Bismarck, North Dakota News

" Let me add a couple of perspectives if I may. A dear friend of mine who, coincidentally, shared the same mother with me some 60 plus years ago - I am 3 years older - is now connected to an oxygen system 24/7; he is able to get around his home only through the use of a wheelchair - no stair climbing at all. He has approximately 25% of heart/lung capacity remaining.
My morning starts with 10-15 miles on my stationary bicycle, or outdoor bicycle (in season, of course). Then a day filled with NORMAL retiree activities; shopping, lunch at Walrus, etc.
What is the only OTHER difference between us? He had a 50 year love affair with the Marlboro Man; I did not. I have had a 50 year hate affair with the stinky things, which leads me to my next point.

When the recent smoking bans for restaurant/bars were being considered, the papers were filled with howls from proprietors who were certain that such a ban would put them out of business. One of the most outspoken and fearful opponents is the owner of one of our favorite watering holes in downtown Bis. Go there almost any weeknight, and for sure on weekends, and good luck finding a place to sit. And best of all, you don't have to go home and hang your clothes in the garage because you smell like you have been in a forest fire. So much for economic ruin!!!
Smoking is good for us, as long as you do it in YOUR childless home or car.
See you at 5th and Main. "

" Just wondering- Is alcohol considered a poison as mentioned that tobacco(nicotine) was? "

" Jim, there isn't enough insurance money for smoking cessatation for Heartview to make a profit. Add to the fact that nicotine isn't classified as a drug by the FDA, but rather a poison and you have your answer. "

" "education and information"--sure,I support that. I do however NOT support intimidation via legislation. NO ONE is being tricked into smoking. The results of heavy smoking to the average person have been known for centuries (they were called coffin nails during the civil war!) If people choose to smoke (as I used to) it is their responsibility; not their parents, or teacher, or governor, or president, or guilt ridden socialist down the street. "

" dear other side of the coin,
lxooks like a few folks apprecite it. what i wrote is reality and the truth, i really don't care what you call it. by the way, what are you going to say to the famalies of the 900 that will die next year? don't tell me about addiction, been there done that. a few years back the heartview foundation offered addiction treatment for tobacco. they don't offer it now, do they. i wonder why? "

" Whatever happend to teaching children that smoking is not good for you in grade school health class. I'm a pretty old guy and there have been warnings on cigarette packs for as long as I can remember. You can have all the education you want, but there are still a number of individuals who are going to do things that are bad for them because that is their choice. "

" Concerned, here is a link to the tax departments calculations of tobacco tax collected in ND.

http://www.nd.gov/tax/genpubs/2006-redbook.pdf "

" here is an unbiased scientific position on second hand smoke---
http://www.gasdetection.com/news2/health_news_digest6.html "

" How come I havent been affected by the commercials? I dont smoke and I dont go kill people because of a video game. I dont go pick fights because of violence on TV. Can someone explain this to me? "

" I would like to know how many tax dollars a year is collected in N. D. on tobacco . "

" Has anybody went after General Mills for putting stuff in breakfast cereal so kids get hooked on cocoa puffs or sugar smacks? Tobacco is one thing, but talk about targeting a certain age group for their product. "

" Although OSHA has no regulation that addresses tobacco smoke as a whole, 29 CFR 1910.1000 Air contaminants, limits employee exposure to several of the main chemical components found in tobacco smoke. In normal situations, exposures would not exceed these permissible exposure limits (PELs), and, as a matter of prosecutorial discretion, OSHA will not apply the General Duty Clause to ETS.
After OSHA came out with this policy ASH one of the biggest anti-smoking lobby's filed suit against OSHA. They will not tell you this but they dropped the suit because the courts will not touch a case unless the risk ratios are higher then 2 which the vast majority of the studies don't even come close. Here are their words not mine;
"Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has agreed to dismiss its law suit against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA] to avoid serious harm to the nonsmokers' rights movement from an adverse action OSHA had threatened to take if forced by the law suit to do so." "

" For those of you new to the smoking ban business.Here are a few things you should know.
Big pharma is behind the bans with robert wood johnson foundation who hired out the american cancer society and the american lung association to do the honors of shaking down the legislators.
What does big pharma and smokefree kids get from the state besides your rights........the states set up a 200-300 million dollar program for cessation drugs which profit big pharma.....smokefree kids gets a percentage of the cig tax to fund their propaganda dept....the state health dept gets its own police force and police powers..........all for a lie..yes a lie.
Second hand smoke is the moral crusaders sword in this round of prohibition.But guess what...OSHA
SAYS SECOND HAND SMOKE HARMS NO ONE.....YOU GET THAT..THE whole shs scam is made up science to take away your rights in a public place and to take away the property/business owners rights.....
this has been happeneing everywhere bans have been implemented.........the worse is that next year ACS and ALA will be back with smoke free kids to get more taxes and to do away with any excemptions you got this TIME AROUND....They will try and get smoking in cars with kids outlawed and you the parent made to be an unfit parent if you get busted for it..........heres some more of how the anti-smoking lobby operates....... "

" This is all silly. You cannot compete with Hollywood for the minds of your children. Hollywood and video games will win every time.
So what are you buying your children for Christmas? If you have young children you are buying them something they have seen on cartoons.

You could at least require a school class in how Hollywood and Advertisers hire psychologists to use convincing advertisements making their ideas or products desirable. Lessons learned are part of getting a college degree in advertising.

The advertising on Television will also convince the children to drink sugared up soda pops with small amounts of poisons (preservatives) and use make-up with questionable chemicals.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz:80/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10545854
Have a nice day, enjoy the latest movie or comedy special. Ginger Bread House stories have been around a long time (crazy old lady trying to put kids in an oven). Global Warming is going to cook them anyway. If not nuclear war or bacteriological war will change their way of life back to living in the stone age. But before that happens housewives will buy chinese products at wally-world until there are no jobs left in this country. "

" Thanks EC. I've been banging that drum for a while. People hate smoking, but we sure do love to spend their money.

