State attorneys general's and e cigs aka Y'all gonna make me loose my mind

I am no blogger.


More's the pity,because honestly this could use a rewrite by someone with good grammar skills and an understanding of how all of this connects to each other.


The state AG'S are a force to be reckoned with.

They run a sort of regulatory agency all of their own with no constitutional restrictions or oversight.

I think to best explain it you would need to look at an article written by Daniel Fisher in 2008.


The name of the article is The House Tobacco Built


(I'll place a small portion of the text here but it is worth a read to try and grasp exactly what I think is coming.)



Beside funding antismoking campaigns, the loot from the tobacco companies has helped turn this once sleepy professional association into a kind of super regulatory body, hunting for antitrust and consumer-fraud violations. It doesn’t sue anybody, instead working behind the scenes to coordinate the efforts of state attorneys general and provide legal advice.

“This is a de facto regulatory agency, they just don’t call it that,” says Michael S. Greve of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “It corresponds to nothing we know about the constitutional landscape.”

So from that piece we see some odd things,the MSA money and what is done with it,where it goes and what they do with the things they have uncovered.


But it gets weirder and it once again ties into the State AG's and yet another Fischer piece,this one more recent but still worth careful reading.


Holy End Run! Attorneys General Urge Action As E-Cigarettes Gain Market Share



There could be trouble ahead, however. Payments under the MSA fell from $7.6 billion in 2009 to $6.2 billion last year, and Fitch Ratings warned earlier this month that e-cigs could threaten bonds backed by MSA payments.

All of which explains the concern over at NAAG, which some jokingly dub the National Association of Aspiring Governors. In their letter to the FDA, and by extension, Congress, the AGs warn that youth surveys show e-cig use doubled last year.


Consumers are led to believe that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to cigarettes, despite the fact that they are addictive, and there is no regulatory oversight ensuring the safety of the ingredients in e-cigarettes.


All good reasons to fold the newfangled products under the oversight of the feds, which the FDA is expected to do by the end of next month. But there’s not much the AGs can do to plug the loophole that is draining revenue from their 1998 settlement agreement. Having bet on the continued success of conventional cancer sticks, they were caught sleeping when the market went digital.

(I have to stress the above portion of text are not my words.)

We know the tobacco bond market is in the toilet and circling the drain ever so quickly.

Some blame e cigarettes,they might be correct in that assumption,

Again from Forbes

Tobacco Bonds Feel Heat From E-Cigarettes



Meanwhile, lawmakers in states including New Jersey and Minnesota are taking measures to tax electronic cigarettes like traditional tobacco products, which could reduce growth.

"Something that might slow this down is if more legislation gets implemented to tax or ban e-cigarettes, which would be beneficial to the sale of combustible cigarettes," said BlackRock's Mr. Milway.


So here we can sense a sort of threat both in the language used and in the implications about regulation and what the bond market would like to see,a growth in traditional tobacco and a steady death of e cigarettes.


And from a recent New York Times piece



Officials Focus on E-Cigarette Ads Aimed at Youths


State attorneys general must investigate, and consider taking legal action against, e-cigarette companies that appear to be using some of the same advertising tactics that once drew young adults into smoking, a Kentucky deputy attorney general told his law enforcement colleagues gathered here for a retreat to discuss emerging legal issues in states nationwide.

The gathering of nearly two dozen attorneys general, and senior members of their staffs, came on the 20th anniversary of the initiation of the historic lawsuit that states filed against tobacco companies — resulting ultimately in an approximately $10 billion annual payment, which is still being made, and an agreement to restrict advertising everywhere from outdoor billboards to sports events, to try to curtail the appeal of tobacco to youths

Sean Riley, the chief deputy attorney general of Kentucky, told his law enforcement colleagues that Kentucky had left behind its status as the state with the highest percentage of youth smokers. But he said he was concerned that e-cigarette advertising could reverse that progress.



I find it fishy and suspicions are raised when every single one of these mentions one group or another willing to step on and stomp to death a new industry for it's own gain.

I am starting to assume from a careful look that the next few years are going to be an uphill battle for vapers as they start to be attacked on all sides,from the WHO,from their own governments both state and local and of course from the propaganda pieces like this that we're starting to see appearing in newspapers everywhere.

And if you never thought it or ever dared to believe it before by now you can begin to see why it rings so true what Dick Puddlecote has always said.

It's Never Been About Health


(And because it's tradition a song that feels fitting.

They are headed our way and we know it.

Ya sorry about the profanity, But it was more included because of the chorus.)

Follow the Money and give yourself a migraine and a revelation AKA The failure of the sin tax

Read the entire thing.

It's enlightening. If you follow the money (it will give you migraines lol) you can see why the governments around the  U.S. are enacting such insane legislation.

The taxation rates,the demonizing,the shunning all of those contribute to people going another way.

 Some grow and harvest their own,some vape and some very smart people roll their own.

This is the monster striking out at people for starving the beast.
It looks like it's only going to get worse for these governments.
Tax too much,shun too much,enact too much legislation against people and they will rebel,some through black market tobacco,some through vaping and some through quitting smoking just to spite you.

A smart person will not pay anyone to abuse them,why the governments expect to be exempt from that simple fact is beyond me.

I don't enjoy watching cities and countries falter and not be able to pay their bills but in truth by following the anti-tobacco blueprint they have helped to sign their own death warrant.

The money won't last forever and if you keep robbing the same group of people over and over again they will wise up and walk away.

Put people out of the society they used to share and they will abandon it and learn to live a different way.

Persecute smokers and drinkers at your own peril.

They might not run America but their sin tax dollars make America run.

Don't pay these bastards to persecute you,starve the beast.

Starve the beast

"Moody’s predicts that the accelerating rate of decline in cigarette shipments will cause Gross’s Buckeye debt to default. From 65 percent to 80 percent of tobacco securities may fail to pay principal on time as demand for cigarettes falls short of assumptions, the company says.

The ratings firm ranks the bonds due in June 2047 at B3, six levels below investment grade. The Total Return Fund is also the biggest owner of tobacco debt from West Virginia maturing in 33 years, with a $155 million stake, Bloomberg data show. The securities have a B2 rating from Moody’s, which includes them among bonds that will probably default.

The default likelihood stems from rosy projections for cigarette shipments, which have declined each year since 2007. Tax increases at the federal, state and local level and e-cigarettes have contributed to depress demand."

Entropy

French scientists: We've lost SARS virus vials


The Slow Death of the Old Global Order


The Future of Countries


The slow death of free speech


Drone murder of New Zealander “justified” by Prime Minister


California Senator Proposes Warning Labels for Sugary Drinks


Fight federal abuse of property rights by making the government obey its own rules


Provocative Portraits Challenge Stereotypes of Gun Owners in the U.S.


How Big a Deal is H.R. 347, That “Criminalizing Protest” Bill?


LA Sheriff's Dept. On New Surveillance Program: We Knew The Public Wouldn't Like It, So We Kept It A Secret


Political entropy

Tid Bits April 2014 Edition

If it’s such a privilege, why do they have to stick a gun in your face?

Mistaking Hibiscus for Marijuana, DEA Raids Gardener's Home


LA Sheriffs launch crowdsourced crowd control: LEEDIR, a surveillance app that uses your photos and videos

Pastor Banned From Feeding Homeless Because He Doesn't Have A Food Truck Permit


UN green police say ditch oil and change your diet


Progressive Puritans


Citing decades-old claims, feds seize tax refunds


Curious Cop Downloaded Hundreds of Private Prescription Records Because He Could


The magic marker of public ownership


US Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy, says Scientific Study

Signs Of A Broken Society Part Three

Zero-Tolerance Policies in Schools are Often Destructive, Fueling a School to Prison Pipeline

In 2011, a 13-year-old student in Albuquerque, New Mexico burped audibly in class (perhaps the school lunch didn’t agree with him). His instructor summoned the school resource officer, one of a new generation ofpolice officers and specially trained go-betweens stationed in school environments, and the student found himself booked into a juvenile detention facility. He had fallen victim to his school’s zero-tolerance policy, a framework used across the nation to crack down fast and hard on unwanted behaviors, but one that has resulted in what critics are calling a school-to-prison pipeline, as students are fast-tracked to juvenile courts for offenses like writing their names on desks.

It’s a pipeline that consumes some students more than others; students of color and disabled students are being suspended, expelled, and sent into the justice system at much higher rates than their white, nondisabled counterparts. 

DNA registry legislation raises concerns about Big Brother

Orwell foresaw a dystopian society controlled by a "Big Brother" power structure that closely keeps track of individuals so the ruling party's authorities can pounce on those who stray from what is considered proper behavior, using data in a registry to crush anyone who opposes the police state.

Supporters of HB 150 point out that people who are arrested, but not convicted, must be fingerprinted, and DNA samples are the same thing, on principle. That, unfortunately, is not very comforting to those of us familiar with what happened in western New York some years ago.

