I smoke cigarettes. I started smoking
when I was 19 years old. I really don't care what people think
of the fact that I smoke. When I am out at a club or restaurant
or whatever, I respect people's right to not breath in my smoke,
and I smoke only in designated smoking areas. I have no problem
with that. What I have a problem with is when I'm out somewhere
and I am told that smoking is not allowed at all. I can see smoking
not being allowed in some places, like hospitals and schools,
but to not allow smoking in bars and restaurants, like they are
trying to do in Boston, is just ridiculous.
Smokers are one of the most heavily
taxed consumers in the country. Every time the government wants
to pay for some ridiculous new idea, they tax smokers and say
it's "done to protect the children" or to provide some
new program for children. Here in Massachusetts they passed a
new cigarette tax a couple of years ago that would pay for expanding
the State provided health insurance to "Underprivileged,
uninsured children". This in a state that has an $800 million
revenue surplus this year. The federal government wants to add
a tax of $1.10 to $1.50 PER PACK to cigarettes. Their reasoning
for this is that it will "Keep cigarettes out of the hands
of kids by making them too expensive". If that's the case,
then every adult smoker should be able to deduct from their income
tax, dollar for dollar, any taxes paid on cigarettes. After all,
children don't file tax returns. But that will never happen, because
the government is not interested in keeping cigarettes out of
our kids hands, they just want the money! The government is going
to make sure that only rich people can afford to smoke. See, it's
the Morality
Nazis again. Big Brother doesn't think we should smoke cigarettes,
and since they can't make cigarettes illegal, they will make them
unafordable.
Check out some of these links to
Smoker's Rights groups.
Forces USA
Smoker's
Home Page
The Smoker's
Club
National Smoker's
Alliance
Forest
Friends
of Tobacco
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