Also, weren't we number 1 for something to do with alcohol? What was that? Oh ya "North Dakota ranks as the worst state in the nation when it comes to drunken driving." We are attacking smoking in bars, but are forgetting what people do in the bars. They drink then drive home! But let's not look at that. Smoking kills people. Alcohol isn't bad. "

" Anyone who believes that education and information cannot change behavior has no understanding whatsoever of the workings of the human mind. "

" Once a Teacher, your comparison of tobbacco with marijuana, cocaine, and heroin tax is a lot more accurate than you might have realized. The loss of law enforcement jobs would be crippling to BCI as drug enforcement is one of it's primary concerns and at a federal level, if the drug issue was eradicated, it would wipe out the DEA and it's 1000's of jobs. Here is a simple question for you, if nicotine is a poison that costs us thousands of lives each year, why hasn't it been outlawed? We outlaw poisons all the time, so why is it that this one poison that is responsibile for so many deaths is still being produced legally? If the answer isn't beacuse of the financial revenues, I would love to her other reasons for it. "

" Alcohol, drinking, and driving kills as many, if not more, people than cigarette smoking does. Why can't the N.D. Legislature address the severe alcoholism that affects many of its North Dakota citizens? Another committee could be established to address the negative affects of alcohol, not only with drunk driving, but also domestic quarrels and physical and mental abuse. "

" Ouch! That hurt; Economic Conservative I just read your comment and some sort of idiotic bolt knocked me right out of my chair onto the floor.

You write; the loss of tobacco tax revenue will hit the state hard. Thats like saying the loss of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin tax revenue will hit the state hard.

Yipes, how silly can you get!

Then you write about not being able to control behavior, and our young being tired of being controlled.

All parents ever do when they raise children is pour/place tons of concrete under their childrens feet. Parents pour/place it everyday. It is called building a solid foundation. The people of North Dakota overwhelming passed this measure to simply add more concrete to our childrens foundation. "

" I like smokin'! "

" Why would the committee want to succeed? Then they won't have their cushy commission jobs. Of course they want it to drag out, after a few years they will come to the legislature and ask for more money because that will be the only answer to the problem. "

" Jim, your cynical, rude, comment is not appreciated or needed. Any time you work with drug addiction or possible addiction and a widespread program of education to attempt to eliminate the addiction problem it will be initially slow going. The program will soon be put into action and if you save one life, or two lives, or three lives you can call the program successful. Hopefully, it will save many more. Unlike your inconsequential sarcasm, I feel very positive about the program and look forward to both seeing it implemented and the positive results it will reap. I am reminded of the old but true adage, Nothing ventured, nothing gained. "

" "It is important to realize that it will take more than a few months of concentrated effort to "undo" the complicated network of tobacco-accepting social norms that the tobacco companies have spent 90 years or more to create. Also, since this is a brand-new initiative, it is possible the advisory committee's implementation of programs may just be getting started by the end of 2009."

Sounds to me that the committee is already realizing the impossibility with this one. Maybe, maybe not, but it sounds like another government committee that is going to go years beyond its expected lifetime, and way beyond any imaginable budget. Yep, ever the cynical pessimist with this one.... "

" You hit the nail on the head Jim: the loss of the tobbacco tax revenue would hit the state hard. Now for the real news flash: you can spend all the money in the world on education, but folks who want to smoke will smoke. I know, we think we can control the behaviours of others with our high and mighty attitudes, but the fact is we can't. People will do what they want to do, and the young will continue to do things just because they are tired of being controlled. It's a fact of life. When will we learn that you can't control morality or free choice? "

" Be patient so a committee can decide what to do? How about the common sense advertisement "Quit smoking. It's unhealthy." Stop it there. Nope........let's create committees and complicate this....and here's how they do it. If you don't know what it is, call it an 'issue'. If you don't know how it works, call it a 'process'. If you don't know whether it's worth doing, call it an 'option'. If you don't know how it could possibly be done call it a 'challenge' or an 'exciting opportunity'. If you don't know how to do something, 'empower' someone else to do it for you. And BEST of all....never call something a failure or mistake, it's a 'positive learning experience'.....blah, blah, blah, blah blah. "

" Let's see how this works.
ND along with other states extort money from the tobacco companies who are selling a legal product.
The condition on this extorted money is that it be spent on tobacco control programs aimed at our youth.
Our leaders must have missed the condition so the people had to vote on a measure stating what they were supposed to do in the first place.
Now we're told don't get your expectations too high.

Who in this day and age doesn't know smoking is bad for you? What a waste of time and money . "

" ND FINED AFTER APPROVING A POISON THAT KILLS 69 PEOPLE IN ND IN 1 MONTH!!
kinda gets your attention, doesn't it? well ms. knox, if tobacco is so deadly that every day 2 people from ND die from using it, why not ban it? let me answer; the state of ND needs the tax revenue. yes, folks, the dirty little secret is that our governor, and legislative houses are allowing its citizens to use a product, knowing full well it will kill 17 people per week. imagine if a rancher/farmer/business/ etc was doing this? or heaven forbid a bald eagle died from eating tobacco. now for something completely different; what's really goofy is that in a recent legislative session, a bill was introduced into the nd house to ban tobacco in nd, guess who testified against it? yep the people that want all this stop tobacco use killed it in committee.

oh yea, here's the rest of the story, for those of you that will loose a loved one in 2009 becuse they used tobaccoo, be patient with THE COMMITTEE.

the lunatics are runnin' the asylum. "