Editorial - Outdoor Smoking Ban

[gloucesterman]

In Massachusetts they did it about five years ago. Peretti's now offers it bulk tobacco in two price ranges, in-state and out of state. Many states keep trying to get internet venders to collect taxes for product delivered within that state. They haven't been successful.... YET!!!!They have only managed to make them collect taxes on what was delivered within the state in which that vender resides. IMHO it all about making smoking a situation of diminishing returns. Limit where it can be done and make it expensive to do. I read out there somewhere that there is a group whose goal is to make America smoke free by 2050.

 

[gregprince]

There are many liberal and conservative members here (and probably a few libertarians) who are patriotic, who love their respective countries as well as their pipes and such liberties as we enjoy. Many of us, of all political convictions, have served honorably and sacrificed much. Can we please abstain from using these terms as if they were obscenities? It is disrespectful to many good people to use liberal or conservative as an insult.

 

[sparrowhawk]

I'm a former liberal rapidly moving to conservative because of the constant politically correct tenor of our times. Smoking in public when factories spew out tons of coal smoke? This is plain ridiculous. On today's evening news, I saw that California (where else?) is moving toward new anti-smoking measures, including those e-cigarettes which emit nothing to speak of. Rather, they want to stop the addition to nicotine, by itself a harmless drug used only to cause tobacco to be addictive. No mention of pipe smokers, just cig smokers and tobacco chewers. I really hope there's a pipe tobacco lobby to stop the paternalistic powers-that-be when they run out of victims and go after us pipers.

BTW, gregprince, I agree with you: "liberal" should not be used like a swear word. While conservative in many issues, I still resent the conservative war on science and reason, among other things.

 

[gloucesterman]

It would be my opinion both sides share the blame. The art of Statesmanship is long dead! It's win or obstruct. Hell of a way to run a government.

 

[ssjones]

Sadly, the battle against evil tobacco seems to know no party boundaries and it is just about the only thing the two sides can agree to be against. This is a good time to close this one down before we slide down the rabbit hole.