WAR ON SMOKERS

Let's stop the feigned ignorance of the awful effects of the War on Smokers. These are not isolated examples; they are the result of a decades-long, taxpayer-financed, state-sponsored crusade in which professional activists are paid to promote intolerance and hate.

ECONOMIC LOSSES--All of this in the face of the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world, the transfer of $246 BILLION from the pockets of smokers to those of corrupt politicians and greedy gazillionaire trial attorneys.

* Nutshell Tavern, Rte 1, Biddeford, Maine closes its doors due to smoking bans. Press Herald News, January 6, 2000

* Mingles Coffee Shoppe, Kitchener, closes after non-smoking bylaw passed--45% drop in business Kitchener-Waterloo Record, July 31, 2000

* Twelve restaurants close in Brookline, MA, after smoking ban decimates business Lowell Sun, March 28, 2001

* In British Columbia, 200 workers in 46 establishments have lost their jobs because of the smoking ban National Post, March 3, 2000

* Hotelier Don Ritaller, Victoria, fired his entire staff of 12

* J. P. Malone's Pub in Richmond, laid off eight of its 20 employees

* Clyde's Restaurant Group, one of the most popular and successful restaurants chains in the Washington DC area since 1963, suffered a staggering loss of sales after smoking was banned

* A survey of 300 alcoholic beverage serving operations in California, selected at random from a list of 7,216 shows that 60% experienced a decrease in business averaging more than 30%; 7% showed increased business averaging 8%.  Guest Choice Network

          + 50.4% of the respondents indicated an increase in customer complaints/fights;

          + 65.0% indicated a loss of regular customers;

           + 59.0% indicated a loss of tips/gratuities for the bar and/or serving staff.

* The Duluth Grill has closed after 16 years due to the smoking ban Duluth News

* 130 tobacconists in California have been forced to close since the 1998 smoking bans and punitive tax increases SF Gate, July 1, 2001

* Thousands of employees have had their hours cut, and hundreds have lost their jobs because of the loss of the smoking customers who form a majority of their customer base.  "Dread, pink slips greet smoking ban," Globe and Mail, December 29, 2000

* A recent study from British Columbia pointed out major economic and job losses after a provincial smoking ban took effect in January: After 80 days of the bylaw, 730 employees were let go, 9 businesses closed and more than $16 million was lost . The Ottawa Citizen Online, August 27, 2001

* Letter from a waitress in BC: "My livelihood is being jeopardized for my own protection, and I never asked to be saved."

*  A hotel-industry study released this week shows that San Francisco's hotel-occupancy rates have shrunk to 1994 levels. City hotels are operating at 74% capacity. Rooms priced at more than $160 are about 69% full.  While those numbers aren't disastrous, they are a far cry from the stuffed hostelries we've been used to the last few years. San Francisco Examiner, April 19, 2001

* Three more restaurants have closed in Weymouth, MA: Haijjar's, in East Weymouth, J.C. Grear's in South Weymouth and the Aloha in Hingham. A fourth restaurant said business is way off. Weymouth News

* Corvallis, OR: Employment at the Peacock has dropped from 50 to 14. Owner John Carter says the business has lost 38 percent of its lottery income and more than half of its basic bar revenue since the law took effect State records support Carter's lament about lost business. The Register-Guard, September 24, 2000

* Clergymen complain that 40 bingo halls have closed because of the smoking ban. These halls supported local charities. Sun-News, February 7, 2001

* Bud's Place in Cambridge and said his sales have fallen 23 per cent since the smoking ban was implemented. His staff has shrunk to 12 from 17 and a full-time employee he's had on staff for 10 years has been cut back to three shifts a week  "Restaurateurs rebel against smoking bans" The New-Standard, December 10, 2000

* In Washington State a smoking ban at the Spokane Interstate Fair went down in flames Monday after attendance dropped by roughly 22% (despite perfect weather) and county commissioners were deluged with calls and letters of protest. "Fair policy up in smoke," Dan Hansen, Spokesman-Review, 9/14/99

