I have yet to see a formal autopsy report that states smoking cigarettes as the official cause of death. I've read all the news, and the medical reports. I know that smoking is bad for me, as I know walking in front of moving trains and trucks is bad for me. I also know that when I start any combustion engine, I create gases in the atmosphere that can be harmful to me and other living things. I know that all manufacturing, of all goods, cleaning chemicals, paper, and all the amenities that make life comfortable create hazards to human life. I also know that politicians lie as a matter of course. I have YET to read any definitive work that says tobacco kills...period. Our research scientists, bless them all, still cannot tell us what cancer IS. Is it a virus? Is it an ordinary disease? Does it start simply with the inhalation of tobacco smoke, first or second hand? If that is true, why do people who have never smoked or been around smokers die of cancer? How many of the people in all the statistical studies never had any exposure to tobacco in any form at all?
Where are the answers? The honest truth is, nobody knows. It's no secret, it is not even something hidden from us, we simply do not know. Statistical studies are useless, regardless of what we are told, because there are simply NO studies that encompass a large enough segment of the market to be of real value. Statistics are simply too manipulable for honest and realistic studies. Statistically, the number one cause of death in this world is birth. The number one cause of divorce worldwide is marriage, marriage being the only statistically constant qualification for getting a divorce. If you ask me (I realize that is unlikely, but I'm going to tell you anyway) statistics are nothing more than a general tool for determining a direction for research. I am absolutely certain that anyone applying for a research grant can increase the likelihood of getting that grant is if the grantor wants a specific result found...and that's what researchers do, look for a specific result. There is little doubt that researchers trying to disprove current tobacco theory will receive little in the way of government grants for their research.
I personally heard Ms Hilary state that the eventual cost of each pack of cigarettes sold is around $50,000. She didn't say an estimate, she didn't say it was an educated guess, she simply stated it as a flat fact and NO ONE challenged her. I have tried computing those numbers, and so far, none of my calculators or PCs have been able to achieve a result other than "error." Our numbers may theoretically reach that height, but our computers can't define it yet. The "popular" outrage generated by these and other damning statements has resulted in one of our government's more colorful overzealous and ill thought out legal gaffes. In one bold stroke, our government has either started or greatly enlarged a black market for untaxed cigarettes. I would not want to be a truck driver coming out of North Carolina or Tennessee these days, and I wonder how long it will be before we see help wanted ads seeking "Tailgunners for Cigarette Trucks." Prohibition proved that the law will not stop people from smoking. It will simply put those people outside the law. It is not only possible (and I can offer personal testimony to that effect), but likely that you can light a Marlboro in plain sight of another person smoking marijuana on the SAME street in Long Beach, California...and be approached by a Law Enforcement Officer telling you it is illegal to smoke on the street in front of a posted building without his ever approaching the weed smoking hairball. Think of the costs to law enforcement to enforce this law.
Not least in our consideration of this tax...cigarette smoking is an addiction. I know this. I still smoke. It is incredibly hard to quit, and whatever they are telling you now, YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE WILL NOT PAY TO HELP YOU QUIT. You are on your own, but you are going to pay this tax. Talk about regressive taxes, aren't most of us "outlaw" smokers in the lowest income groups? Have we not now become the most highly taxed minority in the history of mankind? But wait, are the Health Nazis going to stop with cigarettes? All of those insurance leaches who suck money from us every month and HATE to pay any out have height and weight tables they can use to exclude us from even PAYING for benefits if we exceed them. What next, an overweight tax? Are we going to have to pay by the pound? Are we going to have to wear girdles after Thanksgiving and Christmas to keep from becoming social pariahs because our bodies don't adhere to arbitrary height and weight tables? Why did we give our goverment authority to make laws regarding our personal lives? When did we lose our right to choose?
Laugh now my friends, while you can. It may be your bad habit that becomes the next political war. Right now I'm wondering whether I'm going to be allowed to walk the streets, because I am a fat smoker.
