5.17.2006

News Flash: Anti-Smoking Groups are Liars

Jacob Sullum notes that the claim that secondhand smoke exposure causes atherosclerosis and heart attacks is bullshit, purposely advanced by anti-smoking groups to scare people.

Remember kids, "Smoking is Healthier Than Fascism"

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...puff, puff, pass...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Farmington Daily Times
April 30, 2006
----------------------

Editor:

Once again the City of Farmington is going to consider
banning smoking in all restaurants and bars.

The “conventional wisdom” is that this time, such an
ordinance will pass. This is largely because the New
Mexico Department of Health has spent thousands and
thousands of taxpayer dollars in San Juan County
propagandizing one side of the issue – theirs. They
released a poll indicating that most residents favor
such an ordinance.

Well, the Libertarian Party did a poll of our own. We
surveyed 68 attendees at a gun show in Farmington and
220 individuals at San Juan College. We don’t claim
that our poll is scientific, or least no more so than
the state’s poll. However we did instruct everyone
doing the surveying to refrain from discussing the
issue until after folks finished with the poll, and
our question was pretty straightforward: “Who should
determine a business’s policy regarding the use of
tobacco products by employees and patrons – the
business or the City?” A whopping 75% of the
respondents replied that business’s should determine
their own policy.

Most restaurants and other business’s are already
non-smoking. Around 20% of adults smoke and around 20%
of restaurants have a smoking section. Non-smokers
have the option of choosing one of the 80% of
restaurants that are smoke-free. It seems to me that
the free market is doing its job, so what’s the
problem?

The problem is that it’s not really about smoking.
It’s about our public officials wanting to run our
private business!


Sincerely,
Destri Gleim