Lay Off Big Tobacco!

[IrishCanadian25]

It's Time To Lay Off Big Tobacco
a position peice by IC25​

As I frequently do during some downtime I have at work, today I went over to CNN.com to read an op-ed on Big Tobacco, entitled "Time to crack down on big tobacco." The writer, Matthew Myers, is a leader of several anti-tobacco and anti-smoking interest groups, so we know where he's going and we know it early.

The article itself is very well written, and can be found here:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/29/myers.big.tobacco/index.html

Myers takes his position early on, and uses this scathing statement to condemn the tobacco companies early on:

They are racketeers who carried out a conspiracy to deceive the public and target children with their deadly and addictive products.

Wow.

It's funny how, with any product of service considered a "vice" such as tobacco, alcohol, firearms, drugs, gambling, or sex / prostitution, that the term "rackets" or "racketeering" can be tossed around so casually.

And if we're upset at people deceiving the public, I suppose politicians are racketeers, too?

The fact is that out of these so-called "rackets," big tobacco has received the least stringent government controls, along side gambling. To consume alcohol, you have to be 21 years old. To own a gun in most states, you have to be of a certain age and go through a rigorous process to obtain a license. Even that license restricts the number and type of firearms you may carry. To legally gamble, you usually must be either 18 (NJ) or 21 (LV). Prostitution is barely legal in Nevada, where most vices are legal.

You get my point?

Furthermore, unlike alcohol (which nobody is railing against, despite alcohol related deaths claiming some major numbers too), tobacco has never been illegal or prohibited in the USA.

So we're calling big tobacco "racketeers?" Really? They are a business with a marketing budget. That marketing budget is designed to accentuate the perceived positives of a product and minimize the negatives.

The Supreme Court's decision puts the responsibility squarely on elected officials to eliminate the tobacco industry's harmful influence and take effective action to protect the nation's health.

Congress and the Obama administration should fund a national public education and stop-smoking campaign, and the Food and Drug Administration must effectively exercise its new authority to regulate tobacco products.

The thing that frightens me about this is the fact that the multi-billion dolar health care reform the Obama administration just signed into law doesn't contain much langage for these "stop smoking" programs or wellness programs. Rather, it forces the tax payers to pay for everyone else's bad ideas. Personally, I am neither in favor of Obamacare NOR overly tight tobacco restrictions. I am not a smoker - so I don't pay to buy cigarettes or for their effects. Let the smokers pay for their own problems.

The idea of the government legislating against Big Tobacco to "protect America's future" is just another step in the US towards socialism. What next?

It should also note that the tobacco tax is so high in the United States that BILLIONS of dollars in tax revenue each year are derived from the tobacco tax. Do you know where that money goes? Schools, hospitals, police, etc. In NJ, two of the biggest revenue streams are the taxes collected on tobacco and gambling.

America was built on the tobacco crops. Now granted, it was slavery (which I am against, by the way) that fueled the cultivation of the tobacco crops, but even still, the harvesting of tobacco was one of the first agricultural coups in the USA that launched us into superpower status.

The tobacco tax also effects people who use varied forms of tobacco - such as cigars or pipes, which generally have a far less severe effect on one's health that cigarettes or chewing tobacco.

The companies, Kessler concluded, "have marketed and sold their lethal products with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted."

It is the job of a public company to market and sell their product enthusiastically. It generates revenue for the shareholder. It's called capitalism. And if there is a harm in that product that is uncovered, it's the right and duty of the American people to refuse to purchase it, to boycott it, to take them out of the equation. That's economincs 101 - supply and demand.

The reason the government is being asked to step in is because the demand still exists. Opponents of tobacco state that is a result of the addictive, "drug-like" qualities of tobacco. In that case, it's important we also outlaw coffee and alcohol. Let's all just become communist 7th Day Adventists while we're at it.

Every time states consider raising tobacco taxes -- a proven way to reduce smoking, especially among teenagers -- the industry seeks to manipulate public opinion with bogus claims and calculated alliances with less controversial political groups.

For example, in Georgia this year, Philip Morris promoted a rally that ostensibly was organized by anti-tax organizations. Big Tobacco's role was exposed when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution discovered this fine print at the bottom of a rally invitation: "Paid for by Altria Client Services on behalf of Philip Morris USA."

And on the flip side, the hospitals that are dipping their hands into the tobacco tax and lawsuit pot are doing the same things with even fewer restrictions.

