Posted on 02/15/2005 8:24:48 AM PST by SheLion
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 cigarettes they had purchased over the Internet. It's the law.
A single pack of cigarettes in New York City comes with a state tax of $1.50, a city tax of $1.50, and a federal tax of 39 cents. A pack of Marlboro cigarettes will cost you $7.00. A ten-pack carton will cost you more than $55.00. Purchased at an international airport's duty-free store, the same carton retails for just $16.00.
There are few, if any, people who do not know there is an element of risk involved in the decision to smoke. There is risk involved when any American gets into his car and goes anywhere. Driving kills over 40,000 Americans every year. It is the price we pay for the mobility, and other benefits cars and vehicles provide. There is, in fact, risk in every human activity, including the enjoyment of alcoholic beverages and even the simple act of eating.
The U.S. engaged in a hugely failed experiment, called Prohibition, to stop people from drinking alcoholic beverages at their favorite saloon. It took a Constitutional amendment to end it. For many years now, the same thinking that imposed Prohibition has been at work to achieve the same outcome with smoking.
It is un-American in the most profound sense of that term. In a nation founded on the individual right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, preventing people from the enjoyment of smoking runs contrary to the inherent right to enjoy this lifestyle option if you want.
Consider, however, some events in 2004. The first worldwide antismoking treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - was ratified, and is now in effect. It is yet another example of the United Nation's intention to control every aspect of the lives of everyone on planet Earth. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is the lead organization in America, and it has promised to "now concentrate on enforcement efforts."
During 2004, six nations imposed a no-smoking ban. Among them were Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden. These nations are notable for their liberal, i.e., socialist political agendas. Here in the U.S., so-called "nonsmoker's rights" became law in Idaho, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. At the local level, thirty-two jurisdictions passed comprehensive workplace smoking laws in 2004, along with "less comprehensive smokefree workplace laws."
There's more. Eleven States, including Virginia, where historically tobacco was the crop that encouraged its establishment and growth as an American colony, substantially increased their cigarette taxes. Consider the example of New York City, and multiply it by other cities and states, cashing in, while at the same time, banning smoking, indoors and out. That is obscene.
Now imagine a similar level of taxation on a candy bar, a cup of coffee, or soft drink. Think it can't happen? Think again.
ASH has big plans for 2005. It plans to "take advantage of a new ruling which now makes it possible for sensitive nonsmokers to sue states which do not provide them with reasonable protection from tobacco smoke pollution."
These suits will eventually cost taxpayers millions, draining vital financial resources from serious needs such as infrastructure improvements. ASH will push for more and more bans, on people who smoke outdoors on beaches, and elsewhere. In California, it is already against the law to light up on the beach.
Let's say you've just bought a condo, or moved to an apartment. ASH intends to encourage and assist lawsuits by apartment dwellers who object to neighbors smoking in their own apartments. In the name of protecting children, ASH will pursue laws that ban parents from smoking around their children, by getting courts to issue orders to ban smoking in custody cases, or by a foster parent, or in a car, while driving children anywhere.
All this is happening in the "land of the free, and the home of the brave," as well as around the world, where the U.N. antismoking treaty bans any advertising for tobacco products, requires health warning labels similar to those on products sold in the U.S., bans any secondhand smoke in workplaces, public transport, and indoor public places.
It empowers a vast law enforcement program against smuggling, and there will be smuggling, leading to cartels that rival illegal drugs. There's more, but the ultimate objective is to eliminate smoking anywhere on the face of the Earth.
This is pure fascism - using the power of the state to deny this simple pleasure from being enjoyed anywhere. And, when the national and global antismoking campaign is successful, these same people will turn their attention to banning the consumption of meat, fish, cookies, candy, potato chips, soft drinks, or anything else they decide you should not enjoy.
Do smokers have any rights? Apparently not.
As a smoker that is the best I can do. No rights for me! Off to the smoker's colony for life.
Did anyone see Boston Public on Sunday? One of the story lines was about a town that decided to ban red meat as a health issue. The so-called "dept of health" is out of control. Leave it to the government to abuse and increase any power it is given. It's no longer about health, it's political and power grabbing.
I've seen this type of response posted on other threads dealing with this subject.
Fighting back sounds noble. But ... how?
Yeah? Just hide the tobacco contraband inside the shipment of tax-free coke and pot.
This ASH business is the biggest bunch of control freaks on the face of the earth. And they have the backing of the American Cancer Society and The American Lung Association.
They have become totally obsessed with banning people who smoke at every corner.
With the taxes smoker's pay on cigarettes and grant money from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the rest of their ilk, it's pretty hard to fight the bans. Money talks and who listens to the constituents anymore. No one.
That happens in my town and I turn into one of the zombies from Dawn of the Dead and hunt the living.
hmmm .... maybe that's how that whole thing started.
That's why!
And the more bans, control and restrictions they put upon smoker's, the more the money flows in. I wish someone could come up with a way to put a stop to their cash flow.
I have said over and over just ban the damn stuff and be done with it. But alas! These people wouldn't be living the high life with our money any longer. Totally disgusting.
and
Unbelievable.
I will stay home and roll my own. NO one will get my money. The state can pound sand.
If enough people did this it would send a message but ... they'll find some way to tax this stuff to compensate for their loses, wouldn't they?
Smokers enjoy the same rights as anyone else. Of course they have rights.
But their right to burn tobacco around other people may not exactly be covered by the Ninth Amendment.
They have unalienable rights but smoking isn't one of them!
I hear that is a good show. I should start watching it.
Well, the anti's have found out how much money can be made through tobacco and cigarettes so they are trying to find out what they can control next to keep the big bucks coming in.
Only this time, it is the tobacco chest. I have never smoked a cigarette in my entire life, but I believe it is a matter of freedom. If you want to smoke, that is your right. I also believe, however, that if a person gets sick from it, it is their own problem.
Okay, it also vexes me that the same people who want to ban tobacco want to legalize marijuana.
Why is it PC to smoke pot in public but not tobacco?
Well, I will probably be dead by the time the government bumped up taxes so high on a bag of loose tobacco. Right now, they can just charge a surcharge for the imported bags of tobacco. And that's 25 cents a bag.
I'm sure they are thinking about it, but they are pretty much dug in over Internet sales right now.
That's it in a nutshell, Mark. You don't smoke but you get it! Thank you!! :)
No, because these are not addictive. Only addicts can be controlled enough to be willing to pay confiscatory taxes in order to "enjoy" (read avoid withdrawal symptoms) a cigarette.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.