Free Republic

American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares. The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder.  Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists. Several victims of rape and sexual abuse with post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ State lawmakers say Illinois smokers may not have to worry about shelling out a lot more money for their habit right away.Lawmakers from both parties are sharply criticizing Governor Blagojevich's plan to increase cigarette taxes by 75 cents per pack and use the money to pay for school and road construction projects.They say the tax increase would simply prompt smokers to travel to neighboring states such as Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana to buy cigarettes cheaper.They say that would hurt the economy and ensure the state doesn't take in enough money to fund the projects.Instead, they're looking...

Do people who enjoy smoking have any rights? Increasingly, the answer is no. It is essential to keep in mind that smoking cigarettes, cigars, or pipes is an entirely personal choice. No one is required to smoke. Millions voluntarily stop smoking every year. People have been smoking, and enjoying tobacco products for a very long time, but now they have been demonized and ostracized. Using the power of government, to tax, smokers are being ripped off at every level. Recently, New York City sent letters to 2,300 residents giving them thirty days to pay the taxes on the cartons of...

HALLOCK, Minn. - On Dec. 18, I attended a panel discussion sponsored by the Grand Forks Tobacco Free Coalition at the Alerus Center. After listening to the panel members and researching both sides of the issues, and having lived in California when the smoking ban was instituted there, I strongly urge the Grand Forks City Council and other agencies to take no action on the issue at this time, except to research the facts on both sides.Why? First, the health issue is seriously questionable. As the American Council on Science and Health has put it, "the role of environmental tobacco...

Concerned about the booming trade in online cigarette sales, New York state officials have begun using a variety of techniques to clamp down on the trade, saying New York City alone is losing more than $75 million a year in uncollected tax revenues because of the sales.In recent weeks, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has been pushing local postal officials and private carriers to stop delivering cigarettes bought online. His office has also recently begun negotiations with credit card companies to block transactions of online cigarettes.These efforts were given added push recently as local officials from the federal Bureau of Alcohol,...

Mayor Tom George sounds weary. He presides over a congested suburb where nearly every structure, street, and sewer is 100 years old. Its few factories are either dead or walking with a limp. Its retail is slim and struggling. Aside from thrift stores, it has but one thriving industry: bars. And now the Lakewood City Council is considering killing them. This month, a commission will recommend whether or not to enact a smoking ban. In a daintier locale, this might not be cause for uproar. Everyone could rally around, knowing they were saving heathens from their carcinogens. Unfortunately, this is...

A tiny upstart in the cigarette business threatens to topple a comfortable cartel engineered by big tobacco companies and their strange bedfellows, the state attorneys general.Big tobacco was supposed to come under harsh punishment for decades of deception when it acceded to a tort settlement seven years ago. Philip Morris, R.J.Reynolds, Lorillard and Brown & Williamson agreed to pay 46 states $206 billion over 25 years. This was their punishment for burying evidence of cigarettes' health risks. But the much-maligned tobacco giants have subtly and shrewdly turned their penance into a windfall. Using that tort settlement, the big brands have...

Tobacco control coordinator John Archard said the state investigated the post after getting complaints from area businesses that the VFW was stealing customers away by allowing in the public and letting them smoke.

A state lawmaker from Lansing wants to change employment rules in Michigan that allowed an Okemos company to fire employees for smoking off the job.Sen. Virg Bernero, a Democrat, said he will introduce legislation today that makes it illegal to fire an employee for engaging in legal activity outside the workplace.Meanwhile, four fired employees of Weyco Inc. are taking their story public this morning with appearances on national news shows."When this happened, I said, 'You can't do this to me,' " Anita Epolito told the State Journal on Sunday, speaking publicly for the first time about her firing.Epolito, of Haslett,...

A long time ago people either smoked or they didn't.  It was no big deal because it wasn't an issue.  The people of earth got along fine knowing they had freedom of choice without even knowing they had it.Then some really smart guys in white coats that work for Big Pharmaceutical got together and said, "Hey, we are always getting slammed when one of our drugs takes a dirt nap." "Wouldn't it be great if everyone in the world had to buy their nicotine from us?!"  "Think of the money we could make...  wow!"Unfortunately there wasn't anyone around with two working brain cells...

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31: Observing rules does not always pay and a youth from Orissa recently learnt it the hard way. Samaresh Panda, 24, an unemployed youth, was allegedly pushed out of the 2802 New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express on January 26 evening by three men near Bokaro railway station for his protests against smoking inside the compartment. The youth was left with a broken hip and scarred back. The injuries were so severe that pieces of flesh fell off his hip when he landed next to the railway track. Panda, a resident of Chakeisiani in Bhubaneswar, had recently gone to New...

