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THE HISTORY OF THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST TOBACCO

Rest in peace our dear friend Darlene.  We love you and miss you.

Obituaries

http://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=234139&fh_id=11385&s_id=0F390C9CDBC690096F844955BD0D62B5

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036688/posts

Darlene L. Brennan
1942 – 2008
Darlene was born on August 6, 1942 and passed away on Friday, June 6, 2008.
Darlene was last known to be living in Caribou, Maine.
http://www.tributes.com/obituary/show/Darlene-L.-Brennan-Caribou-ME-2008/83571463

Be sure to check out my News page!

Check out about FDA Regulation of cigarettes and who is behind it

Check my page on Maine's Gov Baldacci!

And the Governor wonders why his job approval rating is falling!

Baldacci reaffirms no tax hike stance

Check out my following pages on the Net:

ECONOMIC LOSSES DUE TO SMOKING BANS IN CALIFORNIA AND OTHER STATES

Secondhand Smoke Studies which find no risk

The scum bag Mayor of New York City

Tobacco Control Laws in Your State

Oh brother.  Posted online by the American Lung ASSociaton!

(The following is written by Michael J. McFadden to a local newspaper. Michael is the author of

Dissecting Antismokers' Brains):

Maine Governor Supports Cigarette Tax Increase To Fund State Health Program

Survey
Health Policy Partners of Maine -- a coalition of heart, lung and cancer groups -- on Tuesday announced the results of a survey that found 76% of Maine residents support a cigarette tax increase, the Portland Press Herald reports. The group is urging lawmakers to increase the cigarette tax by $1 per pack in an effort to fund health programs and encourage people to quit smoking (Portland Press Herald, 4/2).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Anti-Smoking Paternalism: A Cancer on American Liberty

by Don Watkins III   (October 4, 2007)

Across the country, state and local governments are banning smoking on private property, including bars, restaurants, and office buildings. This is just the latest step in the government's war on smoking--a coercive campaign that includes massive taxes on cigarettes, advertising bans, and endless multi-billion dollar lawsuits against tobacco companies. This war is infecting America with a political disease far worse than any health risk caused by smoking; it is destroying our freedom to make our own judgments and choices.

According to the anti-smoking movement, restricting people's freedom to smoke is justified by the necessity of combating the "epidemic" of smoking-related disease and death. Cigarettes, we are told, kill hundreds of thousands of helplessly addicted victims a year, and expose countless millions to unwanted and unhealthy secondhand smoke. Smoking, the anti-smoking movement says, in effect, is a plague, whose ravages can only be combated through drastic government action.

But smoking is not some infectious disease that must be quarantined and destroyed by the government. Smoking is a voluntary activity that every individual is free to choose to abstain from (including by avoiding restaurants and other private establishments that permit smoking). And, contrary to those who regard any smoking as irrational on its face, cigarettes are a potential value that each individual must assess for himself. Of course, smoking can be harmful--in certain quantities, over a certain period of time, it can be habit forming and lead to disease or death. But many individuals understandably regard the risks of smoking as minimal if one smokes relatively infrequently, and they see smoking as offering definite value, such as physical pleasure.

Are they right? Can it be a value to smoke cigarettes--and if so, in what quantity? This is the sort of judgment that properly belongs to every individual, based on his assessment of the evidence concerning smoking's benefits and risks, and taking into account his particular circumstances (age, family history, profession, tastes, etc.). If others believe the smoker is making a mistake, they are free to try to persuade him of their viewpoint. But they should not be free to dictate his decision on whether and to what extent to smoke, any more than they should be able to dictate his decision on whether and to what extent to drink alcohol or play poker. The fact that some individuals will smoke themselves into an early grave is no more justification for banning smoking than that the existence of alcoholics is grounds for prohibiting you from enjoying a drink at dinner.

Implicit in the war on smoking, however, is the view that the government must dictate the individual's decisions with regard to smoking, because he is incapable of making them rationally. To the extent the anti-smoking movement succeeds in wielding the power of government coercion to impose on Americans its blanket opposition to smoking, it is entrenching paternalism: the view that individuals are incompetent to run their own lives, and thus require a nanny-state to control every aspect of those lives.

This state is well on its way: from trans-fat bans to bicycle helmet laws to prohibitions on gambling, the government is increasingly abridging our freedom on the grounds that we are not competent to make rational decisions in these areas--just as it has long done by paternalistically dictating how we plan for retirement (Social Security) or what medicines we may take (the FDA).

Indeed, one of the main arguments used to bolster the anti-smoking agenda is the claim that smokers impose "social costs" on non-smokers, such as smoking-related medical expenses--an argument that perversely uses an injustice created by paternalism to support its expansion. The only reason non-smokers today are forced to foot the medical bills of smokers is that our government has virtually taken over the field of medicine, in order to relieve us inept Americans of the freedom to manage our own health care, and bear the costs of our own choices.

