[Vision2020] If the Smoking Ban Becomes reality

[Tom Hansen]

If our city council should decide to ban smoking in bars, or within 20
feet of any entrance, thus barring anybody from smoking on Main Street . .
.

and you simply feel that you must smoke once in a while . . .

and you are between the ages of 18 and 42 . . .

may I suggest enlisting into the military.

Courtesy of the Army Times -

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Gates won’t ban tobacco on front lines

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 15, 2009 18:00:32 EDT

Smokers on the front lines need not fear any effort to ban the habit — as
long as Defense Secretary Robert Gates is on the job.

A recent report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies,
funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs, called for eliminating
tobacco sales at all military installations and setting a “specific,
mandatory date by which the military will be tobacco-free.”

But while Gates “shares [the report authors’] concern about the health and
well-being of the force,” Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters
Wednesday, “you should not expect him to take any action which would
restrict the use of tobacco products by 
 our service members in conflict
zones.”

Gates, who Morrell said has not yet read the IOM report but plans to,
would like to “move towards” the ultimate goal of a tobacco-free military.
But Gates feels that troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are under
enough stress as it is.

“I don’t think he is interested in adding to their stress levels by taking
away one of the few outlets they may have to relieve stress,” Morrell
said. “And that may be chewing tobacco or smoking a cigarette.”

The announcement of Gates’s stance coincided with a statement from the
advocacy group Military Families United opposing the IOM stance and
calling instead for developing a comprehensive tobacco prevention and
cessation program.

“Nobody doubts the effects of smoking, but it is not an illegal substance
and should not be banned,” Brian Wise, the group’s executive director,
said in the statement. “Our troops make enough sacrifices to serve our
nation. They give up many of the freedoms civilians enjoy already without
being told they cannot partake in yet another otherwise legal activity.
Perhaps more than anything, smoking in the field is more about comfort and
coping with an often hostile environment.”

Few would dispute the negative effects of smoking tobacco. According to
the American Cancer Society, tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in
5 U.S. deaths; the group says that about half of all Americans who
continue smoking will die from the habit. Smoking is a major cause of
heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema and stroke, and has a
negative impact on reproductive health, the group says.

Tobacco use also produces significant strain on government health care
systems. The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $5 billion in 2008 on
the treatment of smoking-related emphysema in 2008. Two years earlier, the
Military Health System spent roughly $564 million on tobacco-related
costs.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown