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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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To: goodwithagun

At Sam’s you can get 5 13 oz. cans of white meat chunk chicken for 9.95. We mix it with brown rice and add it to IAM’s dog food for my 11 yro blue heeler who had a pancreas problem 6 years ago. The chicken can be utilized many ways to add protein to a diet, my sister in law uses it for chicken salad.


81 posted on 10/20/2013 8:30:25 AM PDT by duffee (NO poll tax, NO tax on firearms, ammunition or gun safes. NO gun free zones.)
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To: goodwithagun
If this person can spend $5/day on them, . . .

Hunh? A two-pack-a-day New York smoker spends $29 a day on his Marlboro Reds--that's $14.50 a pack plus 16 per cent sales tax, according to AWL.
82 posted on 10/20/2013 8:32:58 AM PDT by righttackle44 (Take scalps. Leave the bodies as a warning.)
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To: caww

...sheesh...You might re-read my original comment to get a better grasp of what I acutally said, instead of “creating” your own story.

I did not say the non-smoking laws were established by business owners, however...

Many businesses did make use of their ability “to choose” and offered non-smoking areas for non-smoking customers well before the govt got involved...because non-smokers were demanding it. Businesses were losing non-smoker’s business. I know...I wouldn’t frequent establishments that allowed unsegregated smoking.

Neither did I make ANY comment about the government interferring with one’s ability to enjoy themselves...even though, it’s obvious, you could care less that smoker’s actions harm other people. You brought the govt into the conversation.

Although smoking is a stupid, nasty, smelly and unhealthy habit, I believe a person should be able to smoke wherever they want to as long as it does not interfere with or create an unsafe situation for other people. In no way does it justify the govt jumping in to regulate the situation. I never said it did. I only referred to a business changing THEIR rules.

I also believe that if a person wants to ride a motorcycle without a helmet...fine. I figure Darwin will take care of helmetless riders and smokers in due time. Just don’t put me at risk while you’re being stupid.


83 posted on 10/20/2013 8:43:02 AM PDT by moovova
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To: Sam's Army

Eating fast food is expensive. That’s probably what they’re talking about when they say they don’t have enough for food. For the price of a pack of cigarettes in that area you can feed yourself a healthy meal for the day.

Breakfast
8oz milk
1/2 banana
1 egg
1 piece of toast

$.50 milk, .25 Banana .25 Egg, .25 Toast.
Total $1.25

Lunch:
16 oz water
1 apple
1 piece of Dove’s small dark chocolate square.

$.75 for the apple, .25 for the dove chocolate

Total $1.00

Dinner:
16 oz water
Serving of vegetables
4 oz of protein (beef, Chicken, Pork)
Roll or toasted slice of bread.

$.50 vegetable $1.50 4 oz of protein (Beef, Chicken, Pork) .25 for the dinner roll, slice of bread.

Total $2.25

Grand Total $4.50 for about 2000 calories.

Then ....

Pack of loose rolling tobacco 1 oz $2.00
Pack of 100 1.25in sheets of Rolling paper. $1.75

For $3.75 for the equivalent of 5 packs of name brand cigarette


84 posted on 10/20/2013 8:48:00 AM PDT by Usagi_yo
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To: moovova

<....” it’s obvious, you could care less that smoker’s actions harm other people”....>

That’s correct because I don’t buy the stories used to infringe on Americans freedoms to choose...which includes yours.

Smoking laws have nothing whatsoever to do with smoking. The informed recognize this.

You are obviously affected being around smokers...so you should simply avoid those situations...your health problem limits you.... and most people take care to accomadate their health issues accordingly....they do not expect the rest of the world do dance around them.

You are ‘reframming’ what was said and therefore deceived by your own issues about the subject of government interference in business. You cannot have it both ways.........
Again...businesses had ‘no choice’....the ‘laws of government’ alone established the laws of non-smoking.


85 posted on 10/20/2013 8:52:27 AM PDT by caww
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To: SaraJohnson
<.....”How bout everyone mind their own business for a change and refuse to give the communists punitive taxes on products and preferences for groups/tribes/classes of people”.....>

That's right! I suspect next will be to legalize dope so the government can regulate and tax that........

People who believe any laws or regulations are made for the benefit of the people are remarkably deluded. It's NEVER about the people...it's ALL and always bartering chips among the politicians and revenue enhancing their pursers and election cycles.

86 posted on 10/20/2013 8:58:44 AM PDT by caww
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To: Sam's Army

If a person is too stupid to choose food over smokes, well, they’re simply too stupid to live and we should just let them go.


87 posted on 10/20/2013 9:00:54 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: southernnorthcarolina
Cheap bars and restaurants inevitably have "smoking porches" where patrons can duck out and take a drag. More expensive places tend not to have them, and don't need them.

Maybe where you are, but not where I am. The establishment we frequent is considered high end and they have always accommodated both smoking and non-smoking clientele. The main dining room was always non-smoking, private rooms up to whoever is utilizing it. The screened in dining porch off the main dining room always permitted smoking as does the bar area, which also has a large sun room.

Now that the government decided to stick its nose where it didn't belong, the private dining rooms must be all non smoking. The tables in the sun room are full nearly every night, and there is a wait for them on the weekends.