But contrary to paternalism, we are not congenitally irrational misfits. We are thinking beings for whom it is both possible and necessary to rationally judge which courses of action will serve our interests. The consequences of ignoring this fact range from denying us legitimate pleasures to literally killing us: from the healthy 26-year-old unable to enjoy a trans-fatty food, to the 75-year-old man unable to take an unapproved, experimental drug without which he will certainly die.

By employing government coercion to deprive us of the freedom to judge for ourselves what we inhale or consume, the anti-smoking movement has become an enemy, not an ally, in the quest for health and happiness.

Capitalism Magazine Blog

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5036

MAINE; Cigarette tax shortfall burning hole in budget 

September 20, 2007
Victoria Wallack 

AUGUSTA (Sep 20): Cigarette taxes in Maine — eyed as a source of new revenue for the state and federal government — have come in short by about $800,000 a month, on average, since January, adding to an expected budget hole legislators will have to fill when they return next year.

From January through June, cigarette tax revenue was below budget by $5 million. Revenue was down another $850,000 in July — the start of the state’s fiscal year — and $600,000 in August.

No one is quite sure what is happening with sales in Maine, but it appears more people are either quitting, switching to lower-taxed tobacco products such as roll-your-own cigarettes, or shopping on the Internet or over the border because Maine’s cigarette tax is $2 a pack.

If the federal government raises its taxes on a pack to fund expanded health care for children, Maine could lose even more sales. The state is projecting that raising the federal tax from 39 cents to $1 will cost Maine about $5.5 million.

Health-care advocates say they would like to tax smoking out of existence, but that also would leave a $160 million hole in the budget — the amount currently budgeted for one year’s worth of cigarette taxes.

While revenue forecasters acknowledged the downward trend in state sales toward the end of the fiscal year that ended June 30, they did not adjust projections for the state’s new two-year budget that went into effect July 1.

“We didn’t do anything for the out-years because we wanted to see if that pattern was going to continue,” said Mike Allen, director of research for the Maine Revenue Service.

Allen now believes it will, and he predicted when the Revenue Forecasting Committee meets in November, “it’s likely they will be recommending to bring that revenue source down for this fiscal year.”

The Maine Revenue Service is also trying to figure out what’s going on, since the numbers in 2007 are not following a projection formula that in the past has been reliable.

Those projections are critical, since the state and the federal government use hikes in the cigarette tax to raise new revenue in times of budget shortages or to pay for new programs. Polls show that raising taxes on cigarettes is more palatable with the public because smoking is now viewed as a deadly vice.

Maine raised its cigarette tax by $1 a pack in 2005 to fill a budget hole, and Gov. John Baldacci proposed raising it another $1 earlier this year to do the same thing — a plan that failed largely due to Republican opposition to any new taxes.

Others have proposed the tax could be raised to help pay for the state’s subsidized Dirigo Health insurance program going forward.

Congress also is looking at raising the 39-cent federal tax on cigarettes to help pay for an expansion of Medicaid that gives health insurance to lower-income children. A Senate proposal would raise it 61 cents to $1. The House has proposed raising it by 45 cents.

Allen said the rule of thumb has been that for every $1 the cigarette tax is raised, there is a corresponding loss of 12 percent in sales. That’s in addition to the 1 percent drop figured in annually because aggressive state and national anti-smoking campaigns are getting people to quit.

“That worked pretty well until January of '07 [when cigarette tax revenue started to drop unexpectedly]," Allen said. The trick now is figuring out what assumptions have changed.

“When we estimated a 12 percent decline ... that captures a lot of different kind of behavior,” he said. “People could be quitting, cutting back, switching to other types of tobacco. People could be going to New Hampshire. People could be going to the Internet.”

The Maine Revenue Service is working on developing a more accurate formula at the same time it goes after tax cheats — with a new focus on Internet sales.

Errol Dearborn, director of the compliance division for Maine Revenue, said he’s collected $950,000 in owed taxes in the last two-and-a-half years from people who have purchased cigarettes from out-of-state vendors, largely over the Internet.

Federal law has long required so-called remote sellers to report their sales to states so they may collect relevant taxes from the buyers, but the law was initially aimed at mail order. With the advent of the Internet, those sales have increased along with lost tax revenue.

Dearborn said 10 remote sellers have reported on their own to the state. He suspects there are many times more than that in operation. “These things [retailers] pop up and go out of business quicker than you can blink,” he said.

To catch them, his office makes a buy and then demands the sales records for all cigarettes sold in Maine. It then contacts the buyers and requires they pay their taxes.

Those companies that refuse to comply are turned over to the Attorney General’s Office, which can compel compliance or ban a company from doing business in Maine. Dearborn said there are currently eight cases pending with the state’s attorneys.

He said the state’s efforts at recovering lost taxes have been helped by a federal crackdown on Internet vendors because of their criminal connections.

