Clearing The Air

MN smoking ban promoter praises failure of legislation that would have improved local economy

Bob Moffitt spokesperson for the American Lung Association of MN praised liberal lawmakers for again defeating legislation that would have eased the state smoking ban.

In the short blog post he laments the current state of the budget/economy, which is ironic because the smoking ban legislation his organization lobbied in favor of has closed nearly 1/3 the total number of Twin Cities bars and restaurants, eliminating nearly 10,000 jobs and thrusting our local economy into it's current state of affairs.

What makes the local American Lung Association's lobbying efforts even more criminal is that the ALA was one of three organizations to receive $99 million from Nicoderm maker Johnson & Johnson's partner the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Alternative nicotine (Nicoderm) maker funding non-profit organizations to get tobacco nicotine banned? Sounds like a major conflict of interest to me. But even more criminal is the effect that these prohibition laws have on our economy on a global basis.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 7:00 AM