* Susan Barnes of the Waterworks Restaurant in Rockland (Maine) said she has lost more than $8,000 a month in liquor sales to other establishments since the restaurant smoking ban went into effect. Bangor Daily News, February 5, 2000

* Peter Martin, owner of John Martin’s Manor Restaurant and Lounge in Waterville, said he proclaimed all Sundays in January to be no-smoking. Food and beverage sales dropped 25 percent and off-track betting revenue dropped 30 percent, he said  Bangor Daily News, February 5, 2000

* ''On Saturday night, we had a band, two bartenders, two waitresses, a doorman, a floor man, and we grossed $33,''  said Dorsey Carey, manager of Handlebar Harry's bar/restaurant in Cordage Park, after smoking was banned.. Boston Globe Online, September 9, 2001

* Owner of the Chateau Lafayette, Jill Scott, said: "People can't say this isn't hurting us. I've closed down my kitchen and cut five shifts. I don't know where people are going, but they aren't here." Ottawa Sun, Tuesday, October 2, 2001

 * After smoking bans were implemented, the number of Buffalo bingo establishments dropped by about 20 percent, while city bingo fee revenues declined by 36 percent, according to officials. The Buffalo News, By BRIAN MEYER, News Staff Reporter, 7/24/01

* Mesa, AZ, banned most restaurant smoking in 1996. The Marquee, the Zur-Kate and Arizona Jack's are the exceptions. They demonstrated that they lost so much business as a result of the ban that they were allowed to permit smoking. The Washington Post, Monday, February 19, 2001; Page A03

* The most recent Gallup poll on smoking, November 13-15, shows that even in the current climate more than half of Americans, 53%, still want to allow smoking sections in restaurants; a solid majority still favors the preservation of smoking areas in the workplace, 63%, as well as in hotels and motels, 72%.

"...it really comes down to whether or not we have a right to tell private business owners what they can do in their own business." Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, The Cabin, September 6, 2001 (http://www.thecabin.net/stories/090601/sta_0906010049.shtm)

DOMESTIC TERRORISM--Paid for by the victims and condoned by our government.

* Action On Smoking And Health (ASH) promotes a book, Gasp! A Novel of Revenge, on its web site which contains a tested and proven way to tamper with cigarette packages to insert cyanide. Action on Smoking and Health, 1996 (http://www.ash.org)

* Four incidents of tobacco product tampering in Virginia, including the use of explosive devices, was reported by the Washington Post. The Washington Post, May 24, 1997

* Miami--A man attacked a woman for smoking inside a building. America Mena, 30, was standing at the north side exit door on the third floor of the building smoking a cigarette when a man in his 50s came up to her and started screaming at her about smoking. He then pushed her out the exit door and attempted to close it while her hand was in the doorway. Miami Herald January 6, 2000

* The social stigma lung cancer carries could be affecting the type of treatment patients get. Cancer specialist Dr. Bill Evans believes many Canadian doctors think it's a waste of time to treat lung cancer. "In many situations, physicians have decided that lung cancer, being a "self-induced" disease, is not worthy of the kind of effort that one applies to many other health issues," Evans says.

* Physicians and surgeons at Melbourne's top hospitals are denying smokers treatment such as lung and heart transplants, lung reduction surgey, artery by-passes and coronary artery grafts. Some doctors have refused to perform transplants and other lifesaving operations on smokers on "moral" grounds. At least one person, a 56-year-old man, has died as a result. http://193.78.190.200/10/au.htm

* A 60-year-old New York City restaurant patron was set upon by five waiters, kicked, punched, and thrown out into the street for the crime of smoking. He has remained in a coma since the attack. His attackers were not charged. New York Post, February 14, 1995

* A woman who was eight months pregnant was assaulted because she was smoking at an Illinois shopping mall. The High Point Enterprise, December 19, 1995