“The federal government being concerned in this has helped all the states,” Dearborn said. “Some of these sellers have ties to organized crime or terrorist organizations. They make lots of money.”

Read

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Government/story.cfm?storyID=100037

The dirty crud running the great state of Maine can NOT have this both ways.  They scream they want a TOBACCO FREE MAINE, but when people do quit or go elsewhere for cheaper cigarettes, now the filthy Maine lawmakers are scratching their heads wondering "Where or where has our cigarette taxes gone?"

Can we really believe this crap?????

The state screams they want us to live in a smoke free state, now they are crying the blues because they have no money left from smokers tax dollars to start up more little pet programs.

They all make me sick!  How STUPID do they think we are?!

Sure! Maine lawmakers want a tobacco free Maine, but they can't even balance their

damn budgets without our cigarette tax dollars.  They talk out of both sides of their

filthy mouths!

State Falls Short on Cigarette Tax Revenue
Story date: 09/19/2007
By Victoria Wallack

 Cigarette taxes in Maine – eyed as a source of new revenue for the state and federal government – have come in short about $800,000 a month, on average, since January, adding to an expected budget hole legislators will have to fill when they return next year.

From January through June, cigarette tax revenue was below budget by $5 million. Revenue was down another $850,000 in July – the start of the state’s fiscal year – and $600,000 in August.

No one is quite sure what is happening with sales in Maine, but it appears more people are either quitting, switching to lower-taxed tobacco products like roll-your-own cigarettes, or shopping on the Internet or over the border because Maine’s cigarette tax is so high – currently at $2 a pack.

If the federal government raises its taxes on a pack to fund expanded healthcare for children, Maine will lose even more sales. The state is projecting that raising the federal tax from 39 cents to $1 will cost Maine about $5.5 million.

Health care advocates say they would like to tax smoking out of existence, but that also would leave a $160 million hole in the budget – the amount currently budgeted for one year’s worth of cigarette taxes.

While revenue forecasters acknowledged the downward trend in state sales toward the end of the fiscal year that ended on June 30, they did not adjust projections for the state’s new two-year budget that went into effect on July 1.

“We didn’t do anything for the out-years because we wanted to see if that pattern was going to continue,” said Mike Allen, director of research for the Maine Revenue Service. He now believes it is and predicted that when the Revenue Forecasting Committee meets in November, “It’s likely they will be recommending to bring that revenue source down for this fiscal year.”

The Maine Revenue Service is also trying to figure out what’s going on since the numbers in 2007 are not following a projection formula that has been reliable in the past.

Those projections are critical since the state and the federal government use hikes in the cigarette tax to raise new revenue in times of budget shortages or to pay for new programs. Polls show that raising taxes on cigarettes is more palatable with the public because smoking is now viewed as a deadly vice.

Maine raised its cigarette tax by $1 a pack in 2005 to fill a budget hole, and Gov. John Baldacci proposed raising it another $1 earlier this year to do the same thing – a plan that failed largely due to Republican opposition to any new taxes. Others have proposed the tax could be raised to help pay for the state’s subsidized Dirigo Health insurance program going forward.

Congress also is looking at raising the 39-cent federal tax on cigarettes to help pay for an expansion of Medicaid that gives health insurance to lower-income children. A Senate proposal would raise it 61 cents to $1. The House has proposed raising it by 45 cents.

Allen said the rule of thumb has been that for every $1 you raise the cigarette tax you lose 12 percent in sales. That’s in addition to the 1 percent drop figured in annually because aggressive state and national anti-smoking campaigns are getting people to quit.

“That worked pretty well until January of 07,” when cigarette tax revenue started to drop unexpectedly, Allen said. The trick now is figuring out what assumptions have changed.

“When we estimated a 12 percent decline….that captures a lot of different kind of behavior,” he said. “People could be quitting, cutting back, switching to other types of tobacco. People could be going to New Hampshire. People could be going to the Internet.”

The Maine Revenue Service is working on developing a more accurate formula at the same time it goes after tax cheats – with a new focus on Internet sales.

Errol Dearborn, director of the compliance division for Maine Revenue, said he’s collected $950,000 in owed taxes in the last two-and-a-half years from people who have purchased cigarettes from out-of-state vendors, largely over the Internet.

Federal law has long required so-called remote sellers to report their sales to states so they can collect relevant taxes from the buyers, but the law was initially aimed at mail-order. With the advent of the Internet those sales have increased along with lost tax revenue.

Dearborn said only 10 remote sellers have actually reported on their own to the state, and he suspects there are many times more than that in operation.

“These things (retailers) pop up and go out of business quicker than you can blink,” he said.

To catch them, his office makes a buy and then demands the sales records for all cigarettes sold in Maine. It then contacts the buyers and requires they pay their taxes.