Troopers there were accused of planting fingerprint evidence as a way to win criminal convictions in dozens of cases. Several, including a lieutenant who ran a criminal identification unit, were charged with crimes and some went to prison.

Planting fingerprint evidence is difficult, but a few years ago, scientists in Israel conducted a study demonstrating that planting DNA evidence would be easy. "You can just engineer a crime scene," said one scientist. All you need is a DNA sample.

Libraries fear 'ravenous' NSA

Government snooping of libraries has a long history. Under the Patriot Act, for example, the FBI has the power to compel libraries to hand over user data.

But the activities of the NSA seem to go far beyond traditional police work, reflecting an “almost ravenous hunger” for collecting information, according to Lynne Bradley, director of the ALA’s Office of Government Relations.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the NSA has been collecting vast troves of “metadata” on Internet activity and phone calls that shows when communications were made, who was involved and how long it lasted.

That’s especially troubling to the ALA, as “libraries are all about metadata,” Inouye said.

The records that libraries keep — when a user logs on to a library computer, what websites they visit, when books are borrowed and returned — seem to fit the mold of what the NSA is seeking.

“We’re talking about the information patterns of people. If that’s not personal, I don’t know what is,” Inouye said.

While no libraries are known to have received NSA requests, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been tapped for data.

Just like Internet companies, libraries are prohibited from revealing NSA requests. The ALA is concerned that local libraries are being forced to keep quiet about government snooping.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” Bradley said.

Icelanders Overthrow Government and Rewrite Constitution After Banking Fraud-No Word From US Media

In Iceland, the citizens took to the streets by the thousands, banging pots and pans in what is known as the “pots and pans revolution,” leading to the arrest and prosecution of many unscrupulous bankers responsible for the economic collapse. Icelandic citizens also refused to pay for the sins of the bankers and rejected any measures of taxation to bail them out. In the U.S., the government bailed out the banks and arrested no one.

The pots and pans revolution in Iceland was not covered by mainstream U.S. media. In fact, any information about this revolution is found only on international newspapers, blogs and online documentaries, not on mainstream front-page articles as would be expected from news organizations covering a story of this magnitude. The New York Times published a small handful of piecemeal stories, blogs and opinion pieces, but mostly glossed over the main narrative by saying the 2008 financial collapse in Iceland caused “mayhem far beyond the country’s borders” rather than pointing out that Icelanders took to the streets with pots and pans and forced their entire government to resign.

'Smoker’s Bill Of Rights’ Could Be Repealed Next Session

Habitual cigarette smokers could face backlash from potential employers if the Indiana Chamber achieves one of its goals for the upcoming session.

The Chamber is seeking repeal of Indiana’s 1991 “smoker’s bill of rights” which says employers can’t refuse to hire smokers and can’t charge them higher premiums for health insurance.

Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar says the law went too far in its protection of smokers.

“Right now smoking is just as much of a protected class for hiring purposes in Indiana as race, religion, and all of the things that fell under the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Brinegar said.

Holding a Cellphone in Hand While Driving is Now Illegal

Your phone could be on Airplane mode. And you could hold it for only two seconds. And you would be breaking the law.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario over the weekend ruled that it is illegal to hold a cellphone while driving regardless of whether it is transmitting or how long it is in a driver's hand.

The decision came following two rulings where drivers attemped to avoid punishment through current loopholes of laws. Quoth The Globe and Mail:

In one case, Khojasteh Kazemi argued that she had just picked up her cellphone, which had fallen off the seat to the floor of her car when she stopped at a red light, when a police officer spotted her holding it. A lower court judge dismissed Kazemi’s charge, ruling that there must be some “sustained physical holding” in order to convict, but the Appeal Court overturned that finding.

The Ultimate “Child Protection” — State Forcibly Sedates Mom, Performs Cesarean, Takes Baby

She called the police, who arrived at her room when she was on the phone to her mother. The police asked to speak to the grandmother, who explained that her daughter was probably over-excited because she suffered from a “bipolar” condition and hadn’t been taking her medication to calm her down.

The police told the mother that they were taking her to hospital to “make sure that the baby was OK”. On arrival, she was startled to see that it was a psychiatric hospital, and said she wanted to go back to her hotel. She was restrained by orderlies, sectioned under the Mental Health Act and told that she must stay in the hospital.

