The purpose of this site is to provide pipe, cigar and cigarette
smokers a place to voice their views on smoking and the various
smoking bans which are either presently enacted or being enacted
around the country and around the world.
Modern American society is in the process of stripping itself
from the liberties that have been guarenteed by the US Constitution.
The American people are allowing the government on a local, state
or federal level to take more and more control in their lives
by enacting laws banning legal activites and levying unduly high
taxes on these self-same activities.
Among these vanishing rights is smoking. Anti-smoking groups
are very vocal about the dangers and hazards of smoking. Smoking
IS hazardous to one'e health. I believe that is fairly common
knowledge. There are diseases whose causes can be directly attributed
to smoking.
Anti-smokers have taken it upon themselves to
cleanse smoking from our society to ensure that people will be healthier.
They have lobbied for smoking bans in 'public' places and for tough
'anti-smoking laws' to help curb future costs in healthcare for
the elderly. In their fervor, though, anti-smoking activists have
forgotten some very basic facts:
- Smoking is a choice.
In selecting the hobby/habit of smoking, the smoker has chosen
to take the risk of becoming ill. People are not born smokers.
They make a conscious choice. They make this choice for a variety
of reasons. This choice is protected by the US Constitution, the
document which our system of government is based upon.
This is the same principle as those who choose to be fast food
eaters, coffee drinkers or sun bathers. The greasy burger from
local burger chain, caffiene and UV rays are known health hazards,
and can be extremely harmful if a person has a large amount of
exposure. These could also be said to be 'epidemics', and yet
smokers are the ones asked to pay extra taxes or give up their
RIGHT to smoke because anti-smokers are offended.
- Not all smokers are cigarette smokers.
This may sound as a ridiculously simplistic comment, but unfortunately,
it is not. Statistics regarding smoking are all geared toward
cigarette smoking. Pipe and cigar smoking is relatively unstudied.
The methods of smoking cigars and pipes varies from the method
of smoking cigarettes, thus the health benefits and risks are
bound to be different. The aroma of the smoke is also vastly different.
- "Public Places" such as bars and restaurants are
NOT public at all.
Bars and restaurants are privately (NOT government) owned enterprises.
The owners of the establishment offer a good or service for public
consumption. They are a part of our economy, and in places where
smoking has been banned in such places, their business has declined.
These owners buy or lease the property, pay the utilities and
provide the community with jobs. They should be afforded the same
right and courtesy of choice as the private citizen in his own
home.
- The rights of anti-smokers are no more important than the
rights of smokers.
Article IX of the Constitution states:
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights,
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by
the people." In plain language: No one person's rights supercede
another's.
Article XIV Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens
of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall
any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Plainly put: The
government cannot pass laws which would infringe upon the rights
of citizens unless they hear from both sides. This has clearly
not happened. This website is working to change that.
Some other Points to Ponder:
- Reports on Second Hand Smoke are contradictory and at times
fraudulently overblown.
One of the big arguments that anti-smokers use is that 'second
hand smoke is dangerous to everyone around the smoker.' These
claims do bear a seed of truth in that increased eye, nasal andrespiratory
irritation. Claims that second hand smoke are a leading risk factor
of heart disease, etc have not been proven.
- We do not have a system of socialized healthcare. The
elderly in the United States are eligible to apply for medicare.
This does not guarentee that they will receive it. The primary
coverage for the majority of the population of the country is
private insurance. With private insurance, the insured pays premiums
and covers all costs that the insurance company does not. Smokers
are charged a higher premium to help 'cover the cost of increased
likelyhood of disease'. That being said, I believe it is unfair
that anti-smoking groups use cost as one of their rallying
points.
- Prohibition didn't work. In the early part of the Twentieth
Century, maing, selling, and transporting alcohol was deemed unsafe
and illegal. Prohibition began, but ended when speakeasys and
moonshine runners abounded. It will happen again if the anti-smokers
successfully attain their bans. Tobacco is an evil that is best
confronted out in the open (and quality-control regulated) and
not in back alleys.
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