Those companies that refuse to comply are turned over to the Attorney General’s Office, which can compel compliance or ban a company from doing business in Maine. Dearborn said there are currently eight cases pending with the state’s attorneys.

He said the state’s efforts at recovering lost taxes have been helped by a federal crackdown on Internet vendors because of their criminal connections.

“The federal government being concerned in this has helped all the states,” Dearborn said. “Some of these sellers have ties to organized crime or terrorist organizations. They make lots of money.”

Congress Wants to Smoke Out Taxpayers — Again

Friday, September 07, 2007

By JD Foster
Congress is looking to raise the federal tobacco tax again.

The excuse this time is to help pay for a huge expansion of the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Expanding the SCHIP program is unwise, not least as another step on the road to government-run health care.

Raising taxes to pay for more spending generally is a case of the old adage that two wrongs don't make a right. But turning to a tobacco tax hike is discriminatory and thus especially unsavory.

Congress has long held tobacco users and the industry in high contempt. Smoking and the tobacco industry are widely unpopular, especially among upper-class trendsetters (and even among conservative economists).

The product is severely unhealthful. And the only real defense the industry can muster is their shareholders' contentment in enormous ongoing profits.

Yet Congress won't eradicate tobacco entirely. Why is that?

It's not as though we're dealing with poppy growers in Afghanistan. The whispered excuse is the political power of tobacco interests.

To be sure, the tobacco industry has been a big player in Washington, D.C., for a long time, but that's not why Congress has won't match actions to rhetoric. The real reason is that Congress itself is addicted to tobacco.

The tobacco addiction Congress suffers is tax revenues -- the nico-tax addiction. The federal tobacco tax is now 39 cents a pack, generating $7.2 billion in tax receipts in 2005.

Of course, the tobacco tax addiction extends well beyond our nation's capital. Every state levies a tobacco excise, from a high of $2.75 a pack in New Jersey to a low of 7 cents a pack in South Carolina.

If lawmakers meant all the mean things said about tobacco companies, they would drive the product from our shores.

They need not pass a constitutional amendment or alter the Federal Drug Administration mandate to erase the touted scourge. As Chief Justice John Marshall once said, "The power to tax involves the power to destroy."

If Congress really wanted to destroy the tobacco industry, a truly punishing tax increase would do the trick.

But Congress loves tax revenue more than it hates tobacco. And so, from time to time, they threaten to raise the tobacco tax further, but not too much.

In this case, Congress is looking to roll in an increase in the tobacco excise to $1 a pack along with expanding this specific government-run health-insurance program.

SCHIP was part of the 1997 budget deal as the first step toward national health insurance. Congress now wants to take the next step by vastly expanding coverage.

The Senate has already passed a bill to more than double the program to $60 billion. But under the budget rules, it has to pay for the new spending.

Enter the higher tobacco tax -- just high enough to generate the needed revenues, but not so high as to reduce materially the ranks of smokers or do real damage to the industry.

Though most Americans actively disdain tobacco and tobacco companies, they still ought to take great affront at a tax policy expressly designed to discriminate against the use of a legal product.

This discrimination cannot be justified on the basis of tobacco's alleged costs to society, because no other product is subject to such a test.
If such a test were applied widely, the nightly news could be subject to a special tax.

This discrimination cannot be justified on the basis of personal health because, again, no other product is subject to such a test and, in any event, that should be a personal decision.

A tax on tobacco at any level is government-sanctioned economic discrimination justified only on the basis of political whim and expediency.

Even if one could somehow justify a higher tobacco tax, there is no justification for a higher overall tax burden.

If Congress raises the tobacco tax, then some other tax should be reduced commensurately. At 18.8 percent of gross domestic product, the federal tax burden is already again above the modern historical average, and it is expected to increase in coming years even with the extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.

Congress should be looking for ways to cut taxes, not to raise them. The historical average tax share should be regarded as a dangerous ceiling, not a target or a floor.

The SCHIP reauthorization bill is a bad bill all around. It's far too expensive. It's a big next step toward national health insurance. It requires a big increase in taxes that are already too high. And the tax hike in question shows that the sad congressional addiction to the nico-tax is undiminished.

JD Foster is the Norman B. Ture senior fellow in the economics of fiscal policy at The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org).


 

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 11, 2007

The verdict is in: Smoking bans hurt the hospitality business.