It's a beach town, and at the height of the season, not a day goes by where someone from out of state doesn't express appreciation for the accommodation of all.

As an aside, most bar and wait staff will tell you that smoker who are accommodated are better tippers than the non-smokers who pushed for the stupid government bans or whine that smokers are accomodated.

88 posted on 10/20/2013 9:06:31 AM PDT by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: wideawake
Translation: It is my fault that he makes bad decisions.

It's prolly not your fault but you definitely pay through the nose for his and others bad decisions. So do I.

89 posted on 10/20/2013 9:06:57 AM PDT by upchuck (nobamacare must be stopped before it can live down to our expectations.)
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To: CrazyIvan

<....”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”.....>

Addictions are simply to satisfy an ‘appetite’ regardless of the substance. And this includes people who consume too much food......they “want” more equally as much as any substance an addict might desire. It is remains a matter of how much they endulge their appetite....and how their brains and general makeup determine the priority of what they choose.

Smoking has a soothing affect on the brain....few recognize this though it’s well known. It does “calm”....so I have no problem believing the POWS would choose to smoke over eating given their situation.

There’s a fellow in our community that smokes a lot of pot. Known to be a pot head yet you wouldn’t recognize that he is doped up. An officer shared with me that the guy would be violent otherwise.....whatever weed does it seems to keep this fellow in line.


90 posted on 10/20/2013 9:09:05 AM PDT by caww
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To: Ditter; caww

The tables have turned only because of government interference where it didn’t belong.

Prior to the government stepping in, fully 97% of all eating establishments in the Washington, DC area were smoke-free — but that wasn’t enough for the bed wetting anti-smoker crowd.

The market had dealt with it on its own without government interference, yet there are plenty of so-called conservatives that felt 97% wasn’t enough and had to get big bro government to get everything they wanted.


91 posted on 10/20/2013 9:12:24 AM PDT by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: Sam's Army
You certainly feel bad for the guy being on a Navy disability but his logic is all messed up.Even if he only smokes a pack a day that's an extra $8 a day (or more) for food.As for the typical American smoker...a welfare parasite who pays for his/her smokes with an EBT card...I say “cry me a friggin river”.
92 posted on 10/20/2013 9:12:31 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Osama Obama Care: A Religion That Will Have You On Your Knees!)
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To: CodeToad
<......”If a person is too stupid to choose food over smokes, well, they’re simply too stupid to live and we should just let them go”........>

Should we say the same thing about the people who are overweight and cannot stop shoveling into their mouths the next gluttonous mouthful and choose rather not to induldge their appetite? Who now cause more health problems than smokers.

93 posted on 10/20/2013 9:16:49 AM PDT by caww
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To: Gabz
You are out numbered Gabz, so stuff it, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. :)
94 posted on 10/20/2013 9:17:36 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Sam's Army

#1 and only reason to use tobacco.
Too many unburied bodies.


95 posted on 10/20/2013 9:19:42 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: caww

Either way it is not your choice to do anything about it. I simply do not believe in welfare of any kind. That is taxation without representation.


96 posted on 10/20/2013 9:21:14 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: Gabz

Yep.....they couldn’t allow establishments to determine their own rules and instead had to satisfy the lobbyists and self-righteous liberals who falsely believe they have a right to make such “Demands”.

You note also that once they were successful at dictating the rules of smoking....they then sought to ‘control’, and continue to, what food is allowed to be served...how it’s prepared and fully regulated.

I want French Fries deep fried in grease!!!!! The ones served now taste like they were coated with talc! Awful tasting.....


97 posted on 10/20/2013 9:22:35 AM PDT by caww
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To: Sam's Army

You guys think cigarettes are the only thing this nut is addicted to. First class druggie is my guess and your stuff is what is on his to do list!!!


98 posted on 10/20/2013 9:23:20 AM PDT by ontap (but was just wondering how the Martinez family feels about illegal aliens.....just asking!!!)
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To: moovova; caww
And then, retailers and restaurants realized they were losing business because non-smokers WERE staying away...

And many places went non-smoking WITHOUT government interference to correct that.

and they changed their rules to accommodate the larger group of spenders...the non-smokers...problem solved.

Yes, many did WITHOUT government interference, but that wasn't good enough for people like you, you had to get big brother involved so everything was to accommodate YOU.

When we were fighting the ban in Delaware, one of the most vocal opponents of it was a gentleman who owned a very popular (and upscale) bar and restaurant that he had decided to take smoke-free. He didn't want the ban, because he claimed it would cut into the niche market he created for himself. He was right, his business declined drastically following the ban.

As to your so-called larger group of spenders, tell that to all the establishments that lost business because of the ban.

The number one reason owners wouldn't go smoke free was because they would lose business to places that permitted smoking - and you can find that excuse in favor of government interference in news reports in every state the bed wetting anti-smokers descend up to impose their ways.

99 posted on 10/20/2013 9:24:38 AM PDT by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: CodeToad

The problem is society has gotten so self-centered that to “give” where the real needs are go unmet if society is left to itself....it didn’t use to be so. If families in my community were down on their luck the whole community gave freely and proud to do so.....that is not how it is today.


100 posted on 10/20/2013 9:25:53 AM PDT by caww
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