Clearing The Air

Overheard by a consumer rights advocate organization recently....

During a recent local radio interview a consumer rights advocate made a comment to the effect of: Certain companies try to convince lawmakers to pass laws that benefit themselves so that they don't have to compete against other companies.

There is a nationwide phenomenon which fits that description exactly, it occurs in city halls, county commissions, and state capitols across America and now around the world.....they're called smoking bans. Smoking ban propnonents masquarade the issue as a public health concern, but two indedpendent air quality studies prove that secondhand smoke levels are actually between 15 - 25,000 times SAFER than OSHA workplace air quality regulations for secondhand smoke, so the health hazard argument and justification is simply a canard.

Read more about the two air quality studies by a local health department and the American Cancer Society here:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/02/air-quality-testing-and-secondhand.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html

Now, look behind the scenes to see who is really funding the smoking ban efforts and you'll find a more corrupt and monopolistic agenda. Pharmaceutical nicotine interests like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (division of J & J) and the Johnson & Johnson Company (which owns ALZA the manufacturer of Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ) provide funds for the lobbying efforts of pro-smoking ban activists:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/01/will-there-be-investigation-into-this.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/07/why-is-pharmaceutical-company-funding.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/08/its-time-for-full-scale-congressional.html

Why?.........because it adds to their bottom line profits: http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/now-that-rwjf-has-put-smoking-bans-in.html

Here are some examples of specific grants provided by the Nicoderm manufacturer -Johnson & Johnson's "philanthropic" division the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/grantlist.jsp?iaid=143&page=2

http://www.rwjf.org/portfolios/resources/grantsreport.jsp?filename=041244.htm&iaid=141&gsa=1#int_grantinfo

So it is no surprise to see a $3,991,235.00 grant by RWJF to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids used to lobby for smoking bans in bars and restaurants in Washington D.C. Nor is it surprising to see a $99,000,000.00 grant by RWJF to the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, and American Heart Association funnel its way to the lobbying efforts of smoking ban across the country, or $88,000, 000.00 from RWJF to the American Medical Association so that physicians might "educate" lawmakers around the country about the urgent need for more smoking bans. Yet the fact that these funds and agenda comes from competing nicotine interests ought to be enough to discredit the dubious information they provide to lawmakers.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of people like myself are put out of work and stand to lose everything so that pharmaceutical nicotine interests can continue to turn a profit in a monopolistic setting and not be required to compensate those of us that they've displaced.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/true-confessions-of-my-reasons-for.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/11/updated-hennepin-ramsey-hospitality.html

http://www.smokersclubinc.com/banloss3.htm

Look, I realize tobacco is an easy target and I am not asking for people or lawmakers to stand up to defend tobacco interests. But people are losing jobs and livelihoods because of pharmaceutical nicotine interests who demand that lawmakers ban use of their competitors' product -tobacco. I know it is not politically correct to defend such private property rights issues when they seem so intertwined with tobacco interests, but the injustice to the tens of thousands at the hands of the pharmaceutical nicotine interests is very real.

Pharmaceutical nicotine interests seem intent in not remedying the job or business losses, caused by their actions, voluntarily. The time has come to fight this broad injustice, and so the only recourse seems to be to use the rule of law to compel these multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical nicotine interests to compensate those who have been financially harmed by their ill-advised, profit motivated agenda..... smoking bans.

Here is an article which helped tutor pharmaceutical nicotine interests' on how to profit from new government regulations (smoking bans) against the tobacco companies.
http://www.smoke-free.ca/pdf_1/ands.pdf

posted by marcus aurelius @ 11:21 AM