* A Head Start instructor in Modesto, California, tortured and physically abused her own daughter because she had tobacco products in her possession. The Modesto Bee, March 19, 1994

* A local radio talk show host in Seattle advocated that persons who smoke outside sports arenas be assaulted and battered. Dori Monson of KIRO AM 710, June, 1997  

* Three police academy instructors in Huntington Beach, California, lost their jobs after ordering two cadets to eat cigarette sandwiches as punishment for smoking. The cadets vomited. One collapsed and was taken unconscious to a hospital. HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP), 12/5/95

* An unopened pack of cigarettes and an unused pack of matches was reason enough for Carnival Cruise Lines to throw four people off the Paradise in a foreign port and fine them $250. It cost them thousands of dollars to get home again. The Record, December 10, 2000

* After lighting a cigarette 20 feet from the nearest spectator at a Little League game, a Los Angeles father was detained by authorities and his son beaten up by the rest of the home team, then permanently kicked out of the League  Los Angeles Times, 6/11/96; ABC talk radio, Steve Malzberg Show, 6/20/96

* In Canada a reformed smoker attacked his wife of 30 years, with a 12-inch kitchen knife, repeatedly stabbing her in the neck after finding out that she had broken her promise to give up smoking. London Telegraph, April 21, 2000

* In Texas a high school student who went searching for her cat in her own yard was stopped by a police officer who said he saw her smoking. Finding nothing after an intense search of her person and surroundings, he nevertheless told the girl she was a minor in possession of tobacco and gave her a ticket.

* At an engineering company in Indiana, a secretary was fired for failing a "drug test." Her crime? Smoking six cigarettes the weekend prior to the test. The London Telegraph (No date)

* A 78-year-old Canadian senior who stepped outside on the balcony of her seniors' complex to have a smoke froze to death when the door locked behind her and she couldn't get back in. Globe and Mail, 12-21-98, “Locked out, 78-year-old woman freezes to death on her apartment balcony"

* A 15-year-old Iowa boy caught with cigarettes in his possession during a school trip to Texas was put on a bus alone for a 31-hour trip back to his home. During the first of the six stops and layovers, his wallet was stolen, leaving him with no money to buy food for the rest of the trip. Gazette, “School field trips need sensible rules,” 4-2-01

* In Wisconsin a 14-year-old girl, a grade A and B student who was active in athletics and cheerleading and the choir, committed suicide rather than tell her parents she had been caught with one cigarette in her backpack at school  AP wire, 11-9-99, “Parents sue school district over daughter’s suicide”

QUOTES FROM THE CRUSADE AGAINST SMOKERS--No doubt many among the paid professional anti-smokers agree with these verbal assaults since many have said similar things.

* In October of 1991 Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis P. Sullivan, labeled smokers and smoking "Public Enemy No. 1." Press conference to announce Project ASSIST

* Minnesota's 1984 PLAN FOR NON SMOKING: "Any means necessary must be used to de-socialize smokers, smoking must be equated with drugs sex and violence, the smoker must be isolated from the rest of society." Not online, but available from the Minnesota Tobacco Control Coalition.

* The "outside group of smokers is a great isolator and identifier of the selected-to-be-loathed smoker." Kathleen Harty, former leader of the Minnesota Department of Health's anti smoking division, now an employee of the US FDA.

*"Smokers shouldn't be helped, they should be eliminated."  Smokers United forum, April 23, 2001, posted by Don Klipstein <don@manx.misty.com>

* "smokers kill people.  They kill up to the limits of their ability - selves, babies, spouses, co-workers, general public.  Hitler was a smoker, killed millions as he had more power than the average smoker to do so." About.com Christianity forum, October 1, 2001, Leroy J. Pletten, Ph.D.

