Thanks to Reason TV, I have updated our site with a couple of new videos. The first can be found on the front page:

http://banthebanwisconsin.com/

The second is on the “rights” page:

http://banthebanwisconsin.com/privateproperty.aspx

This came across the email lists, and I would be remiss if I didn’t pass it along. THe only thing I will add is WTF!

Yesterday, the Prince George’s County Council of Maryland, in a desperate and reckless attempt to curb marijuana use among youths, banned the sale of single cigars to thwart the use of their exteriors in rolling marijuana cigars a.k.a blunts, spliffs, and Jamaican jam sessions.   

Apparently the council, which voted eight to one for the ban, actually thinks limiting the resources for smoking marijuana will somehow miraculously prevent those wanting to imbibe from doing so. Two things come to mind while pondering this bizarre new law.

First, “advanced” pot smokers almost always become self-made carpenters, building and discovering new ways to puff the magic dragon. Anything from an Absolute vodka bottle to an apple core can be turned into an effective smoking chamber by these folks. Sure, cigar wrappers are popular and certainly more aesthetically pleasing than say, a hotel shampoo bottle, but the resourcefulness of the youthful pot smoker should not be underrated.

Second, banning a product because of its usefulness for something illegal sets a terrible and unconstitutional precedent i.e. slippery slope. Take for example Sudafed. Imagine walking into the pharmacy sounding like Fran Drescher and wanting some nasal relief only to find that Sudafed and about 10 other similar medicines were banned because their active incredient is used to make methamphetamine. Should your nose have to suffer because others are industrious? 

An even more far-fetched example of where this style of irresponsible and thoughtless legislating leads can be gleaned from the sale of knives. Knives may and are used to kill people. Are we to ban the sale of knives to prevent this from happening? 

Even more assinine is the fact the the new law allows both the sale of cigars in packages of five or more and so long as each single cigar costs above five dollars. To reword, so long as you are smoking a ton of weed or wealthy enough to blow five bucks on a nice stogie, you can do what you want. But if you are too poor to buy the cigars or trying to take down a monster blunt by yourself, you may find an obstacle in your way and opt for those extra wide rolling papers instead.

Thankfully, we live in a society where most people identify the dangers in limiting choice, so the new law prompted a threat of legal action by the Maryland Association of Tobacco and Candy Distributors. The group said that the council had overstepped its authority in regulating a legal tobacco product, especially since - to Bill Clinton’s approval - a proposed state law to ban the sale of single cigars died this year. This is one lawsuit we hope big tobacco wins

The report from the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids says Ohio is spending less than 5 percent of the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on tobacco prevention programs. That ranks Ohio 45th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in spending on such programs.

Should any government agency be advocating giving tax dollars to any lobby group. Isn’t that part of the budget problem. Especially since they get funding from one of the biggest lobby groups in the world “Big Pharma”.

Globalink -an international tobacco control list-serve and discussion site - appears to now be sponsored by Pfizer. The logo for Pfizer appears on the Globalink main page, together with logos from other sponsors, including the UICC (International Union Against Cancer), the Rockefeller Foundation, and Sun Microsystems.

Former Tobacco Control activist Dr. Michael Siegel has plenty to say about money and the tobacco control Movement.

Well it turns out that this was actually the worst thing that could have ever happened to the tobacco control movement. Money corrupts and that’s exactly what happened to the movement. It was all about money and prestige and basic principles were forgotten. The grassroots social movement that tobacco control once was has been destroyed.

I am no longer going to deceive myself into thinking that I can change the movement and restore its integrity. I am going to have to be content with documenting the downfall of the movement and hoping that my chronicling of this story will do a service to the public by helping social movements in the future to avoid this fate.

I just received word today that Lake Geneva had their lawyers draw up a ban. I don’t know many details yet, but I do know that this will come up on Dec 8th. I don’t know if this will be a hearing or a vote.

I will post more information as I get it.