 

Investigation Concerning Termination of Smokers And/Or Charging Smokers Higher Healthcare or Disability Premiums    In 30 states and the District of Columbia, state law makes it illegal for companies to impose smoking bans on their employees when they are off duty. In addition, the federal employee benefits law, ERISA, prevents employers from discriminating against and/or firing employees, here smokers, to interfere with the attainment of any right under a benefit plan, here the right to health benefits. Recently, a number of companies, including Weyco and The Scotts Company, have instituted policies to terminate smokers, even if those persons do not smoke at work. The reason cited by companies such as Weyco and Scotts, for adoption of these policies is increased healthcare costs. Click here for more examples. Both liberal and conservative civil liberties groups have denounced these policies as an improper invasion of employee’s rights to conduct activities on their off hours. (For more information, click here) There is also a trend toward charging smokers more for health insurance.  A growing number of employers are requiring employees who use tobacco to pay higher premiums, hoping that will motivate more of them to stop smoking and lower healthcare costs. Among the list of firms reported to have such policies to charge smokers higher premiums include Cardinal Health, J.P. Morgan Chase, Meijer Inc., Gannett Co., American Financial Group Inc., PepsiCo Inc. and Northwest Airlines. Such policies may also violate the federal employee benefits law, ERISA. Cohen Milstein is currently conducting an investigation as to whether such policies violate ERISA and/or state law. If a violation can be proven, reinstatement as an employee, and reinstatement in the plan or reimbursement of premiums (including back benefits) may be available as equitable relief under ERISA (although the scope of available relief under ERISA remains controversial) . If are a current or former employee of a company with such a policy and fall into one of the following categories, please contact one of the persons listed at the bottom of this page: 1. A smoker currently employed at a company which imposes higher healthcare premiums on smokers than non-smokers; 2. A smoker currently employed at a company which terminates persons who smoke; or; 3. A smoker terminated by a company as a result of a no-smoking policy. For more information, contact: R. Joseph Barton, Esq. jbarton@cmht. com Abby Scott ascott@cmht. com Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C. 1100 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20005 Telephone: 888-240-0775 or 202-408-4600 The law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C., is a nationally recognized plaintiffs' class action law firm and has significant experience in representing employees injured by corporate misconduct. For a more detailed discussion of the firm's Employee Benefits practice, please click here. Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C.     1100 New York Ave. NW, Ste 500, West Tower     Washington, D.C. 20005 T: 202.408.4600     F: 202.408.4699     E: lawinfo@cmht. com     © 2007 CMHT, All Rights Reserved Budget deal all but done By Francis X. Quinn, Associated Press Writer  |  May 25, 2007 AUGUSTA, Maine --Leaving the door open to one last round of negotiated spending, legislative bargainers put finishing touches Friday on a two-year budget package worth close to $6.4 billion that includes a mandatory school system consolidation plan and does without a major tobacco tax increase originally proposed by Gov. John Baldacci. "We're going to lose a few of ours and we're going to lose a few of theirs" when majority Democrats and minority Republicans on the Appropriations Committee send their final product upstairs for consideration by the full Senate and House of Representatives, said Democratic Rep. Jeremy Fischer of Presque Isle, the Appropriations Committee's House chairman. But with House and Senate leaders on board and the committee itself strongly united, prospects for passage would seem to be positive. A wild card, however, is the reception for the school system consolidation component, which seeks to address widespread demands led by Baldacci for a cost-saving reining-in of Maine's far-flung network of local school units while also accommodating legislative and local concerns about top-down regulation. Baldacci's original proposal was to establish 26 regional education units, a significant reduction from Maine's current 152 school administrative systems. The revised plan prepared for inclusion in the budget envisions 80 units, based on desired student populations of about 2,500. Exceptions would be available, but sanctions could face non-complying communities. The budget package counts $36.5 million in savings. Service cuts, funding transfers and numerous other budgetary initiatives are designed to balance the overall package while dispensing with the governor's proposal for $136 million in new tobacco levies. To show the depth of spending cutbacks already put forth, Baldacci administration officials this week outlined $130 million to $140 million in savings that had been proposed within the state Department of Health and Human Services. Still up for debate, participants said Friday, were additional spending initiatives including more funding for higher education. That issue could simmer over the weekend. A final review of new budget language by the Appropriations panel is not expected before Tuesday. Last Monday, University of Maine System trustees tentatively raised tuition by an average of 12.6 percent while appealing to the Legislature for additional state funding to help soften the blow. The board authorized Chancellor Terrence MacTaggart to recalculate and lower the tuition hike in the event that lawmakers approve a university appropriation that exceeds the $5 million increase contained in Gov. John Baldacci's proposed budget. Tuition at the seven-campus system has gone up each year since 1996 and now averages $6,450 a year for undergraduates. Last year's increase averaged 8.7 percent systemwide. MacTaggart said adding $6 million to the governor's recommended $5 million increase would lower the tuition hike to 7 percent. Republican insistence that new taxes be avoided appeared to have been rewarded in the all-but-final package. Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, the ranking House Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said the budget total would be about $100 million less than Baldacci requested. "This budget still takes care of those Mainers who are most in need, but we engaged in a process of setting spending priorities, which is not typical," Millett said in a statement. "Even though we are in the minority, we were able to exert influence on priorities. And some of the structural changes we are making in education and MaineCare are critical, so that future budgets will not be driven by unsustainable cost pressures, Millett said. Democratic Sen. John Martin of Eagle Lake said he saw no real winners and losers among various legislative factions. "I'd say no one got anything. It's bare-bones," he said. A late amendment was prepared Friday to reflect a $26 million contract settlement with the largest state employees union. The cost was said to be the equivalent of 2 percent increases in each year of the biennium.  Check this out.  Phillip Morris selling us out again.  Gawd, how I hate that corporation.  If they are so dead set to have everyone quite smoking, why the hell don't they stop making and SELLING the product!  They too, talk out of both sides of their filthy mouths. Press Release Source: Philip Morris USA  Philip Morris USA Supports Institute of Medicine's Call for FDA Regulation of Tobacco Products Thursday May 24, 2:44 pm ET  Legislative pay hike proposed in Augusta Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - Bangor Daily News     AUGUSTA - Under a bill that is raising bipartisan concerns at the State House, lawmakers taking office in 2008 would get a raise of $5,131 over their two-year terms and future Legislatures would have pay determined by an independent commission. "When I talk with people they can’t believe what they pay up here at the Legislature and confuse it with what people get paid in Washington," said Rep. John Tuttle, D-Sanford, the bill’s sponsor. "We need to get it to a point where people are able to survive. Right now we are making less money than we were in 1986 because we took a pay cut in 1991." In 1991, state revenues plummeted and there were cuts, gimmicks and a sales tax increase to balance the budget.  Tuttle said his pay proposal, $15,750 for the first year of the two-year term and $11,250 for the second year, is based on a 1999 recommendation from the State Compensation Commission.  Lawmakers now are paid $12,615 in the first year of the biennium and $9,254 in the second year. They also get up to $70 a day for meals, lodging and mileage and $100 a day for special sessions. Lawmakers get the same benefit package as state workers, with health and dental insurance fully paid by the state. Senators also get $2,000 a year to help offset the costs of helping constituents; House members get $1,500 a year. "My bill also would say that in any future years, whatever the bipartisan legislative pay commission recommends, it would go into effect, up or down," Tuttle said. "That will take the politics out of it." House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, is a co-sponsor of the bill. She said legislative pay needs to be increased so that all Mainers have an equal opportunity to serve in the Legislature. "It has become harder and harder to recruit young people, recruit working people when legislators get paid an average of $10,000 a year," she said. "That’s tough for some people. We have had retired people go in debt being a legislator." That brought a sharp retort from House Minority Leader Josh Tardy, R-Newport. He said everyone knows what the pay is before running for office. "I would certainly concede that it is a sacrifice and we are relatively low-paid," he said. "With the fiscal crisis we are in, the time is not now." Tardy said he expected there might be a few members of his caucus who would support a pay raise, but he doubts any would support the automatic-increase language in the bill. Sen. Carol Weston, R-Montville, the Senate GOP leader, doubts there will be any Republican support for the bill, and she expects many Democrats will share the concerns she has with the proposal. "I can’t believe that any Republican legislator would consider raising their salary when the state is in such dire financial circumstances," she said. "I don’t think anybody’s pay should be on autopilot." The concern with the legislation is not a partisan matter, even though all of the House Democratic leaders are co-sponsors of the bill. Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said lawmaker salaries are too low, but she would not support allowing a commission to decide what pay lawmakers should receive. "I think it is fine to have an independent commission recommend what salaries should be," she said, "but we should not put our pay raises on autopilot." Tuttle argued that the bill would not do that. He said lawmakers could vote against any raise as part of the budget for the Legislature. "And there is a provision that allows anyone who does not want to take the increase to give it back," he said.  The measure was introduced Tuesday, and a public hearing on it has not been scheduled. Bar Harbor council forwards smoking ban proposal to voters  April 04, 2007  BAR HARBOR - Local voters will get the chance when they cast municipal ballots in June to determine two issues about the relative health and affordability of their community. The Town Council decided Tuesday to have voters determine whether to ban smoking in cars when children are present and whether to give $1 million to a proposed workforce housing project off Sandy Lane. With very little discussion, the council voted 5-1 to have voters decide the smoking issue during local elections on June 12. Councilor Jeff Dobbs, who has spearheaded the drive to enact the smoking ban, voted against the motion. He said he wanted the proposal to be discussed on the floor at open town meeting rather than decided at the ballot box without further debate.    Bar Harbor, Maine (Some people just can't mind their own business!)   