Indiana Smoking Ban Unnecessary Jobs-Killer
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Kevin Godbee - Nov 29, 2011
- 2 min read
Indianapolis, Indiana – The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association says the Indiana prohibitionists who want to pass a more stringent statewide smoking ban are blind to the jobs- and business-killing repercussions such a ban would have throughout the state.
"Our position hasn’t changed: business owners have the right to decide the smoking policies of their own establishments. When the government tells them what to do, it is going too far. Legislated smoking bans are a product of the ‘Nanny State’ and put businesses at risk, jobs in jeopardy, hurt local economies, and leave consumers with no choices," said Bill Spann, CEO of the IPCPR.
Spann said he was speaking on behalf of the more than 2,000 tobacconists who are members of the IPCPR and own neighborhood cigar stores, as well as their customers and the 85,000 Americans employed by the manufacturers, distributors and retailers of premium tobacco products.
"Legislated smoking bans run contrary to the individual rights upon which the United States was built, Spann said. "Besides that, jobs and businesses are at stake with such draconian smoking bans."
Spann cited a Federal Reserve Bank report that used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to officially note the negative impact on businesses and jobs that such bans can have on local and statewide economies. He also referred to Indiana’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, which showed that banning smoking in casinos and horse racing establishments could cost the state about $190 million annually.
"If a smoking ban in gambling establishments could negatively impact those businesses, it could easily hurt other adult-oriented businesses, like bars. And since when should veterans and other members of fraternal clubs be denied their enjoyment of premium tobacco products like hand-made cigars and pipe tobaccos?" he asked.
"Why any legislature would let itself become preoccupied with such non-productive measures, is beyond reason. Instead, legislators should be finding ways to create more jobs and raise more tax revenues by boosting Indiana’s economy in a more business-friendly environment, instead of tearing it down," Spann said.
"Finally, when prohibitionists say smoking bans are necessary to limit exposure to secondhand smoke, it should be known that the American Cancer Society, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington and others have shown that the federal government’s permissible exposure limits are up to 25,000 times higher than levels for components of secondhand smoke normally found in bars and restaurants that permit smoking.
"For all these reasons, we urge Indiana residents to insist that their state legislators devote their time and energies to creating new jobs and a better business environment to sustain them instead of wasting it on unnecessary jobs-killing legislative proposals," Spann said.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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When I first started with the pipe as a quirky and precocious teen, the only tutelage I had at my disposal were scenes from old movies in which a well dressed chap would stick his pipe into a pouch, scoop tobacco into the bowl and press it down unceremoniously with his thumb. Then, with great flourish, he’d strike a match and light the thing with all manner of cinematic excess, puffing up vast clouds of smoke falling just short of completely obscuring his visage. While it may look good on film, it’s a terrible approach to actually enjoying the thing. Somehow, though, this “technique” seems to have survived in the contemporary vernacular, at least to some extent, even with bit-loads of information handily at our fingertips that should dissuade us from the practice. 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Before we begin, I should tell you: this tobacco review is being written by an A.I. Not the fancy new GPTs or their ilk; no, this is last century’s meat-and-bone, all-organic model. To be fair, a large part of what we call knowledge is merely the accumulated perceptions and impressions gathered from a life wandered through, synthesized into a spongy mass of what-it-is-that-we-think-that-we-know. The algorithm for this prompt is simple enough: pump thousands of bowls of smoldering plant matter into a gaping maw, cross-reference the chemical sensations with all other matter previously ingested or inhaled, sieve it all through the diffuse and fractal twin lens of memory and emotion, and churn out a panoply of adjectives that attempts to convey the sensations to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet. Odds are that a diligently trained monkey could succeed half the time; if this reviewer nears fifty-one percent then that would qualify as an unrivaled success. 