Free Republic

ABILENE — One West Texas city is really serious about its smoking ban. Just ask Brian Wayne Hendrix, who was arrested and jailed on an outstanding warrant for smoking in public. Hendrix, 44, said he was "flabbergasted" by the arrest, which came after an officer pulled him over Tuesday morning on a traffic stop. "I never thought I'd be going to jail for smoking a cigarette, but I'd do it again," said Hendrix, who was released from the Taylor County Jail after posting $150 bond Tuesday afternoon. The city's smoking ban that went into effect Jan. 3 prohibits smoking in...

WASHINGTON, DC February 16, 2007 -- New research shows for the first time that smoking produces long-lasting biochemical changes in the human brain similar to those changes previously seen in the brains of animals that used cocaine, heroin, and other illicit drugs. This new research supports the idea that long-term smoking alters the brain in ways that contribute to addiction, and provides insight into how addiction works, says lead author Bruce Hope, PhD, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The study, supported by NIDA, is published in the February 21 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. "The data...

WASHINGTON -- Bipartisan legislation to give the federal Food and Drug Administration regulatory control over tobacco products may be introduced next week.

Jane Gravelle: After the Clinton administration proposed a fairly substantial increase in the cigarette tax as a way of funding health care reform, my colleague Dennis Zimmerman and I wrote a paper entitled "Cigarette Taxes to Fund Health Care Reform and Economic Analysis."* The part of the paper I'd like to talk about is the justifications for increasing the cigarette tax. I'm an economist, so I start with the presumptions that people have subjective preferences about what they like to do and how they spend their money and that, in general, we want to allow people to enjoy their lifetime...

On November 7, 2006, Ohio voters approved State Issue 5, The Smoke Free Workplace Act. This Act will impact virtually all businesses and employers in Ohio starting on December 7, 2006, the date the Act goes into effect, by generally prohibiting smoking in enclosed public areas and places of employment. Specifically, the Act prohibits a proprietor of a public place or an employer from permitting smoking in a public place or the workplace, or in the areas directly or indirectly under the control of the proprietor or employer “immediately adjacent” to entrances or exits. The proprietor or employer must further...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Spectrum Health and Saint Mary's Health Care will require all their employees to not use tobacco at any time during their work shift beginning January 1. The staffs of both hospitals will need to arrive without smelling of smoke, and they can't use any tobacco products until they leave hospital property after their shift. Metro Health is also joining in the Smoke-Free Work Day Every Day campaign. In 2003, the Grand Rapids hospitals became the first in the country to jointly declare their hospital campuses smoke-free. Today, more than 30 Michigan hospitals have smoke-free campuses. This...

More than 2,200 people have been arrested in Texas bars in the six months since the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced a crackdown on public intoxication, primarily targeting bars. The arrests included people who were drunk in bars, who sold alcohol to a drunk person, or a drunk employee on the premises of a bar or restaurant with a license to sell alcohol, said Carolyn Beck, a spokeswoman for the TABC. The commission has been responsible for enforcing the state's alcoholic beverage code for the past 70 years. In August, 2005, the agency announced it was beginning a crackdown on...

The likelihood of suffering major depression seems to be increased among smokers, especially those who smoke heavily, study findings suggest. Researchers in Norway who followed a population-based group of adults for 11 years found that those who smoked were more likely than non-smokers to become depressed, and the risk climbed in tandem with the number of cigarettes smokers puffed each day. Heavy smokers -- those who burned through more than 20 cigarettes a day -- were four times more likely than people who'd never smoked to develop depression. A number of factors the researchers considered -- including physical health, exercise...

(Health inspector: 'We had complaints') Madison's most outspoken critic of the smoking ban has been busted for allowing smoking in his tavern, but the bar owner says he will fight the charges and might try to get the smoking ban overturned because of his case. Dave Wiganowsky, a county supervisor and owner of Wiggie's, 1901 Aberg Ave., is being taken to Madison Municipal Court on two counts of violating the city's smoking ordinance for allegedly letting patrons smoke in his bar on Dec. 17 and Jan. 14. Public health officers working undercover went into Wiggie's on both occasions, based on...

I wish Mr. Menconi’s crusade was merely a “stunt,” as Don Rogers put it. I believe it’s much worse than that.Mr. Menconi uses the tools of the propagandist and avoids any actual facts or real scientific proof of his claims. Rather than show actual risk, he wants to use “scary” made up relative risk numbers — a typical propagandist’s tool.Like so many in the anti-smoking industry, Mr. Menconi expects his readers to accept his claims prima-facie, without anyone actually questioning that his statements might be false.He doesn’t use any actual studies or evidence to prove his case. he merely makes...

RICHMOND, Va. - The Virginia Senate voted Monday to ban smoking in restaurants and virtually all other public places, an extraordinary sign of cultural change in a state that is home to the worldwide headquarters of Philip Morris and whose agricultural economy has been rooted in tobacco farming for almost 400 years. The bill is unlikely to survive review in the House of Delegates. Yet its passage on the floor of the Senate -- where smoking has never been formally banned and lawmakers lit up openly even until the late 1990s -- signaled mounting popular support for smoking restrictions....