October 2011

American charitable nonprofits are behind all smoking bans, their original mission was to find a cure for cancer, heart and lung disease.&nbsp; Now their mission is advocacy which is really lobbying, finding a cure seems to be gone from their vocabulary.<br />
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Costa Rica does not have a smoking ban in their country but they are under heavy pressure to pass legislation to ban public smoking and increase the tobacco tax. <br />
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To the politicians in Costa Rica don’t believe the hype by the American’s.&nbsp; Overtaxation creates a black market and smoking bans are bad for business.<br />
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Europeans have not taken to smoking bans, the result is that many countries have backtracked on the ban.&nbsp; Smoking is allowed in France, <a href="http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2010/09/smoke-and-pancake.html">Netherlands</a>, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7533132.stm">Germany</a>, <a href="http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-have-balkans-ever-done-for-us.html">Croatia</a>, <a href="http://www.algarveresident.com/0-12985/algarve/smoking-ban-altered-in-portugal">Portugal</a>, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/belgium-expands-smoking-ban-to-all-cafes-casinos-2243449.html">Belgium</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2010/02/are-you-listening-burnham.html">Denmark</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2010/02/smoking-bans-on-ropes.html">Macedonia</a>, <a href="http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2010/03/poland-rejects-total-smoking-ban.html">Poland</a>, the <a href="http://www.radio.cz/de/rubrik/tagesecho/kein-generelles-rauchverbot-in-tschechischen-restaurants-vorgesehen">Czech Republic</a>&nbsp;and several other countries relaxed their smoking bans (or introduced limited bans from the outset). <br />
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While smokers in the US and Canada sit back and take whatever smoking ban is passed with barely a whimper, it is a pleasure to know others are not.&nbsp; <br />
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Change can come but you have to do something first.&nbsp; Let’s hope our friends &quot;across the pond&quot; influence the people of North America to start standing up for themselves.<br />
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Illinois increased taxes on cigarettes by $2.00 a pack what’s the result? A&nbsp; black market.&nbsp; In this case, both smokers and businesses have begun exploring the increasingly lucrative black market trade for smokes. So much so, in fact, that the county is now spending even more resources and money to chase down the scofflaws and pay out &ldquo;snitch fees&rdquo; for people to turn in their neighbors.<br />
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This is obscene and must stop.&nbsp; Tobacco is a legal product and should not be overtaxed to the point of &quot;snitch fees&quot;.&nbsp; This sounds more like the old USSR than America.<br />

There is a major campaign to increase taxes on cigarettes by $1.00 per pack.&nbsp; This has been brought to you by the American Cancer Society to continue to fund their war on smokers and to fund themselves. Right now they are working in Maryland.<br />

Since the state would not change the smoking ban to include bars in Louisiana,&nbsp; the anti’s are now going parish to parish.&nbsp; This is all too familiar.&nbsp; They are like the plague, the go county by county, till they remove all options from owners of bars and restaurants.&nbsp; What’s wrong with free choice, oh right,&nbsp; there is no way but their way.&nbsp; The American people are just to stupid to make a choice.<br />

MUNCIE — Local tavern owners on Monday testified they’ve lost business — and one is likely to close this week — as a result of the enhanced smoking ordinance enacted by Delaware County officials in August. <br />
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Delaware County Licensed Beverage Association, four local fraternal organizations and a tobacco shop requested a temporary injunction which stems from a lawsuit, aimed at overturning the measure.<br />
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We wish you well!&nbsp; Vote the bums out who voted for the smoking ban!<br />
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Rolling your own in the state of Wisconsin may become a thing of the past.&nbsp; The state wants to collect the same taxes as they do on brand name tobacco cigarettes.&nbsp; There will be no advantage of rolling your own and the state’s greediness will only cause more unemployment in this economy.<br />
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The cigar industry is seeking an exemption from Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act which allows the FDA control over tobacco companies.<br />
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Moving cigars to a separate category from cigarettes would &quot;save thousands of small businesses, tens of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues,&quot; stated International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association CEO Bill Spann in a press release.<br />
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Good luck with that!<br />
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<p>PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed on PBS airing October 2nd, 3rd and 4th.&nbsp; Check to find your local channels.<br />
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The World Health Organization set forth a behavior modification program for the following: tobacco, obesity and alcohol.&nbsp; We need to learn from our history so we suggest you watch this program and find out exactly what happened when alcohol was prohibited.</p>