Bar Harbor man circulates smoking-ban petition March 16, 2007 Bill Trotter BAR HARBOR - Jeff Dobbs is busy making good on a promise he made to his fellow Town Council members last week. He’s collecting signatures on a petition for an ordinance that would ban smoking in cars when children are present. Dobbs had brought the proposal to the Bar Harbor Town Council, thinking that the town should take a stand for children’s health by adopting an ordinance similar to one adopted in Bangor earlier this year. The concept is a no-brainer, Dobbs has said, because it’s clear that secondhand smoke can have dire health consequences for people, especially children. But the rest of the council didn’t share his enthusiasm. When time came for a vote, only Councilor Robert Garland cast his with Dobbs. The remaining five voted against the ideas for a variety of reasons. Some said the issue was better left to the state. Others said they had concerns about civil liberties and about giving the Police Department more work to do. Dobbs, however, was undeterred. He said that if the council rejected his proposal, he would go around it by getting enough local voter signatures to have the proposal placed directly on the warrant for annual town meeting. By Thursday, Dobbs said he had collected about 80 percent of the signatures he needs. "As of right now, pretty close to 200, I think," he said. "People are calling up now to come down and sign it." He said he has to collect at least 234 signatures, which is 10 percent of the number of local voters who cast ballots in the most recent gubernatorial election. He said he believes he could get a lot more, but that his goal is to collect 250 before he turns it in to the town clerk. He wants to have enough in case some signatures turn out not to be valid, he said, but not too many that the clerk has to verify a lot of unnecessary signatures. Dobbs said he had received one phone call from a resident who is upset by the proposal but that most comments he has heard have been supportive. He hopes to collect enough signatures so he can bring the petition back to the council at its April 3 meeting, so it can consider the proposal again. If council members turn it down a second time, he said, it would go to voters at the town’s regular annual town meeting on Tuesday, June 5. It is the third petition Dobbs has spearheaded in the 15 years he has been a councilor. He led a successful petition drive in 1983 to keep a tourism information buildings from being built in Agamont Park and in 1989 successfully petitioned to end the town’s yearlong experiment to allow only eastbound traffic on Cottage Street. Dobbs said Thursday that the health information he has been provided since he first proposed the smoking ban has convinced him he is doing the right thing. He said he hopes that if enough towns take action the Legislature will step in to create a statewide ban. "It just seemed like a good thing to do when I started," he said. "Now I know we have to do it."   Darlene Brennan, Caribou, ME, 03/10/07 Tobacco firm fights new cigarette tax: We are saying of most Maine lawmakers: when your too gutless to cut spending, stick it to the smokers and tell them it's for their own good! http://www.bangordailynews.com/news/comments.cfm     Smoked out   March 11, 2007 Jenna Russell PORTLAND, Maine -- She is just one soldier in Maine's war against tobacco, but here, in a dimly lit cubicle decorated with her children's drawings, Sheryl Melanson is fighting to reduce the statewide smoking rate, one phone call at a time. A veteran "quit coach" with the Maine Tobacco Helpline, Melanson has her work cut out for her today. The smoker on the line -- a raspy-voiced, 73-year-old woman -- is deeply discouraged about quitting. "Do you think [cigarettes] are going to kill you? You do?" says Melanson into her silver headset. "So it sounds like it's really important for you to do this." Maine is little known as a public health leader. Its obesity rate, the highest in New England, has attracted more attention than its anti smoking policies. But after a decade of tough collaborative efforts, Maine has cut its high school smoking rate by more than half, to one of the smallest percentages in the nation. The poorest state in the region, Maine has also chipped away at its adult smoking rate, driving it steadily backward, while maintaining an unwavering state budget for tobacco treatment and prevention -- by one measure, the most generous of any state. "It's a little surprising, given their low-income population, that they're out in front," said Thomas Carr, national policy manager for the American Lung Association. "We always use them as an example -- they're our shining beacon on the hill at this point." At times, Maine's crackdown on tobacco has sparked fierce debate. Some residents pledged to boycott the city of Bangor when it banned smoking in cars with children last month. Critics gasped at Governor John Baldacci's proposal to boost taxes on cigarettes by another dollar this year -- a move that would make Maine's tax the highest in the nation. But behind the scattered controversies lies a growing body of evidence that the war on tobacco is working. Between 1996 and 2005, Maine reduced its adult smoking rate from 25.3 to 20.8 percent, while the rate among high school students fell from 39 to 16 percent, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Buoyed by their success, leaders of anti smoking groups have set more ambitious goals, aiming to drive the smoking rate as low as 10 percent. And they are using what they've learned to attack another health nemesis: obesity, which reached a peak in Maine two years ago, when 23.4 percent of adults were obese, according to the CDC. Three anti obesity bills crafted with help from anti smoking leaders are proposed in Maine this legislative season, including new time requirements for school gym classes and a requirement that schools report the height and weight of students to state health officials. "So many groups were asking us for advice, we decided to gather the partners together, look at what had been done in the past, and make a plan to get the ball rolling in the State House," said Becky Smith, director of