Clearing The Air

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Michigan bar owners plan to withold tax payments to protest smoking ban

Gee, I thought smoking bans were good for business? Isn't that what the Nicoderm funded activists told all of us?

Pam Lezotte, owner of Buster's Place in Trenton, says people used to wait in line to enter her bar on Friday nights. But since Michigan's smoking ban took effect, she claims the place is often empty by eight.

As a result, she's having trouble paying her bills and is willing to take a bold step to get the attention of Michigan legislators who approved the state's workplace smoking ban, which took effect in May.

"What we're going to do is we want to take our taxes and put them in an escrow and say, hey, Lansing, it's time you guys step up and see what you're doing to this state and all the little business owners," Lezotte told Fox 2 on Tuesday. "They're folding every day. Every time I talk to a new bar owner, they're telling me … I'm on the edge. I'm on the edge of putting my bar on the market or I'm ready to walk away from it."

More here:

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/03/bar_owners_plot_tax_protest_in.html

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

If it saves the life of just one cartoon character...it will be worth it

Tobacco control activists are beside themselves, seething with anger....cartoon characters smoking in the new movie "Rango" .....oh the (animated un-) humanity of it all!

Don't those animated characters know how deadly secondhand smoke is? Why are there no smoking bans in fantasy land?

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2011/03/PG-rated-Rango-has-anti-smoking-advocates-fuming-/44618190/1

Back in the real world though, air quality testing around the globe proves that activists lied about the "deadly hazards" of secondhand smoke.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2010/10/air-quality-testing-of-secondhand-smoke.html

Thursday, March 10, 2011

We all pay the price.....

Is a phrase used by local anti-tobacco group to try to make the claim that smokers cost society money. However, studies show that the extremely high taxes smokers pay for their habit more than offset any "societal costs" by a long shot. More facts here:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/12/do-smokers-cost-state-money.html

And this Dutch study proves those who live longer are actually a greater cost burden on society and our healthcare system:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-study-logically-proves-non-smokers.html

One thing the local anti-tobacco group aforementioned doesn't address in their "we all pay the price" phrase is the societal cost we all pay when their smoking bans destroy hospitality businesses and thereby reduce tax revenues to local governments. And we all pay the price for the massive unemployment caused when tens of thousands of bars & restaurants close after their smoking bans are enacted.

So ClearWay MN couldn't be more wrong, smokers more than pay the price for their habit, and if you all remember the S-CHIP program, which "insures the uninsured" by way of increased tobacco taxes, does so on the wallets of smokers. Therefore smokers pay their healthcare costs and the healthcare costs of non-smokers.

The price we all pay though is the price of increased taxes to offset the reduced tax revenue to local government when smoking bans destroy the hospitality industry.....and the cost to society of supporting massive new numbers of unemployed hospitality employees, vendors, suppliers etc.

In case you missed the embedded links above:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/08/city-of-st-paul-demands-tax-hike-for.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/02/smoking-bans-good-public-policy-or.html

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Minnesota's MSA funded anti-tobacco group ClearWay MN is running new anti-tobacco ads

CTA asks why is the new advertising necessary? Didn't smoking bans eliminate smoking and significantly reduce smoking rates? Apparently not, or the new ads wouldn't be necessary.

So ClearWay MN, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, American Non-Smoker's Rights etc. destroyed the local bar & restaurant industry for nothing. (locally nearly 500 Minnesota bars & restaurants fired employees and went out business since smoking bans were enacted, globally tens of thousands of establishments have closed since smoking bans were imposed on private businesses).

Evidently governments and pseudo-health organizations see global destruction of small businesses and increased unemployment as a success.....no wonder the worldwide economy is on the brink.

.....ClearWay MN go ahead and roll out the next commercial, at least the marketing companies and media have seen an increase in business since smoking bans were enacted. (Incidentally, that's exactly what the Nicoderm funded activists told lawmakers and hospitality business owners.....smoking bans would "increase business") ......obviously, lying is an acceptable form of lobbying.....for Nicoderm funded smoking ban activists that is.

Links embedded above also listed below:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/02/smoking-bans-good-public-policy-or.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2008/06/nicoderm-manufacturer-alza-is.html

Monday, March 07, 2011

American Cancer Society closes offices....why is that necessary after receiving $99+ million grants from RWJF (Nicoderm) to lobby for smoking bans?

A drop in fundraising has forced the American Cancer Society to close its office in Terre Haute and put the building up for sale.

Spokesman Gary McMullen of the society's Great Lakes Division says the group has closed 10 offices in Michigan and Indiana because of declining fundraising revenues. Story here.

Ironically though, ACS as well as other "charitable" health organizations lobbied for smoking ban legislation after receiving $99,000,000.00+ from Nicoderm, Nicotrol, Nicorette interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Apparently the Johnson & Johnson Company partner, RWJF, simply used ACS and other "non-profit" organizations to sell their alternative tobacco products......er, I mean, lobby for smoking bans; and once accomplished no longer provide financial support to these same "health" organizations.

It seems the American Cancer Society and other lobbyists are beginning to understand what the hospitality industry has been subjected to by smoking ban profiteers RWJF / J & J, maker of Nicoderm, Nicorette, Nicotrol products.