The Tobacco Ban Begins..

[Barnaby]

To be frank, what are you going to do? If some multi billion dollar company like Philip Morris, decides one day.. You know.. hookah is taking away our younger customers, lets sponsor a bill that will outlaw it, and just say its because its worse than cigarettes and appeals to the young crowd because its uber smooth and tasty. We'll throw in a couple of bad studies, and bam..

The populous of non smokers would be more than happy to flock to that under the pretenses, and unless everyone starts chipping in thier buck o' five, we wouldn't have the resources to educate everyone to phone their representative to say no to the bill..

This is why our country gets fucked up, because mega companies can buy off anyone with lobbying..

[K1024]

there has to be something we could do though...

[Rani]

there has to be something we could do though...

Any law passed can be repealed. Prohibition being the prime example. Phillip Morris was behind the law. Who's Number 2 out there? And which companies are hardest hit? If they form a coalition they could possibly pull off a repeal. If we the tobacco buying public agree to back them. And honestly I think we should. Most of us are anti-cigarette, but do we really want to have a blackmarket of over priced flavored cigarettes? Because we all know that's what's going to happen. Why bother dealing with NHT and risk many years of your life behind bars when you can make a smaller but much less riskier profit off cigarettes?

Personally I think the law to protect children should have been anyone caught selling to somone under twenty one gets loses their business license. For good. Period.

'Rani

[Rani]

there has to be something we could do though...

Any law passed can be repealed. Prohibition being the prime example. Phillip Morris was behind the law. Who's Number 2 out there? And which companies are hardest hit? If they form a coalition they could possibly pull off a repeal. If we the tobacco buying public agree to back them. And honestly I think we should. Most of us are anti-cigarette, but do we really want to have a blackmarket of over priced flavored cigarettes? Because we all know that's what's going to happen. Why bother dealing with NHT and risk many years of your life behind bars when you can make a smaller but much less riskier profit off cigarettes?

Personally I think the law to protect children should have been anyone caught selling to somone under twenty one gets loses their business license. For good. Period.

'Rani

EDIT: And HF hits me with a double post once again...... Drat!

[Barnaby]

Yes, if there is a problem with selling smokes to children, punish those who do. Don't punish the makers of said smokes, because they really aren't marketing them to the youth. They're not allowed to market at all under current laws. All advertising for smokes is gone, and the only time you even see anything about them is at a tobacco retailer.

If someone wants to smoke a flavored cig, that's their choice.

It truly bothers me when stupid shit gets passed like this..

I think I need to start stocking up on shisha, before it goes illegal..

[Sonthert]

Altria (Formerly Phillip Morris) engineered the legislation to help them lock down their market lead in cigarettes. They don't make flavored cigarettes (by and large). R.J Reynolds makes a big dent with their Crush cigarettes, so instead of languishing for three years in development, they decide to encourage them to ban flavored cigarettes. This is a ploy to crack the big seven up. Before, they stood shoulder to shoulder. Now they got Altria split off, the other six are more susceptible (Altria, too, but they don't see it that way). Perhaps the big seven know prohibition is inevitable...they are just trying to cash in while they can.

[Rani]

Altria (Formerly Phillip Morris) engineered the legislation to help them lock down their market lead in cigarettes. They don't make flavored cigarettes (by and large). R.J Reynolds makes a big dent with their Crush cigarettes, so instead of languishing for three years in development, they decide to encourage them to ban flavored cigarettes. This is a ploy to crack the big seven up. Before, they stood shoulder to shoulder. Now they got Altria split off, the other six are more susceptible (Altria, too, but they don't see it that way). Perhaps the big seven know prohibition is inevitable...they are just trying to cash in while they can.

You may be right about the possibility they're trying to cash in which they can. But, maybe we should put together a list of who's who of the tobacco industry, which brands each makes and start boycotting anything made by Altria until they work to repeal that stupid law. Eric you have more information than anyone, maybe you could get the list started? We could take over and complete it. I know a lot of smokers who would probably be willing to switch brands and pass along the information to other smokers.

I know it seems flavored cigarettes are a relatively small thing but personally I'm fed up with the government thinking they can police the personal choices of the populace. Prohibition didn't work the first time, it won't work this time and I'm thinking we're going to have more children smoking flavored cigarettes rather than less because a lot of shops wouldn't sell to minors. The guy bringing them in for illegal sale isn't going to have the same scruples.

'Rani