The United Pro Choice Smokers
Rights Newsletter

June 3, 2005 Issue #331

Check Events In Your Area
A call for all people to defend their personal dignity as free-thinking adults in a democratic society. - Doug Jenson
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More Smoking War Victims:
Wales: Girl Dies Trying to Hide Smell of Smoke. She died in hospital a week later, reportedly after suffering a haemorrhage in her throat.
OH: Man beaten to death. A 50-year-old South Toledo man who lived in a vegetative state in a Fostoria nursing home for nearly two years after he was brutally beaten for a pack of cigarettes died yesterday.
NY: Cig Seller Feud Ends In Death. A dispute between two cigarette sellers led to a slap and a Macing, then escalated to a stabbing that left one of the vendors, a father of a newborn, dead.

Court strikes down portions of Maine anti-tobacco law. U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby said that while Maine's statute is laudable and well-intentioned, it runs afoul of federal interstate commerce laws by impeding delivery services.
NY: Post Office Delivers. Sidesteps Fray on Illicit Sales of Cigs.
Big Perfume causes 10M in suit. A federal jury on Monday awarded Weber $7 million in punitive damages, $2 million for mental anguish and emotional distress and $1.6 million for past and future compensation.
Privacy ALERT! New Anti product designed to take away what is left of your privacy rights. "Nymox's TobacAlert(TM) product provides an easy, cost-effective means of detecting second-hand smoke exposure. TobacAlert(TM) can be used at home, at school or in the workplace. No instruments are required and results are provided within minutes."
WHO launches study on harmful use of alcohol. The World Health Organization (WHO), already campaigning against obesity and smoking, launched a probe on Wednesday into alcohol, which is estimated to kill 1.8 million people each year.
Alcohol vaporizer bans. Targeting Temptation. The puritanical impulse behind alcohol vaporizer bans and anti-drug vaccines. By Jacob Sullum. The premise underlying such schemes is that the best way to prevent sin is to eliminate temptation, that desire should be neither moderated nor resisted but suppressed.
Antis pick on Philip Morris. A new study by UCSF School of Nursing researchers shows that Philip Morris sought to enhance its image by supporting Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco.
We Are Everyday People:
This Is Research?! By Darlene Brennan. The very thought that anyone could understand women; by committee, elaborate research, personal observation, or crystal ball is ridiculous.
Tobacco control lobby is blowing smoke. By Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), an independent business consultancy.
Government guinea pigs? Disney believes he got a lot more than he asked for in the Navy. When he applied for benefits he was told it was probably his smoking habit. "Excuse me. I quit smoking 34 years ago." Cynamon adds, "The principle is that the government and government officials should not be allowed to lie to its citizens to prevent them from seeking compensation for things that the government did to them."
Mind Games. By Linda Stewart. Where to begin the deconstruction when there's so MUCH to deconstruct? People who get their nicotine from lighting a cigarette are degenerate and depressed, neurotic and schizophrenic; but let them get their same nicotine through a spray or patch, and, voila! they're completely normal. (Which proceeds to the new conclusion that it's MATCHES that make us nuts.)
Smoke-free city. By Stu Bykofsky. …smokers were required to sew a large, green "S" on their garments so they would be known. The "S" also helped keep them in their place, Tobacco Town, because with no jobs they had nowhere to go anyway. And decent people didn't want them around. A few people wailed about individual rights and civil liberties, but no one much listened.
From The Mailbag:
AR: Pine Bluff smoking ban a close call as City Council vote nears.
IA: No new tax increase! That idea failed to find support from House Republicans, who said a tax increase was not needed to balance the state budget.
IL: No Tax Hike. There will be no increase on tobacco taxes in Illinois this year!
IL: Woodstock. Locals split on possible ban on public smoking.
IN: State bills for online cigarettes.
KY: Georgetown working on smoking ban.
MA: Tax Alert. Tax just smokers (again) to pay for everyone's insurance?
MN: Jeff Moritko. Despite hefty losses, Minneapolis bar owners can't get anyone to reconsider the smoking ban.
MS: Barbour to Appeal on Tobacco Money.
NC: Takes money from Antis. State Halts Expansion Of Anti-Smoking Campaign.
NC: NO BAN. House defeats bill forcing eateries to accommodate nonsmokers.
NJ: A shoe of force against smoking ban bill. They mailed one shoe - red, white and blue - to gain the lawmakers' attention.
NY: Mayor Bloomberg's opponents are promising to reinstate our rights.
RI: Senate passes bill fining companies for selling tobacco to minors.
OH: Columbus Bar Closes Doors, Blames Smoking Ban.
OH: Belmont County Smoking Ban Highly Unlikely. In 2001, the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department acted to institute a similar smoking ban. The ban was challenged by an opposition group composed of bar owners and other business representatives, and the health department was sued.
OH: Takes money from Antis. Anti-Smoking Group Could Lose Funding. New Budget Calls For Less Cash For STAND.
OR: Housing authority residents protest smoking ban proposal.
VA: S&M Brands Inc. Tobacco Companies Deal With Settlement.
WI: Conventions back out of Appleton after smoking ban.
Canada: Citizens for Civil Liberties. Civil Liberties Group Wants Employers Out of Private Lives.
Canada: NAIT butts out on democracy. By Kerry Diotte. Perhaps some with an opposite view will e-mail the NAIT officials in Edmonton and copy me with the e-mails.
Italy: Ministers Have Breached Smoke Ban. Therefore, Codacons, in compliance with the Sirchia law, formally requires that the Tax Police sanction the Prime Minister along with Mrs Calderoli and Fini."
NZ: WIN Party Update. John Van Buren wants to get like-minded people together to challenge new laws forbidding smoking in bars and cafes.
Russia: Former Chernobyl Pilot Soars Above His Obstacles.
Sweden: Sated With Snuff. Snus is the Swedish alternative to cigarettes.
UK: Ayr play. Rock bad boy Pete Doherty, did what he habitually does when performing in a venue with a strict non-smoking policy: he lit up a cigarette on stage.
UK: Imperial Tobacco wins landmark smokers case.
USA: RICO Witness. Health Info Has Little Effect On Smoking.
Wales: Smoking ban not wanted. The number of people against a ban outnumber those in favour two to one.
World: Guinness confirms longest stogie record. A Dominican man living in Puerto Rico rolled a 62-foot-long cigar earlier this year and now it's been declared the world biggest.
The Canadian Smokers Rights Newsletter. All the Canada news.
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