pan6467

It's a moot point here in Ohio now. The voters spoke overwhelmingly and smoking lost.

What I find interesting is that issue 18 in Cleveland passed (it adds a 40 cent per pack tax to support the museums), however, you are not allowed to smoke anywhere in public now.

Plus, Issue 5 (makes smoking illegal in any workplace) sets up a "clean air fund" that adds a "not yet determined tax" to packs.

So it proves my point, to non-smokers they truly cannot live without the taxes, they want the taxes they leech off the taxes, but don't "pollute" their air.

So let's say we smokers start quitting or buying on the black market, from the internet, Indian reservations etc. What's going to happen to these places that need our money? Something else will have to be taxed the way cigarettes are to make up for the lost revenue. What will it be? Coffee? I can't stand the smell of coffee, how many road ragers are hopped up on caffeine? Why do I have to smell the noxious fumes of coffee? Fast food? I don't like McDonald's or the others, the smell pollutes the air in the neighborhoods with a stench brought by their deep fryers that have been said to create carcinogens.... and they subject primarily high school employees to this.

Now, the businessman in me sees this as a huge money making chance. I open a smoking club costs members $50/year to get in, I allow smoking and I make sure we are a happening club. And I make it a hot nightclub and I get non-smokers wanting in but I deny them, I'm sure lawsuits will ensue for discrimination. Or I allow non-smokers to join and they start suing because I allow smoking, in, imagine this.... "a smoker's club".

Oh wait, Issue 5 made sure that can't happen because it's still a workplace and even if all my employees are smokers, it's illegal. So I use club members and reduce their membership rates and pay them under the table.

So why don't we just make these evil things illegal? You don't want them anywhere, we are pariahs, you use our taxes and raise them but refuse to find some form of middle ground to cohabilitate.

You can't make them illegal and when the numbers of smokers decrease to where the tax revenue is seriously hurt, see how fast the tide on smoking changes. The medical healthcare industry alone makes BILLIONS upon BILLIONS on smokers, do you really think they are going to allow you to stop smoking?

But today, it is a moot point. It's cool.... but in the end you just gave up rights of business owners and people. Whether you recognize or admit it, you did. And these power hungry people won't stop at smoking, power hungry people never stop. Once they get a taste of that power and see how and what blueprint to use to take rights away..... they are going to keep going, because in the end this was all about having power over someone else....

Congratulations, just hope and pray you aren't next.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"