The Senate is voting now about banning flavored tobacco.
Submitted by Princeps on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 01:25
in
I've never sent a message to a Senator before. But I've never been this motivated to before.
The House of Representatives just passed the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act" that would, among other bad things, outright ban all flavored tobacco except for menthol.
I don't smoke menthol and I don't smoke regular tobacco. I'm not even addicted to tobacco. But I smoke clove cigarettes and cherry-cavendish-flavored pipe tobacco on occasion, and this bill would effectively ban that. I could either smoke disgusting "regular" cigarettes or none at all. Or, more likely, I can participate in the upcoming black market for flavored tobacco, which will probably be even more expensive and less commonplace than tobacconists are already.
I know I can't be the only one out there that this bill would directly affect. So I ask everyone who smokes this stuff, or even people that don't but just care about their fellow man's liberties, to please send a message to their Senator asking them to either vote against the bill or amend it to remove the language banning flavored tobacco.
I say the latter because I doubt this bill can be stopped in its entirety. So the best thing to do is what's possible. Additional taxes or regulations are onerous but far preferable to an outright ban, so please help me stop this ban.
For the record, this is the message I sent, to both Senators Johanns and Nelson (I'm from Nebraska). The language is personalized but I'm sure someone could think up a form letter version of this pretty easily:
Senator Johanns/Nelson (respectively):
I am writing you to request that you vote against the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act currently up for review in the Senate, or at least amend it to remove the ban on clove cigarettes and other flavored tobaccos.
I am not addicted to nicotine, and am an infrequent user of tobacco products. All the same, when I smoke, I do so only because the particular tobacco I smoke-clove cigarettes and pipe tobacco-taste pleasant. I do not smoke regular or menthol cigarettes and would not wish to start. I have no health problems related to my habit, and feel that this bill would violate my civil and constitutional right to pursue happiness without any compelling state interest to justify said violation.
As such, I again request you to either vote against this bill, or to introduce or co-sponsor an amendment to this bill that would remove the language banning flavored tobacco.
Sincerely,
-Stuart Richards
the black market
is definitely coming
A little too Late
Its already been passed by the Senate and Obama will sign it.
Its not just a ban on flavored cigarettes but also "light" ones, and now gives the FDA the power to regulate tobacco, with the power not only to consider changing existing products, but also to ban new products unless the agency found they contributed to overall public health. Its a nice way of saying their will be no new products. It also limits advertising 1,000 from schools or playgrounds and in any place that dose not restrict the age of the consumer. It bans giveaway promotions and requires that 50% of the package must be FDA approved warnings. On a strange side note, it exempted menthol flavor from being baned which is favored by 75% of the black population, is 25% of the over all sales and has the highest rate of associated lung cancer. I wonder what Obama smokes?
The scary part is this bill flew threw the House and Senate in 2 days. They are doing so much bad shit up in Washington that citizens would have to make it their full time job to keep track of what the government is doing and we the people would still not have the time to respond.
The US is in a perfect storm with Obama leading the way with a lap dog Congress that can not be stopped and the MSM just licking up everything he dose and a Supreme Court that has proved they will not stand in his way. Long gone is the Constitutional Republic created by the Founding Fathers. We are not even living in a Democracy anymore. We are living in a Dictatorship and Obama is our ruler. A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state. That sounds like what we have become.