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A first whiff from the tin releases the aromas of shoe leather and hide glue in a base of clay soil with a campfire wafted over it like last night’s beach party. Once it’s been accustomed to oxygen again, subtle hints of sweetness poke through from the Virginias: lemon rind, light milk chocolate, the dregs of a peaty Scotch, and muddled cherry. Old regulars like fresh-sawn oak and tilled earth are there, of course, with distinct notes of truffle, creosote, damp peat, and pine bark mulch. As an aside, I’ve been re-potting my camellias and the similarity of aroma to the ericaceous soil mix is notable; the Katerini really brings the unique depth of its vegetal complexion when supported by the Rustica and afforded more voice in the mix. The smoky Cyprian Latakia, in turn, is backed by equal earthiness from the Rustica, which overall exhibits a profile similar to dark-fired Kentucky; it leans more toward the woody and vegetal end of that spectrum, echoing and amplifying those traits of the other constituents. The tobacco is presented pressed and cut into a couple of thick, hearty flakes in the tin, lightly moist and easily crumbled to prepare—I prefer mine with a bit of drying time. The out-of-this-world tin art for this episode in the series is Major O’Meara smoking a cavalier. In the absence of confirmation, I’m going to hazard a guess he’s of the Ithklur species. The first taste from the light is sweet, with hints of that milk chocolate dancing around the edges. The Virginia leads the smoke through the top of the bowl, and orchestrates it well. Thoroughly smoky with lemony, grassy highlights from the Virginia spectrum, it soon segues into the mid-bowl profile: heartier, smokier, with the flavor leaning to the mildly acrid and tangy tinge that is the campfire-esque signature of English blends. Caution advised, it can turn overly bitter if pushed—this is where one’s sipping technique is required to maintain the fullness of flavor through to the heel. I did tend toward a lot of relights, though it may have as much to do with technique as with the blend. Pacing is also important as the nicotine starts to manifest; though the Rustica’s contribution has been tempered well by the stoving, it can certainly upend an empty stomach. At the end of every bowl, the mouthfeel somehow gets better. The balance of sugars in the tobaccos would seem to be spot-on in this regard. I started out my tasting in cobs, then cut short an unpleasant bowl in a meer, and finally landed on my best instrument with the lovely Dunhill 4427 pictured, a quaint group 4 shell briar with a gentle curve and Cumberland stem supporting a perfectly executed acorn bowl. It surprised me here, as I’ve learned through the years that I generally have the best experience with English blends in large, wide bowls. With this blend it seems that to get the best out of the Katerini’s somewhat diaphanous influence the smaller bowl fared much better. Room note is very English, so the company you keep will either love it or hate it, and it doesn’t linger too much. I find it paired best with a strong coffee; Sumatran beans complement the flavors well, as do Ethiopian if a lighter brew is preferred. Overall impressions of the blend are that it’s a curiously interesting take on the English genre, almost a reductive reconstruction of the theme using the unique components. This blend, if nothing else, expanded my vocabulary of sense perceptions with the uniquely treated leaf. While the average human can distinguish approximately one trillion (1,000,000,000,000!) different aromas, multiplied by seven basic tastes, and wholly dependent on variables from body chemistry to atmospheric conditions, our overworked and underpaid simian brains can’t effectively catalog them all. Our pet adding machines are exceedingly good at this, however, and someday soon they’ll be the ultimate and unequivocal authority on what something tastes, smells, looks, or even feels like. Until that time, friends, revel in the moments that can be stolen to savor over a bowl of Pipe Force: Episode I.
Yeah! What Spann Said!
I can’t believe some people actually think this is a GOOD idea.
I see a revolution coming. And I can’t freaking belive the tipping point is going to be over tobacco…
BOOOOO Indiana.
As I said elsewhere in this publication: the national economy has tanked; real estate has become worthless; Social Security and Medicare are on the brink of total collapse; gasoline is bobbing between $4 and $5 a gallon; we’re engaged in three wars; China has the U.S. by the financial short hairs; unscrupulous corporate pirates (think Bernie Madoff, et al.) have
managed to steal tens of billions of dollars; Lady Ga-ga can earn millions; unemployment is pandemic; diverse natural disasters have ravaged the country; and the threat of terrorism has public transportation in total disarray. Yet politicians busy themselves with legislation like this, which erodes both the local economy and individual freedoms.
One wonders why so much energy is being spent on the issue of smoking, whereas so many other issues with much more import are practically ignored. It certainly isn’t altruism, or motivation to extend lives, and surely not money which can and is drawn through taxation of the very process the politicians seek to end. Something is rotten in Denmark!
Freakin’ liberals…..
Live Free or Die!
