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The Poor Get Caught in Tobacco's Grip as They Stuggle With Hunger
The Lakeland Ledger via The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | Saturday, October 19, 2013 | ALFRED LUBRANO

Posted on 10/20/2013 5:43:53 AM PDT by Sam's Army

Many people smoke after they've eaten. Lindell Harvey smokes because he hasn't.

"You smoke out of anxiety because you don't have the food you need," said Harvey, 54, who lives alone in Crum Lynne, Pa. He receives disability checks from the Navy that keep him $2,000 below the poverty line.

Harvey relies on his Newports to see him through his hard days. "In my mind, the smoking becomes a comfort as I try to create ways to get food."

(Excerpt) Read more at theledger.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: crumlynne; democrattaxcode; excisetax; excisetaxes; lindellharvey; pennsylvania; secondhandsmoke; tobacco; welfaresmokes
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Comment #41 Removed by Moderator

To: Tail Gunner John

In the world? I thought Vinales in Pinar del Río had that claim.


42 posted on 10/20/2013 6:35:18 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: DeepInTheHeartOfTexas
Only thing in the background is squash and tomato plants. ;) I don't grow any of that left-hand tobacco around here.

/johnny

43 posted on 10/20/2013 6:36:20 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Sam's Army

Don’t cigarettes cost about 6 bucks a pack? What’s that? The World’s Smallest Violin.....


44 posted on 10/20/2013 6:36:33 AM PDT by FrdmLvr
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To: caww
” ArmySmoking is an addiction......addictions to anything always has priority. When one doesn’t have their “fix” anxiety and physical withdrawal symptons begin. So of course they’re going to choose cigs. over food.”

I have read a lot about POW camps in WWII. It has always surprised me how many near starvation inmates would still trade some of their food for tobacco when some was available.

45 posted on 10/20/2013 6:36:42 AM PDT by CrazyIvan (Obama phones= Bread and circuits.)
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To: Ditter

I grew up on a tobacco farm, Tobacco is a weed. It will grow anywhere. As a crop it is labor intensive, and cigarettes are blends of different kinds of tobacco.
Most of those who smoke would find the tobacco they grow to be pretty coarse compared to cigarettes. The same with chewing tobacco, It is mixed with sugars and other ingredients, but yes. You can chew it right from the leaf.

I was upset when they started outlawing smoking I bars and public places, but now I kind of like going places without my eyes burning and a dry throat from smokers. I have never smoked I suppose because my father and mother never smoked, and I never saw much to the habit.

If this guy has money to buy cigarettes there is no excuse for his being hungry.


46 posted on 10/20/2013 6:36:58 AM PDT by Venturer (Keep Obama and you aint seen nothing yet.)
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To: redfreedom

“I keep hitting myself in the head with a hammer because it feels so good when I stop”>>>>>>>

LOL! That is going to made me laugh all day, great line!


47 posted on 10/20/2013 6:37:38 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Sam's Army

Hmmmm. That brings up a new issue: How are the homeless going to register for Obamacare? If they don't sign up, how will they pay their fines, since they probably don't file income tax forms.


48 posted on 10/20/2013 6:37:57 AM PDT by TomGuy (.)
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To: CrazyIvan
Whoops. Didn't crop that quote correctly. Lose “Army”
49 posted on 10/20/2013 6:38:44 AM PDT by CrazyIvan (Obama phones= Bread and circuits.)
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To: Sam's Army

Obamacare should allow docs to write prescriptions for medicinal smokes.


50 posted on 10/20/2013 6:41:33 AM PDT by moovova
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To: southernnorthcarolina

Right.

A quick calculation: $7/pack x 2 packs/day = roughly $420 per month or $5000 per year.

The 2013 Poverty Guidelines average is $11,490 for 1 person. The guy in the article receives $2,000 under the poverty level, so his income is about $9,490.


51 posted on 10/20/2013 6:47:09 AM PDT by TomGuy (.)
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To: caww

“...well that is YOUR problem. So you stay away from places where people smoke....problem solved.”

And then, retailers and restaurants realized they were losing business because non-smokers WERE staying away...and they changed their rules to accommodate the larger group of spenders...the non-smokers...problem solved.


52 posted on 10/20/2013 6:48:24 AM PDT by moovova
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To: Sam's Army

Something is wrong with this picture.... I just can’t put my finger on it....


53 posted on 10/20/2013 6:50:27 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)
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To: mrs. a

Chicken necks, rice and a side of cabbage.

Been there done that.


54 posted on 10/20/2013 6:56:08 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: Sam's Army
Mr. Harvey's "reasoning" is akin to the excuses I've told in my life my people who claim they can't afford something (cable tv, a trip, etc.) because of lack of money. These same people will then blithely spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on non-essential items. Why don't they just admit that some things are more important to them than other things?
Person: "I want to add a room to my house because we have a growing family, but I can't afford it".
me: "but you just bought a new boat costing thousands of dollars
person: "I need that boat for fishing
me: "then you made a choice...fishing was more important than adding a room."
55 posted on 10/20/2013 6:56:24 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: Sam's Army
Yale University sociologist Elijah Anderson said people shouldn't "blame the victim" by denigrating smoking behavior without understanding poverty, its underlying causes, and a poor person's "limited sense of having a future."

The liberal text book answer to everything. At some point, you have to buck up and do something for yourself. Plus, liberalism is, more than any other factor, responsible for their poverty in the first place. Irony.

Nearly every poor person I have known smokes and owns animals (which have to be fed, etc).

56 posted on 10/20/2013 6:57:55 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: goodwithagun

Growing tobacco is big (or used to be big) here in western Wisconsin which is further north than Ohio. You don’t need a year-round warm climate to grown tobacco.


57 posted on 10/20/2013 7:01:08 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: ChildOfThe60s

Hey watch it, animals are a necessity for some of us. don’t mess with my dogs! :)snort))))))


58 posted on 10/20/2013 7:02:26 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Sam's Army

One could predict this piece (of crap) from the Ledger. It is so party line with that bunch of NYT offspring.

When I lived in Lakeland in the 80s it was a nice (albeit rather parochial) place. It’s not now. Crime in general is high, juvenile crime is awful, the police dept is inept and corrupt. The offices of mayor, city manager and council seats are nothing but musical chairs for the same incestuous bunch of jerks for the last 25 years.

Hmm, I’ve just described every liberal city.


59 posted on 10/20/2013 7:07:05 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: Venturer

When I was a kid fifty years ago, it seemed virtually all adults smoked. I’ve since realized a number of my neighborhood adults didn’t smoke or rarely smoked, but my parents smoked up a storm. The picture I remember most of my mother from my childhood is her taking a deep drag on a cigarette with the other hand on her hip. Papa wasn’t much better. That turned me off ever wanting to smoke. The sad thing is I never noticed a tobacco smell on my clothes as a kid after leaving a smoker’s house. Now when I go in some place where people smoke, the stinky smell is obvious and I have to get into fresh clothes as quick as possible.


60 posted on 10/20/2013 7:09:24 AM PDT by driftless2
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