Proposition 86 - a constitutional ammendment proposed to increase the tobacco tax $.13 / pack and give unbridled funds to hospitals and schools, has several flaws:

1) Huge hospital corporations are spending millions promoting Prop. 86 because they will pocket hundreds of millions of dollars every year. HMOs will also get millions of dollars each year.

2) Almost 40% of the $2.1 billion in new tax money from Prop. 86 goes to hospitals—THAT’S OVER $800 MILLION A YEAR THAT HAS VIRTUALLY NOTHING TO DO WITH STOPPING SMOKING!

3) The $2.1 billion comes from an unfair $2.60 tax increase on each pack of cigarettes—an increase of almost 300%. (good luck finding a time in history when a tax on one product was hiked up three-fold)

America has a core health problem that stems from the bad decisions of its people. In classic fashion, we have chosen a scapegoat and are demonizing their each and every move. The tobacco tax has been stretched each year to TRY to make up for increasing budget shortfalls. Warnings are printed in bigger fonts (as Dennis Leary once famously said - "Like the problem is we just haven't gotten it yet! HOLY SHIT! These things are bad for ya!") and commercials make the white businessmen look like animals.

Folks, I think it's time to lay off Big Tobacco and let the American capitalist system go to work.

I welcome response and reaction to this topic and I will gladly keep the debate going myself. Thank you for reading.

 

[Money Inc.]

Very well though out replies.

Reading the article made me think of the movie thank you for smoking ....have you ever seen it?

If not go check it out.. the plot is a lobbyist for Big Tabbacco goes to different settings (talk shows, senate hearings, etc) and defends the use of Tabacco. The movie is well done and it end is great.

On to your reply..

I just think its ridiculous that people who don't smoke go after people who do smoke.

Lets say IC doesn't eat fast food and refuses to eat it ever. Does that give IC the right to reply to every poster on this board on how dumb they are for experiencing with fast food? And I don't want to hear the excuse tobacco is the #1 killer so don't compare fast food to it because cholesterol is slowly overtaking tobacco as the #1 killer (in the United States)

If you think somebody is being ******ed for smoking/chewing/etc... than let them be a "******" (I'm using ****** like I use ***...I'm not saying it to downgrade handicap or homesexual people.. there just words that stuck in my head as every day words. If you are offended by the two than I apologize but I just want to know if you ever see a reply of mine with them its not meant to be offensive)

I personally don't see what Interest groups and senate committees gain from nagging on tobacco users. The laws are highly unlikely to change, and if it ever comes to the day where it gets banned or the minimum age goes up.. kids will still get a hold of it.

A quote from the movie I mentioned before

"We don't sell Tic Tacs, we sell cigarettes. And they're cool, available, and *addictive*. The job is almost done for us."

 

[Davi323]

Anti-tobacco nazis amuse me. I don't smoke. I have never smoked...as a personal choice. But, given that smoking tobacco is legal, the sheer venom that spews from the anti-smoking crowd almost makes me want to start just to say "fuck you" to them all. I live in Michigan, and recently enacted a smoking ban in all public places. No smoking in any restaurants or bars period.

NO SMOKING IN BARS? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?

They don't believe that anyone has a right to enjoy a night out except themselves.

Then there is the complete hypocrisy of the US government. Not from one party, but from the whole damn institution. For years, they have been railing against the tobacco industry, attacking it, demonizing it, doing everything they can to make you think they hate it. But, here is the thing they don't. They love big tobacco, because it is a huge cash cow that they can extort for billions. If they were really opposed to big tobacco, you would think they would just ban it...but they won't. Where would ther funding for all those health programs the tobacco settlement monies pay for come from if they banned tobacco? They need big tobacco to be huge, they just want their piece of the pie. If anyone can be accused of racketeering, its the Federal government. They are like crooked cops who pay for their kid's college tuition with payouts from local criminals...

 

[falconsault]

I agree, it is long past time that we lay off of Big Tobacco. I've never smoked nor will I ever, but I spent nearly 12 years raising tobacco with my family.

My parents worked in low paying factory jobs and we had to raise tobacco to have money to continue to get by. No one ever thinks about the impact to the people who have to make a living. Sure we could have grown other crops and we did when it was a different season. But every time that the price on tobacco would go up, the price that Big Tobacco paid the farmers would go down.

Luckily by the time I moved out and joined the military, my parents had better paying jobs to where the Big Tobacco pay off didn't cause them to suffer.

All those damn Truth commericals have always done nothing more than piss me off. People know the hazards that are involved, it's not like they don't get it, they just don't care.

Great use of the Leary line by the way IC.