In the meantime, here is a form letter to send to the city council members:

http://banthebanwisconsin.com/Documents/lake%20geneva%20letter.doc

here’s the city site:

http://cityoflakegeneva.com/

and the city council members:

http://cityoflakegeneva.com/CityCouncil.aspx

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. states have not lived up to their commitment to devote a major portion of their huge legal settlement with the tobacco industry a decade ago on anti-smoking efforts, health advocacy groups said on Tuesday.

In the 10 years since the landmark deal, the states have received $79.2 billion of the settlement and another $124.3 billion from tobacco taxes, but have spent only about 3 percent of it — $6.5 billion — on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, the groups said in a report.

Poor baby’s when do us pro-freedom people get funding?

Tell me that these don’t sound familiar:

The board of health has spent nearly four months crafting an ordinance that would regulate the location and stack size of outdoor wood burning units. In October, the committee’s resolution was forwarded to the Oneida County Board of Supervisors for a vote. The supervisors, citing concerns about a lack of public awareness of the resolution, sent the matter back to the committee and directed that a public hearing be held.

In other words, trying to sneak something past the people…

According to the resolution, the board of health is trying to help those whose health and quality of life is severely affected by wood smoke.

Particles in wood smoke can worsen heart conditions and cause breathing problems for those who suffer from asthma and other lung conditions, the resolution states.

…  in the name of “public health.”

Donna Winenski of the American Lung Association urged responsible regulation of outdoor wood burning units. She said the particulate emitted when wood is burned embed deeply in the lungs and can cause very serious health problems.

Winenski said Oneida County should protect its air now before it joins six other Wisconsin counties whose air has been deemed “unsafe for human health.”

And the ALA fully supports excessive government regulation where “public health” is concerned.

Romelle Vandervest informed the crowd that the health department received six complaints about outdoor wood burning units in the last year.

And all over six complaints.

I think I have seen these tactics and arguments before… I would like to say that I’m surprised to see them in a new context, but in all honesty I’m not. As I have said before, tobacco and smoking has set the precedence, and now that precedence is going to be used to build up an overbearing and restrictive government.

Quotes from the Rhinelander Daily News

Yep, you read that right. Using arguments that are frighteningly similar to anti-smoking arguments, the Oneida County Board of Health has requested that the county heavily regulate wood-burning stoves on the basis of:

…protecting the health of persons who live in close proximity to outdoor wood burning units as well as the investment of those who purchase the units.

According to the resolution, particles in wood smoke can worsen heart conditions and cause breathing problems for those who suffer from asthma and other lung conditions.

Sound familiar? This is the sort of insane precedent that the anti-tobacco movement is setting. Is this really the path we want to take? Do we want the health department and a bunch of zealots to have this sort of power over us?

I don’t.

So while Ban the Ban’s primary purpose is tobacco and smoking, we stand against all forms of banning and over-regulation at the hands of an over-zealous government…

I have tried very hard to leave the media alone. After all, you catch more bees with honey, right? However, I can only turn a blind eye so many times before I can’t hold back any longer and I feel the need to go after the asinine nature of the news media in Wisconsin and their utter lack of objectivity.

I snapped at the outrageous article from the Eau Claire LT yesterday, and as expected some fool came to their defense. I was going to ignore it, but decided to take the opportunity to express just why I decided to put aside my self-imposed ban on media bashing…

Let’s not forget that the LT should not have positions on issues. As a media outlet, they should be above that and be objective on the issues. Any media outlet that takes a position on, or allows its journalists/editors/etc to take positions under the outlet’s name loses its objectivity and credibility as a news source.

I have NO problem with opinion pages so long as it’s not the paper’s own people making opinions that state positions on the issues. Allowing the opinion pages to run opinions by other people is one thing because non-affiliated people are allowed to be subjective in their writings. But when the LT makes it clear that they support a ban and think it should be at the top of the legislative agenda, I can’t help but to write them off as a mouthpiece for an agenda…

I reviewed the ordinance, and it looks great. Very clean. No private clubs or cigar bars!

- Fitchburg Alder, Steve Arnold to Dane County Supervisor, Mark Opitz

This quote was in an email response to the then “in the works” Dane County smoking ban that Opitz was working to drum up support for from smoke-free groups around Wisconsin.