By now Essex social services were involved, and five weeks later she was told she could not have breakfast that day. When no explanation was forthcoming, she volubly protested. She was strapped down and forcibly sedated, and when she woke up hours later, found she was in a different hospital and that her baby had been removed by caesarean section while she was unconscious and taken into care by social workers. 

Bloomberg’s “Nanny State”: Refuting opposition to the “new” public health

The bottom line is that elected officials should be held accountable for the health of their inhabitants. Those who disrupt the status quo, such as Bloomberg, have thus far shouldered the burden of accountability, facing fierce criticism and industry backed judicial challenges. But the vast majority of public officials have stood by and done nothing amidst skyrocketing obesity rates. It is time for the political class to be held accountable not for trying to make the population healthier and safer, but for failing to act in the face of manifest suffering.

London's biggest university bans student protests

The University of London - a body representing London universities including University College London, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Birkbeck and the London School of Economics - has banned protests on its campus for the next six months.

Students who hold sit-in protests in an area in Holborn, central London, including the Senate House, the student union building, and the buildings of SOAS and Birkbeck, can be imprisoned.

The president of the University of London student union, Michael Chessum, told Channel 4 News it was a "draconian" reaction and "a sign that the university had lost the argument".

The court order obtained on the 4 December by the University of London bans "occupational protest" in the area for the next six months. Anyone breaching the order can be charged with contempt of court.

In a Plain Brown Package

The attractive and understated Montecristo cigar band​—​in a rich walnut brown​—​has also disappeared. It’s been covered with a paper collar of requisite plainness. This is nearly an inch wide, deprives me of a third of my smoke, and any attempt to remove it tears the wrapper leaf and destroys the cigar.

Each of these strips of paper has been fastened by hand with scotch tape. Mindless, useless, idiotic work is typical of many government jobs, but this seems to exceed even the typical work done in the Australian parliament.

And the Australian parliament is, no doubt, working very hard indeed. There’s no end to the work to be done once moral philosophy has become so perverted that something like “plain packaging” is considered a public benefit.

Beer is certainly next, with pictures of drunken fistfights, snoring bums, and huge, gin-blossomed noses on every can. Airplane crashes kill a lot of people. No plane should be allowed to land in Australia unless it’s painted drab dark brown and bears an image of fiery carnage along its fuselage. Cars kill even more. Perhaps a banner showing lethal wrecks could be pasted across the inside of every car’s windshield. And there’s food. Make all food drab dark brown (something of a historical tradition in Australian cooking anyway) and deck the labels with naked fat men.

True Faith/Anthem The Tobacco Control Cult

  On “public health” activists and true belief

Contrast that with “public health” causes, where none of the activists are willing to give up their comfort or take any risks.  The closest they come to doing anything other than chattering and trying to use personally-risk-free force (government) to impose their will on people is occasionally vandalizing a piece of outdoor advertising.  If they were to chain themselves to their handiwork and call the press and police to come see them, I might have some respect for such actions.  But as practiced it is just adolescent vandalism, hiding in the shadows so they can brag about it to their friends and pretend they are similar to truly dedicated activists for important causes.

NYC eyes electronic cigarette ban in public spaces

" He added that the city's measures to ban smoking from outdoor public areas under Mayor Michael Bloomberg were more about public acceptance of smoking than science.

"Those second set of measures were more about sociology and denormalizing than they were hard medical science," Gennaro said on "Squawk on the Street." "We thought it was important to make sure smoking was completely denormalized."

Government plans to curb smoking are not only wasteful but unworkable

But there’s a second strand to this anti-smoking legislation which makes me take a step back and question whether the politicians are really concerned about our health (something, incidentally, I think adults should be able to decide for themselves) or for their political positions.It is when the plans for anti-smoking campaigns sink to the levels of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive that I am once again reminded about how easy it is for politicians and political establishments to become cozy with big businesses.

This can be seen clearly with this latest piece of proposed legislation which will limit people’s access to e-cigarettes. Of course the EU won’t come straight out and say that it wants to “ban” e-cigarettes – merely turn them into pharmaceutical products. This means they will only be available in chemists, instead of over the counter where people go to if they will buy real cigarettes. We already know from government reports about impulse buying at counters. That’s why supermarkets are supposed to remove all chocolate and sweets from around the queuing area and replace them with carrots or Brussels sprouts and all manner of items children are never going to reach for, unless it’s to bash a sibling over the head with.

