Tobbacco Road

Lately all the rage has been to tax cigarette smokers. Not just tax, but forbid them to smoke in bars, cafes, public parks, public buildings, private shops, basically anywhere. Why?

Second hand smoke.

Second hand smoke must be pretty bad when you cannot smoke outdoors.

Scientists and other people who are on the bandwagon will tout the latest figures of asthma and other respiratory illnesses and scream "It's second hand smoke"

Oddly enough, people who lived and worked in a non=smoking environment had as much problem with these illnesses also.

As a matter of fact, over the last thirty years or so all kinds of respiratory illnesses have been going up.

Maybe we should find another explanation than making smokers the goat. Maybe we might check out all the pollution the coal burners keep belching into the air. Maybe we should check out how much the emissions from a gas engine has on breathing. How about some scientists locking themselves into a garage, starting an engine and seeing if they have a problem breathing?

I'll wait outside and smoke a cigarette.

Back to the issue of smoking.

It is bad for you, that is what they say. (the politicians, etc.)

If this is so, why tax the heck out of smokers? Why not change the way that cigarettes are made?

We can easily engineer tobacco that is both not harmful and not addictive.

So what's the problem?

With all the subsidies we give to the tobacco industry, it seems like they should have researched and developed a gentler, kinder smoke that would not kill you.

This is our fault?

If a person wants to smoke, they should be able to.

If you don't like it, call your congressman and tell them to force the tobacco industry to come up with a better alternative.

Or, you could just tell your congressman to donate the money they procured from the tobacco companies to push for deregulation (tobacco is not regulated under any government agency) to the tobacco smokers health fund, and we won't have to worry about taxing the smokers, who are the victims of the tobacco companies and all the 'goody two shoe' second hand whiners.