Really shows the tolerance and willingness to deal with these people, doesn’t it? The excitement over the iron-grip of the proposed ban really gets my blood boiling.

To further this agitation, Mr. Arnold couldn’t attend the first hearing for the Dane County ban as a supporter because, among other things, he had to make an appearance at their fourth SmokeFree Fitchburg monthly happy hour celebration. I guess the back-patting and hand wriging just doesn’t end once these people succeed in their tasks…

This whole town in Virginia became fodder  for some reporter - everything from being too fat, too unhealthy and *GASP!* lots of smokers! 

Smoking — a common sin in West Virginia — has been hard to control, Tweel said. When the health department tried to restrict smoking in local bars and restaurants, a group of local businesses fought it all the way to the state Supreme Court. (The restrictions were upheld in 2003.) Even hospitals have fought smoking restrictions in the past, Tweel said.

W. Virginia town shrugs at poorest health ranking

And it also seems the residents themselves were the last to know they’re “so bad”:

Of the 40 Huntington-area residents interviewed for this story, many had heard something about West Virginia being one of the unhealthiest states. But only one — Tweel — knew about the latest report showing how bad Huntington compared with other metro areas.

Best of all, their politicians actually seem to care more about their constituents than the latest government money-grubbing frenzy:

Local politicians tend to be equally tepid about improving health, said Dr. Harry Tweel, director of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department.

“People here have an attitude of ‘You’re not going to tell me what I can eat.’ The cultural attitude is ‘My parents ate that and my grandparents ate that,’” he said.

Mayor Felinton echoed Tweel. Felinton had stomach surgery last year to help him lose weight and has been walking to work about three days a week. He has shed nearly 80 pounds and became sort of a local poster boy for weight loss. But in the midst of a re-election campaign last month, he said he had no plans to plunge into a fight over fat in restaurants.

So, they fight for their business, their way of life that they prosper in, the citizen’s themselves are not complaining - they’re actually LIVING - and apparently not standing for government interference.

Wisconsin, we need to learn a lesson from these unheard-of American heros.

Health Minister Ab Klink will meet with the branch organisation of the hotel, restaurant and café sector to discuss a recently introduced smoking ban. The branch organisation has found that an increasing number of bars and cafés ignore the ban, and want the minister to take a decision on how to proceed. The branch organisation says the government should either strictly enforce the smoking ban or scrap it entirely. Resistance against the ban is reportedly spreading like wildfire. As of Monday, all café owners in the southern city of Den Bosch will put their ashtrays back on the tables.

KID ROCK broke New York’s strict smoking ban while bidding farewell to MTV music show TRL on Sunday night (16Nov08) - by striding into the Times Square studio smoking a cigar.
Rock was one of a host of music’s biggest stars who turned out for the final show - hosted by Carson Daly and Damien Fahey.
And he was determined to steal the show, by drinking beer and puffing on a cigar.
Rock said, “I used to come here and they would say, ‘Hey, man, you’ve got to put the cigar out’. Well, guess what? It’s over; I ain’t putting the cigar out.”

That is my opinion anyway… And in response to an absolutely ridiculous article in the Eau Claire Leader Telegram, that was exactly what I had to say.

Actually, what I had to say was this:

This is directed towards the author himself:

First off, I realize that this is an opinion piece; however it amazes me that Mr. Giffey hasn’t yet learned that not all opinions need to be shared with the public. After all, it is really revealing as to how far off the deep end people like him have gone.

Second, while the issues started off strong, the fact that the smoking ban is even addressed at all shows such a sick obsession with a non-issue that I have to draw into question the author’s ability to reason on any sort of intellectual level. After all, while our state is drowning in some massive issues that are truly affecting all of us *and* are things that we cannot save ourselves from, why are we even talking about smoking bans?

It would seem that if the state were PERFECT and all of us were happy, safe and secure… THEN maybe it would be worth addressing smoking bans.

