4 percent between 1991 and 1997, during which time the government launched an unprecedented anti-smoking campaign.

* A recent study at Cornell University also found no significant decline in teen-age smoking rates in states that raised cigarette taxes.

"The bottom line is that treaties, taxes, and tyranny won't curb smoking in the United States or abroad," Neale said. "It's time to snuff out the U.S. role in the global anti-tobacco treaty."

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Remember Bushbots and those who endlessly bash the Libertarian Party as a party of porn lovers and dope smokers, the above unconstitutional American sovereignity usurping treaty is being embraced by a Republican administration.

EEE

[BlkConserv]

....Libertarian Party as a party of porn lovers and dope smokers

You forgot blue people too:

You can do two things: Vote for the immoral 1%er Libertines and watch your freedom really decline under a Democratic adminstration, or you can call, write, fax, or email Toxic Tommy and tell him to get his head out of his rear.

Any treaty has to go through Congress anyway - Tom DeLay and the Repubs will nuke it.

[ServesURight]

Libertarians are no more immoral than Republicans are racist.

Get your facts straight and quit listening to Kevin Curry's horse dookey.

Why don't the Bush adminstration just shred the Constitution while they're at it? This treaty is a bunch of crap Thompson should know better than to propose a foolhardy stunt like this.

[steve50]

Get your facts straight and quit listening to Kevin Curry's horse dookey.

Can't let the masses think there is any option other than the republicans as the lesser of two evils. Otherwise they might be forced to actually act and vote conservative, instead of just paying lip service to the principles.

This attitude will make Patriot 2 and the AWB renewal a certainty, thanks neocons.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BUMP

[Mark Felton]

The Constitution does not relenquish authority to the Republican and Democrat parties. These are private associations who have established a monopoly of control over the republic.

They must compete on equal terms with every other private association that chooses to compete. If a person votes for a party because they are already in power then it defeats the whole purpose of having a democratic process.

Vote for principle.

[Dead Corpse]

How many billions will go into enforcement of this boondoggle?

Anyone notice we STILL don't have a cure for cancer? Makes you wonder what would get done if that tax money were pissed away on a cancer cure instead of another fruitless prohibition program.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Sorry, your scary nightmare scenarios of red-eyed Democratic demons roaming the countryside if a Republican isn't elected isn't working anymore.

YOU STUPID RINO APPEASERS CONTROL ALL THREE BRANCHES OF GOV'T YET YOU CONTINUE TO SELL AMERICAN FREEDOM TO GODLESS INTERNATIONALISTS AND TURN AMERICAN INTO A 3RD WORLD STATE...

[BlkConserv]

Like it or not, we have a two-party system.

[steve50]

Anyone notice we STILL don't have a cure for cancer?

With the cash they've wasted on various morality control programs over the last 30 years they could have cured male pattern baldness by now. Some sucess record they got where they did spend it.

[BlkConserv]

You can take your meds now. This treaty will never see the light of day. I don't know what the hell Thompson is thinking, however. Me thinks Tommy consumed too much brats and beer.

[Mark Felton]

"Like it or not, we have a two-party system. "

Really? Where does it say in the Constitution that we have a two party system?

What we have is a duopoly. Both parties have colluded to keep themselves exclusively in power.

If we had an honest, open two party system both parties would represent politically opposing philosophies. They do not. They represent almost identical political philosophy with the only true debate being how to split the revenues among sponsoring factions.

George Washington was vehemently opposed to political parties for the very reasons I have stated above. He feared their collusion, coercion and complete acquisition of power.

[SouthParkRepublican]

”Anyone notice we STILL don't have a cure for cancer?

Name the last drug or cure that was the result of our tax dollars. That’s all up to the Pharma companies and with already low prices from formularies and the crap that Maine is pulling, we will all be waiting a very long time.

[CELTICGAEL (Celt)]

I won't get into the debate Lib. vs Rep. As I see it, this effects all of us who do NOT want to lose anymore of our rights at the hands of the UN.

I have been on the phone for the last hour calling my Senators, local Republican Party, Tommy Thompson's office and the White House. The results of course are we will get back to you in a letter with the exception of Thompson's office and the White House. Here is what I have so far:

1) Rep. Debra Pryce OH R (I know she is not the Senate, but she is still my voice on Capitol Hill)I was told they would send me a letter with her position.

2) Sen. DeWine OH R same as above.

3) Sen. Voinovich OH R same as above.

4) Local Rep. Party They said they had no position on it. The guy said that they would not have a platform until 2004.

5) HHS Sec. Tommy Thompson I asked for his position on the matter (even though I know what it is) I asked if he has put out a press release on it and his sec. said that she thought that he did, but I would have to talk to his press office so they could send it to me. I did talk to his press office and I was told that he has NOT put out a press release and that he does in deed support it. The press person went on to say and I quote "he supports it because the Bush Admin. supports it" end of quote! I then called the White House.

6) I spoke to a very nice lady and she told me that if Sec. Tommy Thompson said he supports it then the President must support it and she would give the President my comments on the matter.

[Mark Felton]

way to go!

[Just another Joe]

Puff

Get the UN out of the US.

[headsonpikes]

"GLOBAL TOBACCO TREATY WILL CURB FREEDOM...LIBERTARIANS SAY"

Freedom freedom freedom...that's all those d*mned libertarians care about.

As if liberty has ever been the solution to the problems of mankind!

Government, and more of it, is the answer; after all, it takes a village to raise a child.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Thanks for your legwork. I was hoping that this thread wouldn't degenerate into a Libertarian/Republican shoutfest.

Unfortunately those who blindly support Bush and the GOP establishment will attack the messenger rather than the message and spew the same old lies. The Libertarian party might hold some questionable beliefs, but at least they are opposed to international laws and treaties that threaten American freedoms. Can't say the same about most Republicans (including the Bush administration)

But what you said is true that if Bush himself supports this treaty then I'll be siting home on election day in 2004. A lot us 3rd-party conservatives held their noses and supported Bush in 2000 - we supported him when Gore tried to hijack the election and we supported him post 9/11 and Gulf War II.

[Roughneck]

#7 www.sfgate.com

I wonder if "they" are trying to get tobacco out of civillian hands so "they" can capitalize on cancer cure...


Vacaville company trying to fight cancer with tobacco

Wednesday, August 7, 2002
©2003 Associated Press

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/08/07/state1204EDT0094.DTL


(08-07) 09:04 PDT VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP) --

A small Vacaville biotechnology company has announced positive results from an experimental cancer drug customized to each patient and manufactured in tobacco plants.

Large Scale Biology Corp. said Tuesday that its non-Hodgkin's lymphoma drug has completed the first phase of tests on humans and will proceed to the second phase.

Company officials are hopeful that commercial release of the non-Hodgkin's product could be complete in three years, said Robert Erwin, chairman and chief executive of Large Scale Biology.

The non-Hodgkin's drug would be among the first cancer therapies genetically tailored to individual patients. The drugs for the first phase of tests were grown in tobacco plants in the company's Vacaville greenhouse.

The company decided to use tobacco because it has special qualities for growing pharmaceutical proteins, replicating itself quickly, said Erwin.

The drug is manufactured by taking a genetic sample of the patient's cancer cells, cloning it, and using the gene to produce therapeutic proteins in a tobacco plant.

Erwin said the process is faster and cheaper than the conventional method for making other custom-made medicines, which are produced by having cancerous cells reproduce in a lab.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, an immune-system disease that strikes 55,000 Americans a year, is among the most deadly forms of cancer.

©2003 Associated Press

[Nick Danger]