Three passengers threw a 24-year-old man out of a running train on December 26, 2004, after he protested against their smoking in the compartment.Amaresh Panda, who was traveling from Delhi in the Purushottam Express, had asked the three to stop smoking as it inconvenienced the other passengers. When the train left Bokaro railway station in Jharkhand at night, the men pushed Amaresh out of the train, his family said.Amaresh, who suffered serious injuries, was spotted near the tracks the next morning by two men. They got him admitted to the Bokaro Steel General Hospital.His family later shifted him to a...

Just how harmful is environmental tobacco smoke? Not as harmful as the Environmental Protection Agency or those anti-secondhand smoke commercials would have one believe, according to Roger A. Jenkins, Ph.D., consultant to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Chemical Sciences division.Jenkins presented "Human Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Is What You See What You Get?" at ORNL this week. "Some people wish I didn't have the findings I have," Jenkins said. "Others say, 'Gee, if this is true, why does the EPA continue to talk about this?' [The research] steps on people's toes, and that's exactly what I want it to...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- One year after kicking its decades-long cigarette sponsorship habit, NASCAR apparently needs a little help staying smoke-free.  Nicorette gum became the first smoking cessation product to enter NASCAR when GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare signed a sponsorship deal Thursday with Chip Ganassi Racing.  Three of its quit-smoking products -- the gum, the NicoDerm CQ patch and Commit lozenges -- will be advertised on the rear decklid of Casey Mears' car for the entire season. Nicorette will also be the primary sponsor on the No. 41 Dodge for one race in a deal estimated to cost the company $3...

The Local Government Association says it is not surprised councils want no part in enforcing Queensland's new smoking laws.Councils can volunteer to police the smoking bans on patrolled beaches, near children's playgrounds and outside buildings.But a number of them have this week revealed they have refused.The association's Tony Good says he expects most of Queensland's 125 councils will decline any enforcement role."The majority of the anecdotal feedback we're getting from members would suggest that the majority probably, at this stage, won't be opting in to the enforcement program," he said."It is understandable given the amount of resources that is...

Hide your smokes and unhealthy contraband. The tyrants of wellbeing are back.  Apparently, the Denver City Council is never too busy to intercede with some good old-fashioned social engineering. And soon enough, smoking in restaurants and bars will be banned. It's enough to make a holier-than-thou politician - with pristine pink lungs - shriek with delight. Jeanne Faatz, at this point, is the lone voice of reason on the council. She still believes in trivial things like free enterprise and property rights. She's sort of an outsider. And although she won't admit it on record, I'm certain the other council...

LONDON, January 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientific evidence on environmental tobacco smoke (ETS or so-called "passive smoking") is inconclusive and does not justify a total ban on smoking in public places, it was argued at a conference on public smoking in Edinburgh today. A more scientifically justifiable approach would be to focus on improving general air quality through better ventilation, combined with greater choice of non-smoking and smoking facilities, delegates were told. Today's conference was organized by the Scottish Licensed Trade ' Association (SLTA) to debate the issues raised by the Scottish Executive's proposed new law prohibiting smoking in all enclosed...

Skokie's smoking ban went into effect in 2003, but the ramifications were felt at Jack's Restaurant in January.Owner George Koretos eliminated the eatery's overnight shift and announced the restaurant is no longer a 24-hour restaurant. The well-known eatery at 5201 Touhy Ave., which opened in 1965, set new hours from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.Koretos said he was forced to cut the overnight shift because business at that time had dramatically declined due to Skokie's smoking banDuring a typical overnight shift before the ban took place, Koretos said, the restaurant had about 200 customers. After the smoking...

I am surprised Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson didn’t refer to the smokers as swine in a pig sty. Isn’t that, after all one of the one of the first images that comes to mind when think of a pen?  Before I am offended by “da mayor” I would have to be offended by the reference to the term smoking pens. In a city and state  that was founded by a group of people so seriously reviled for their own beliefs in years past, you would think they would be among the first to take a “live and let...

Center Conway, NH.  This failed experiment in modifying human behavior is killing people and it has to stop now. Death certificates from secondary smoke exposure are zero, while death certificates from smoking bans and making a legal product politically incorrect are rising.   Located at The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter at http://www.smokersclubinc.com are two pages proving this: The Ban Damage Page (Deaths, Injuries, Rape, and more) and the Ban Loss Database (Money and business lost due to bans).  Each week new articles are submitted to the Newsletter and the lists get longer.  Since Anti smoking advocates have convinced the media that...