* "Place a bounty on anyone seen in a Joe Camel or Marlboro T-shirt, baseball cap, etc. They may be shot on sight and a $1,000 reward will be given when delivered to the state Capitol lawn in Sacramento."  Los Angeles Times, "Life & Style," Sunday January 18, 1998

* "The state should require bar owners to furnish cellular phones and Polaroid cameras to nonsmokers so that scofflaws can be reported, identified and executed." Los Angeles Times, "Life & Style," Sunday January 18, 1998

* "When smokers buy a pack of cigarettes, one will have an explosive in it--so the smoker will be afraid to light up, fearing a facial laceration." Los Angeles Times, "Life & Style," Sunday January 18, 1998

* "If smokers are so eager to die, then the answer must be to capture and exterminate them. The only solution is to remove the problem; smokers." Los Angeles Times, "Life & Style," Sunday January 18, 1998

* "You greedy bastards deserve the lung cancer, emphysema, immune system deficiencies, cardio-vascular and stroke problems you bring on everybody." Personal e-mail from 'Grant Hall' through an anonymous remailer, August 15, 2001

* Nothing makes me happier than to intubate a pathetic smoker with an FEV-1 of less than 800 cc. Don't expect any morphine to relieve your sensation of dyspnea, either." From the Free Republic forum

* "Your bodies are a means of production, as such they belong to society, and the state holds them in trust. You don't have the right to engage in any behavior that could reduce the productivity of your body." Yahoo Message Forum "Vaccine May Help Smokers Quit," 9/9/01, posted by nimurraj (35/M/Washington, DC)

* "We have to treat them like human beings, I suppose." Pat Swinton, general manager of the Westin Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio, in reference to the fact that she allows her employees to take smoking breaks on the loading dock. USA Today, July 10, 1996

* "You filth. I'll rejoice the day the doctor sticks a traech tube in your throat and you scream from the pain and agony of chemo!! Burn in hell." alt.smokers newsgroup, posted by "clean lungs"  

* "I vote to kill all smokers...perhaps then, and only then, will the putridness of their disgusting habits be truly understood." alt.smokers newsgroup, bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu

* "if Democracy allows poeple (sic) to throw away their lives (or at least considerably lower the quality of their lives) by smoking then democracy isn't a good thing." alt.smokers newsgroup, Author:  lobley@primex.co.uk

* "So, not only justifiably taking their children away from them, we could treat all smokers and defenders of addictive nicotine as slave labor and legalize paying them wages of two packs a day.until the remaining tobacco products are used up and there are no more!" CNN Message Forum "Big Tobacco," Date: 11/29/2000, Author: Shana Sherman

* "You should see the segregated small glass rooms that the Addicted Smoker Losers must sequester themselves into, by law, to fix their wretched addiction. Like dirty monkeys in a cage on display, their faces sullen and depressed with the pathos of their junkie addiction." alt.smokers, Subject: Addicts World Getting Smaller, Date: 12/03/2000, Author: Jerri Blavitt³ <no@never.no>

* "May i see the day when those kids get over their forced addictions and when grown look back at the parents, when the parents themselves are on deaths door and in pain, may they laugh in your face and tell you that you have gotten what you deserved and then tell you to go to hell and walk out on you and leave you to pathetically die in your bed. " alt.smokers, Subject: WHO Lies, Date: 12/20/2000, Author: CUlater <CUlater@aligator.com>

* "Nice restaurant you got here. Hate to see anything bad happen to it." (Head of anti-smoker group ASH, John Banzhaf, to a restaurateur who permitted smoking.)  Guest Choice Network, 6/1/99 (http://www.nannyculture.com/article_detail.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=38)

Yahoo Message forums:http://news.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=l&board=37138530

&tid=nmsmokers&sid=37138530&mid=191

http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=EV&action=l&board=7088116&tid=

antismokingcrusades&sid=7088116&mid=76717

alt.smokers URL is http://groups.google.com/groups?q=group%3Aalt.smokers&hl=en&lr=&safe=

off&btnG=Google+Search&site=groups

CNN board is defunct but was here: http://community.cnn.com/cgi-bin/WebX?13@206.gzTPexU3hcM^1@.eeea9e5