As of Jan 2, 2012, a ban prohibiting smoking in all Boise bars and parks just went into effect. some of us went to the City Council in an effort to fight it, but to little avail- the council was uniformly anti-smoking in leaning and those attempting to fight the ban were not organized enough.
ORGANIZE! Here is what I sent to the city council:
To the City Council as per the anti-tobacco legislation,
Long before our Founding Fathers were known as Founding Fathers (even to themselves), they were using, growing and trading in tobacco, and Native Americans were using tobacco before Europeans arrived on this continent. I believe it was Mayor Bieter at the City Hall Hall meeting in October who pointed out that the right to smoke is not in the Constitution. He is right about that, but those of us in tune with the spirit of the Founding Fathers can cite that part of the Declaration of Independence which refers to ‘the pursuit of happiness’ and count that as something beyond mere rhetoric.
It would no more have occurred to these men to ban tobacco anymore than they would’ve considered banning coffee, tea, alcohol or guns. While their world was different from ours, and they could not have forseen the invention of the cigarette- a nicotine delivery system calculated over time for its addictive properties, the Council might take a broader view of all issues relating to tobacco. It might also recognize that just because studies on second-hand smoke have been compiled into books (one with the US Gov’t. stamp of approval), these studies are not necessarily the gospel truth. Their appearance in book form however does tend to create that idea.
Over nine years ago I quit cigarettes while working in a tobacco store where employees and customers smoked at will. The nature of addiction and specific toxicity differ greatly from person to person (this issue never seems to be addressed in anti-tobacco ‘literature’) depending on on the substance and the physical constitution of the individual, but before I quit cigarettes I’d smoked the better part of a pack a day for 20 years. I quit with the help of pipes and cigars, and while the claim might be made that I merely transferred my addiction, I hasten to add that not having the time to smoke during a day or even forgetting to smoke altogether does not seem to be part of the state of addiction.
As someone who enjoys finer tobaccos in moderation I know that there are great distinctions between different forms of tobacco. This is lost on many who simplistically equate any tobacco use with cancer and addiction. Just as there are connoisseurs of wine and beer, there are those for cigars and pipe tobacco, and magazines dealing with these topics have been around for at least 16 years or more and and are now joined by more websites than could be counted. You don’t see magazines or websites devoted to cigarette enjoyment, and there are good reasons for this. Pipe and cigar smokers will however be lumped in with the cigarette smokers- there aren’t proper studies to show that the smoke for these products is noticeably less toxic, and if there were it would not matter to those anti-smoke dogmatists who wave their hands just thinking about the slightest hint of tobacco but have no problem with camp fires or vehicle engine fumes. No one makes the claim that smoking is nutritious or good for you, yet wine and beer drinkers argue similar claims- even with known statistics concerning drunk-driving deaths, domestic abuse and a host of other alcohol-related health issues.
Cigarette smoking has been a dying trend for years. Laws are not needed to hasten its departure, and in the meantime cigarettes are only one more toxic yet legal product available in the marketplace. Zealous guarding of public health in this arena is certainly all about political whims and expedience. Please allow the the few smokers to frequent a tiny minority of bars who cater to them. (How it is constitutional for a business owner to be forced to ban consumption of legal products on his/her premises is completely beyond me). And please do not punish the old man or tobacco geek who likes his pipe or cigar while walking outdoors on the Greenbelt. You will not live appreciably longer in the total absence of tobacco smoke, especially as as it goes the way of the rotary telephone. A little tolerance and magnaminity is not a bad thing.
Thank you for reading,
S. V.
“You don’t see things as they are. You see things as you are.”
-The Talmud
FINALLY- check this out- auto fumes are being found to possibly cause autism, Pre-mature birth and Alzheimer’s. Think cities will try to limit toxics like auto fumes? Of course not, but using such an arguement might prevail in such future anti-tobacco fights. “You city city council members are merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic regarding public health if you think a ban on smoking is going to amount to a hill of beans!”
I have been at the capitol in Indianapolis for the last three weeks. The feeling here is that the state wide smoking ban will pass. Furthermore, Indianapolis is also seeking to pass a smoking ban in the city. So if the state wide ban fails or bars are exempt they can fall back onto the city ban. All being driven by the fact the super bowl will be held here in two weeks. The state wide smoking ban for the last 6 years has never made it out of committee.