To further that point, the fact that Mr. Giffey not only thinks that this issue should be addressed, but he also thinks it should be at the TOP of the agenda just proves that he should not be in any position where his opinion is presented to the public in any sort of authoritative position (i.e. writing for a newspaper). If Mr. Giffey and the rest of the disillusioned fools who are obsessed with smoking bans are so embarrassed and unhappy with priorities where tobacco smoke is concerned, then I would be willing to bet that Minnesota would be happy to have them. Just pack up and leave. That’s why we have states. It’s one of the little luxuries that the United States was afforded thanks to our Constitution.

You aren’t happy here? Then leave. Just stop tryng to convince others that smoking bans should top our agenda when we’re suffering in so many other, legitimate ways.

Now that the election is over, we have updated the Scorecard (special thanks to Amy for doing this!) to reflect the current state of affairs. We don’t have all of the information since current office holders aren’t always willing to talk to us about their stance on the smoking ban… So if any of you out there have specific informaiton on their own regional legislators, please let us know!

http://banthebanwisconsin.com/scorecard.aspx

As we all know the claimed deaths due to second hand smoke are all computer generated. There has yet to be one confirmed death by ETS. What is not well known is the deaths caused by smoking are also computer generated. They not only are computer generated but the numbers spit out have remained unchanged for over twenty years. Could it be like Repace’s math trick, no matter what numbers you put into it you get the same results?

SAMMEC is the name of the computer program. Its initials stand for Smoking Attributed Morbidity, Mortality, and Economic Cost. Nickie McWhirter in “Computer blows out smoking-related death figures with no real human facts.” tries to find out about the computer and who wrote the program. Guess what she found? Nothing, she finally got a hold of the guy who runs the computer but he is unsure about the programing and the original authors.

SAMMEC Operations Manager, Richard Lawton, phoned. SAMMEC, I
learned, is the name of the computer program. Its initials stand for Smoking
Attributed Morbidity, Mortality, and Economic Cost. The computer is fed raw
data and SAMMEC employs various complex mathematical formulas to determine
how many people in various age groups, locations, and heaven knows what other
categories are likely to get sick or die from what diseases and how many of
these can be assumed to be smoking related.

He said he thought the original work concerning real people, their deaths and evidence of smoking involvement was part of work done by a couple of epidemiologists, A.M. and D.E.
Lilienfeld. It’s all in a book titled Foundations of Epidemiology, published
about 1980 by Oxford University Press, he said. SAMMEC came later, based on
the Lilienfeld’s work. Maybe. He wasn’t sure.

So there you have it, like the Star Trek show, where a war was done by computer and the casualties stepped in a disintegration chamber.

If you would like to read more on the inaccuracies of the SAMMEC computer FORCES has an excellent article.

Marijuana vs. Cigarettes, Source:

Effects on the Heart
One study found that an abuser’s risk of heart attack more than quadruples in the first hour after smoking marijuana.7 The researchers suggest that such an outcome might occur from marijuana’s effects on blood pressure and heart rate (it increases both) and reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.

Effects on the Lungs
Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which further increases the lungs’ exposure to carcinogenic smoke. Marijuana smokers show dysregulated growth of epithelial cells in their lung tissue, which could lead to cancer;

Okay - there is is in black and white YET, they still “protect” marijuana by quickly adding:

however, a recent case-controlled study found no positive associations between marijuana use and lung, upper respiratory, or upper digestive tract cancers.9 Thus, the link between marijuana smoking and these cancers remains unsubstantiated at this time.

How can that be? If the carcinogens are the same and the exposure more intense?  This makes no sense, IMHO.  Especially if you read on:

Nonetheless, marijuana smokers can have many of the same respiratory problems as tobacco smokers, such as daily cough and phlegm production, more frequent acute chest illness, a heightened risk of lung infections, and a greater tendency toward obstructed airways. A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems and miss more days of work than nonsmokers.10 Many of the extra sick days among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses.

Several studies associate workers’ marijuana smoking with increased absences, tardiness, accidents, workers’ compensation claims, and job turnover.

Sounds to me like this is more detrimental by far than smoking.  I have a suggestion for the anti-smoking nazis:  Switch gears and go after the pot.

Looks like everything is not “fine and dandy” with the smoking ban there as a new bill in the Ohio statehouse is looking at pulling the ban out of bars…

Statehouse Bill Could Allow Smoking at Bars

A year and a half after the smoking ban took effect in Ohio bars, the lawmakers are considering a new bill that could allow some smokers back inside.

