The Truth Behind Smoking Bans

Keep St. Louis Free member Tony Palazzolo sent his take on the Smoke-Free St. Louis City poll:

The Truth Behind Smoking Bans

In light of the recent poll from Smoke-Free St Louis one question needs to be asked. Where does the money come from? They have full time employees. They have money to do polls. They tell you this is a grass roots good faith effort to improve the health of workers. One thing grass roots campaigns have in common is the lack of money. Yet this "grass roots" campaign seemingly has money to burn.

The answer is that it comes from the Pharmaceutical Industry. To some that would make sense. Doesn't the pharmaceutical industry want to improve health? While we would like to think that it would history shows that they are looking out for their bottom line no matter the cost. How many drugs have they rushed to market with full knowledge that they were dangerous only to have people die. How they pay doctors bonuses to prescribe drugs whether or not they are needed. This is America and companies have a right to seek profit. They however must operate within the social framework of this country. When a decision is made to seek profit over the well being of its customers then it is a problem. In this fight, they are seeking to take away the freedom of citizens to make choices. They are taking away the freedom of private property rights. They do this by funneling money to various organizationwho promote junk science. This is done to promote fear in the general public. In essence, they are the new "Big Tobacco" who for decades used bad science to promote its product. Only the product is no longer cigarettes - its nicorette, the patch and other drugs. They have recently stopped calling them "smoking cessation drugs"and are now calling them "nicotine replacement drugs". They no longer want you to use them to stop smoking, they want you to use them for a lifetime. Its not a fight to promote health - its a fight to see who you'll buy nicotine from. When New Zealand went smoke-free, sales of nicotine replacement drugs went up 5000%. When they come to town with their flawed science, they are not looking to improve your health. They are looking to increase their market.