Misinforming European Union in order to manipulate decisions on electronic cigarettes 

End of letter

 I am absolutely certain that MEPs are clever enough to realize the games played behind the back of vapers and smokers. We are dedicated in our efforts to reveal the truth concerning this sensitive public health issue, without hiding any facts, whether positive or negative for e-cigarettes. This is how we have proceeded so far, and this is how we will continue.

In case the news media ask for the name of the pharma company and the PR firm, i have no problem giving them all details.

.E-cigarettes Challenge to Indoor Smoking Ban

Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said the cultural shift away from smoking as socially acceptable has been a key effect of the smoke-free ban. He said the indoor smoking ban has been the single most effective policy at cutting smoking in the city. Now indoor e-cigarette use is complicating enforcement of that ban, Farley said.

He said allowing use of e-cigarettes in restaurants and other public places is challenging enforcement of that law because now waiters and business owners have to make sure customers are using an e-cigarette and not lighting up a combustible cigarette.

Further, allowing e-cigarettes to become socially acceptable by allowing their use in restaurants and public places could affect social acceptance of conventional cigarettes, “undermining the enormous progress of tobacco control over the last decades,” Farley said

Lies, damn lies, and fiddled statistics.

But the continuation of Hammond’s work, with its demonstrated faulty methodology, was used by the Australian authors to deduce that smoking causes premature death to the extent of 17,800 per year in Australia. Their conclusions should be compared with the results of a survey by the Australian Statistician in 1991 of 22,200 households, chosen at random. This showed "long term conditions", including cancer and heart disease, to be more common in non-smokers than smokers.

Hah.

How to Bash Vapers

It is good that the court dismissed the allegations, but the Zealots will be back using some obscure complexity in the law, as has been the case here. The idea of equating ecigs with actual tobacco is really silly, which is the foundation for the court judgement. But note below the weirdness of TC thinking.

Data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US recently showed the number of middle and high school students who used e-cigarettes more than doubled from 2011 to 2012.

Mr Slevin said the Tobacco Products Control Act was due for a review and could help ban e-cigarettes as well as address issues such as the need to reduce the number of licensed tobacco retailers. This incident of a failed attempt to prosecute points to the fact that the current provisions are not adequate,” he said.

Cigarette production output soars despite tobacco control

Annual cigarette production in the world's most populous country has jumped 50 percent across the decade, with about 2.175 trillion cigarettes produced in the 12 months to October, showed "Tobacco Control in China from a Civil Society Perspective 2013" on Tuesday, Xinhua reports.

Smokers' rights and tobacco control on BBC Breakfast - oh yes? - well no actually - smokers got muzzled again - vapers beware

 I watched.

All I saw, was some shrieking blonde yelling everyone down with all the old anti smoking drivel we hear over and over again. There was hardly a moment for proper discussion about anything sensible. No time for smokers allowed. The shrieking blonde turns out to be Andrea Crossfield Director of Tobacco Free Futures. I live in the Northwest and I've never heard of her! The interviewer should have put her in place - but of course he didn't.

 There is a crack in everything,that's how the light gets in.........

Original Fire (Tobacco Today)

N.Y. State Parks Outdoor Smoking Ban Is Blocked by Court

The organization New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment sued in April to block the actions.

“This is putting the prohibitionists on notice that despite their ugly war being waged on adults who choose to smoke, they are not entitled to a free-for-all in governing when it comes to this segment of society,” Audrey Silk, founder of the group, said today in a statement.

New York City banned smoking in almost all workplaces and indoor recreational venues in March 2003, and the state Legislature followed with a similar ban four months later.

MADNESS! Council zealots 'order' florist's wooden caterpillar to stop smoking shisha pipe

Debbie said she was astonished when questioned about the Alice in Wonderland inspired display. She said: "He told me he'd come in to investigate because there had been a complaint that the shisha pipe was contravening UK smoking in the workplace regulations.

"I said, 'but it's a wooden caterpillar', and he said 'yes, but it's smoking', and I said 'no, it's not'. 

"I really thought someone was winding me up, I wasn't taking it seriously. 

"It's not even a real shisha pipe, it's an ornament, it doesn't work. 

"But he didn't have a problem with the shisha pipe, it was the caterpillar smoking on business premises. 

"I said to him, even if it was a real caterpillar the chances of it lighting the pipe were pretty thin, but the fact that it's a wooden caterpillar renders it impossible." 

Debbie said she refused to let the officer investigate further, and told him to leave the shop in Bolton Street, Blackburn. 

She said: "I wouldn't let him investigate, I said to him 'if you haven't got better things to do, I certainly have, you need to leave, I don't believe it needs further investigating'. 

"He said there was a real problem in Blackburn with shisha. I don't know if that's with caterpillars smoking it. 

Killingly Council rejects tobacco ban at town parks

Council members Dennis Alemian, Harold Reeves, Richard Levola, Brian Gosper and Jonathan Cesolini voted against the proposal, with Joyce Ricci, John Hallbergh Jr. and John Sarantopoulos supporting the measure. Council member Ed Grandelski was absent. Many of the council members who opposed the proposal called the changes too far-reaching.

Students ignore smoking ban

Despite the month long ban on smoking at Ridgefield High School, many students continued to puff away, the Oct. 6, 1988 Press reported.

A number of students argued that the policy was unfair and that the school was being hypocritical for allowing its employees to light up. “People are going to smoke, no matter what the rule is,” said sophomore Roger Metz who said he had been a smoker for three years.

“I’m 18 years old. I have a legal right to buy the things,” said senior Jon Valen. “It’s my choice if I want to smoke ’em or not.”

Is Smoking a Positive Fiscal Externality?

An unpublished report produced by the U.K. government, which was leaked to The Guardian in 1980, estimated that a public anti-smoking campaign would cause a substantial fall in tax revenues and a substantial rise in pension outlays (Phillips, 1980; Temple, 2010). A report produced by Arthur D. Little for the Czech government in 2001, which was commissioned by Philip Morris, estimated that smoking has a moderate positive impact on public finances in the Czech Republic (Philip Morris, 2000; Tiihonen et al., 2012). Given that the report was commissioned by a tobacco company, its findings should obviously be interpreted with a fair amount of scepticism. Yang et al. (2011) estimate that smoking confers net costs on the Chinese economy, yet they do not attempt to quantify any of the potential benefits of smoking. Finally, Tiihonen et al. estimate that, in Finland, the average smoker’s fiscal contribution is around €133,000 greater than the average non-smoker’s.

In conclusion, the weight of the evidence suggests that smoking is a positive fiscal externality. Smokers pay less in income taxes than non-smokers, yet pay considerably more in consumption taxes. Their lifetime healthcare costs are probably slightly lower than those of non-smokers. And they take far less from the pension system than non-smokers, relative to what they pay in

Is Tobacco Control Disintegrating?

If the Health Evangelism is to be stopped, then it is obvious that one cannot rely upon the Government. The Gov is powerless. What might work is an amalgamation of the interests of Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol and Big Food. In fact, of course, that amalgamation might already be in place. If it is not, then it ought to be. In fact, I remember seeing a Zealot claiming that Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol were already colluding. Needless to say, the Zealot did not explain why the entities Big T and Big A should NOT collaborate. In fact, they ought to have been collaborating for the last four decades. If Big A had any sense, it would be producing ‘studies’ showing the lack of harm for SHS and Fast Food. Big Alcohol is acting like an infant, shaking and shuddering and waiting for Big Nanny to give it a good hiding. If Big Alcohol had any sense, it would commission ‘meta studies’ with the objective of showing that SHS is harmless. In other words, it would be defending itself by proxy.

It is all-right to say that Big A and Big F did not see what was on the horizon. But there is no excuse now. Both, surely, must be aware. Both must surely have seen the drip, drip tactics of the Zealots.

It is beyond my comprehension that a combination of Big T, Big A and Big F have not produced their own free newspaper, and produced their own blog-site. Both should, a) demolish the quack surveys and studies, b) replace the idea of QUADRUPLE minuscule danger with negligible REAL danger, and c) find out how much money is changing hands in bribes in the UN and the WHO and the EU. IT MUST BE SO, since there are no ‘commercial imperative’ checks.

Funding cuts hit anti-smoking programs

Now the state is paying up around $170 million to these companies.

It has to do with the Master Settlement Agreement. In 1998, those big tobacco companies entered into this agreement with states which called for the companies to reimburse the state for medical treatment for smokers.

In return, the states couldn’t sue them.

Pennsylvania would get around $300 million a year from the agreement with funds going to research and anti-smoking programs.

But the tobacco companies are saying the state didn’t properly collect payments on the state's 2003 sales of tobacco products.

The cut means smoking cessation programs, like the one at Wellspan’s Gettysburg Hospital, will cut more than 50 percent of their anti-smoking efforts.

“It was a tremendous shock. We were told all along we would have ongoing funding through June 30, 2014,” said Kevin Alvarnaz, director of community health.

Six states are being hit with a similar ruling. The state’s Attorney General’s Office is fighting it.