A new bill introduced in the statehouse proposes that businesses with 10% or less of their business in food sales can allow smoking. Some bar owners say it could help their business, which has gone down significantly since the smoking ban. But ban supporters say it’s a a threat to the law.

The bill is currently being studied in a committee.

And yet here in WI they’re wetting themselves with excitement over the possibility of a total smoking ban… Kind of makes you think, eh?

If there’s one thing that truly baffles me, it’s the seemingly uncompromising love of the coddling hand of government that so many people are exhibiting lately.

Yes, ok, I understand that for some reason people are running scared from their own shadows in recent times, and there is such a powerful selfishness permeating through people’s attitudes as the “world revolves around my wants” mentality consumes even the most supposedly altruistic of people…

So imagine the teeth-gnashing that I do when I see an anonymous boob write in an editorial for one of our local Wisconsin newspapers and asks big government to come in and wrap him/her in its warm, protecting embrace…

Editorial: Time for state to legislate smoking ban

Plain and simple, the time has come to enact an indoor smoking ban in Wisconsin. It’s a public health matter that, left to individual communities to legislate, has created a counterproductive patchwork of bans around the state.

The editorial goes off on the expected tangents and could be repeated verbatim in any number of other venues… But what really gets me is this:

So, let’s get it done, take a healthy step forward and confront on the rest of the problems that confront Wisconsin. A prolonged debate on the inevitable is guaranteed to distract Wisconsin from what is now feared to be a $5 billion deficit and long-neglected reforms within education, corrections and general government.

Ah! So this genius understands that we have bigger problems to deal with here in Dairy Country… However, he/she isn’t willing to admit that the issue should just be dropped and real issues should be brought to the forefront with the possibility of bringing the smoking ban back up once the state is perfect. It’s all fine and dandy to have priorities; however it’s useless if the priorities are this backwards!

Yes, we have problems. Lots of them. Smoking in public, however, is NOT one of them… So why are we even barking up this tree?

Oh yeah. I guess it all comes back to the simple and indisputible fact that these people ♥ the nanny state.

Ryan has filed complaints on these studies time and time again.

On Oct. 24, volunteers with the tobacco-free coalition tested air quality in four eating and drinking establishments in Beaver Dam and compared the levels of fine particle air pollution with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources standards for outdoor air quality.

Volunteers tested venues on a single occasion for 30 minutes each. In contrast, testing protocol for DNR and EPA studies call for samples 24 hours a day over a number of days.

At least this time they admit they are not applying the standards correctly. We have been all through the fact that the DNR/EPA are time averaged outdoor standards and never intended to be taken at the source. Now these are supposedly educated people doing this so it is safe to assume that they aren’t making a mistake as to what standards to apply. This is blatant activism with an attempt to give it scientific legitimacy. The Tavern League correctly pointed to the proper agency and standards.

Biel read a 1997 quote by OSHA associate secretary Greg Watchman, which said that “Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing permissible exposure levels (PEL) as referenced in the air contaminant standard. It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded.”

Biel also said that OSHA conducted studies in 1993 and 2003 which downplayed the affects of second-hand smoke in the workplace.

“I personally called OSHA two months ago and talked to the air quality department,” Biel said. “They said there is no new research that would make OSHA change its position from what it was in 1993 and then was reiterated in 2003.”

Yep, the same study that was used in Fond du Lac and Western Wisconsin has now been retooled with Beaver Dam area data and rehashed into yet another “study” based on EPA standards…

Study: BD bars, restaurants have unhealthy air quality

A study released Tuesday by the Dodge County Tobacco-Free Coalition says that Beaver Dam bars and restaurants which allow smoking have ‘hazardous’ and ‘unhealthy’ levels of air.

Blah blah blah. It’s the same old tired arguments and flawed logic. I’ve already contacted the author of the article and innformed him that he is doing a severe disservice to the community by not adequately covering the other side of the issue… And I will be writing up a complaint as soon as I can find a copy of the “study.”