tobacco

For all the posturing that Hagan and Burr did about negative impacts of tobacco legislation on family farms, it appears to have been mostly uninformed political bluster. Maybe the Fayetteville Observer should have written this story before the debate so our Senators might have known what the heck they were talking about.

LPNC Press Release
RALEIGH (April 3) -- Restaurant owners and their lobbyists are choking on the second-hand smoke wafting from the back rooms of the North Carolina General Assembly, said a Libertarian Party of North Carolina spokesman. "It's ironic. They're coughing and wheezing in the smoke generated by their own attempts to burn the rights of all North Carolinians," said Brian Irving, LPNC communications director.

The restaurant owners were lobbying to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars. In a another of their infamous midnight maneuvers power-brokers in the General Assembly amended the bill just before the final vote to exclude bars and nightclubs.

"They also exempted non-profit clubs and country clubs, so apparently lobbyists for those special interests were in the house," Irving said. "Now the restaurateurs' attempt to maneuver and reverse course is obscured by their own smoke-screen. How fitting."

The US House passed a bill yesterday opening the door a crack for the FDA to get involved in regulating cigarettes. At issue are additives in cigarettes that are designed to make smoking more appealing to young people. Binker pulls out this amazing section of the bill, and does us the favor of translating it, too.

The DHHS group Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is crowing about the rate of retailers violating the law by selling cigarettes to juveniles being down to a new low. There is an inference here, at least in my reading of it, that this relates to juvenile smoking. That lowering this rate means less teens smoking. In fact, that is exactly how they describe it in their press release.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration today announced that sales of tobacco to underage youth have reached all time lows under the Synar Amendment program – a federal and state partnership program aimed at ending illegal tobacco sales to minors.

Now, I highlighted the Synar Amendment because they make the case that it is responsible for the decrease in retailer violations, which leads to decreased juvenile smoking. Maybe the Synar Amendment had something to do with this, but I'll offer another opinion after the break.

Have a smoke kids, it's good for the economy.