the Maine Coalition on Smoking and Health. In addition to its six-year-old tobacco helpline, which reaches more of the state's smokers than similar hot lines anywhere else in the country, Maine has assembled an arsenal of other programs. It trains doctors in how to counsel smokers, gives free nicotine patches to low-income residents, and taxes smokers $2 per pack. Smoking is banned in almost all public places, and a new group, the Smoke-Free Housing Coalition of Maine, is pushing to extend the ban to more rental housing. Already, 10 Maine cities and towns, including Ellsworth, Lewiston, Brewer, and Bar Harbor, have limited smoking in public housing, a larger proportion of communities than in any other state, said Tina Pettingill, coalition chairwoman. One Maine ski resort, Black Mountain in Rumford, even banned smoking on its lifts and trails two years ago. The tightening rules have angered some smokers. Darlene Brennan of Caribou, a leader of the Maine Smokers Rights group, which numbers about 100 members, escapes high taxes by rolling her own cigarettes. She refuses to eat in smoke-free restaurants. "It's my dime; why should I go sit in a reform school setting?" she said. "I don't drink. This is my only vice." Other smokers seem resigned, even understanding, of the state's waning tolerance for their habit. "Smoking isn't good," said Joe Lynch as he smoked in the snow outside a Portland bar last month. "I know it's not good." Critics complain that the state is unfairly burdening smokers. Stavros Mendros, a former Republican state legislator from Lewiston, collected 40,000 signatures on an unsuccessful petition to block the last cigarette tax increase two years ago -- though he says he's never smoked a single cigarette. "Smokers are stuck in an addiction, and the state is piling on to solve its budget problems," he said. "They're an easy target, and they're being picked on." Defenders of the taxes say they motivate smokers to quit. At the Maine Tobacco Helpline, where coaches help smokers come up with a plan for quitting, calls spiked sharply before and after the last tax hike, from fewer than 300 to more than 600 per week. The volume overwhelmed the small call center, which had to cut its hours to stay within its budget. For two years, Maine has been the only state to earn straight A's from the American Lung Association on its annual tobacco-control report card, which grades states in areas including youth access to tobacco and spending on control and prevention. The key to Maine's success, according to public health leaders, has been its steady funding of anti tobacco initiatives. After the 1998 settlement that ended a long court battle between the states and tobacco companies, money started flowing to the states. Federal health authorities recommended how much should be spent on tobacco prevention each year, but many states, including Massachusetts, tapped the funds to balance budgets instead. Maine receives about $50 million in tobacco settlement money each year, and spends about $15 million to fight tobacco use, more than any state in New England, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. (Massachusetts, with a population five times larger than Maine's, spends $8.3 million.) No state exceeds its recommended spending level by a wider margin than Maine. To help protect their funding, Maine tobacco activists teamed with other public health leaders who also receive money from the settlement. "Tobacco control, on its own, does not have a strong political base," said Ed Miller, chief executive of the American Lung Association of Maine. "It's not what people run for office on, but by hooking up with things that are, like child care and drugs for the elderly, we've been able to broaden the base." When longtime smoker Arlene Dinsmore decided to stop smoking in 2005, she called the Maine Tobacco Helpline. Her quit coach was kind and encouraging, she said, and free nicotine patches made all the difference. The Portland hair stylist has been tobacco-free for more than a year. "I've become one of those crusaders," she said. Read http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/11/smoked_out/     Bar Harbor says NO to smoking in car ban At least they mentioned my NAME on their website.  LOL Early Morning Rewinds...   The Maine Coalition for Smoking or Health says the state should tax cigarettes a dollar and a half!  Becky Smith of the Coalition explains.   And we're calling the New England Regional Director of Maine Smoker's Rights Darlene Brennan of Caribou offers her reaction.   7 March 2007 I did an interview this morning for a radio station in southern Maine called "Maine in the Morning." The guys are wonderful and treated me great. But, as usual, I didn't have enough time to get my points across.  I am anxious to hear if Becky, the anti, was given more time then me..........       Lawmakers hear from business, advocates, on cigarettes tax By Glenn Adams, Associated Press Writer  |  March 6, 2007 AUGUSTA, Maine --Farmington market owner Jon Bubier said he had to come up with $10,000 for the state in a hurry the last time the Legislature increased cigarette taxes. He told lawmakers Tuesday he doesn't want the same thing to happen again. "You're hurting small businesses in a dramatic way," Bubier told the Appropriations and Taxation committees. "We've got to do something but don't tax small business to death." Bubier was among business owners and health advocates who gave their diverse views on Gov. John Baldacci's proposal to increase the present tax of $2 per pack -- already one of the nation's highest -- to $3. The proposal also seeks higher taxes on smokeless and pipe tobacco as well as cigars. Medical and health organizations said the taxes are needed to induce smokers to quit and discourage teenagers from starting at all. The Maine Medical Association's executive vice president, Gordon Smith, said each pack of cigarettes results in $7 in medical costs. An anti-smoking coalition said Monday that the dollar per pack Baldacci wants to balance his proposed $6.4 billion two-year budget isn't enough and raised the ante to $1.50 per pack. Smith and others said tax hikes have a direct impact on the smoking rate, which has fallen from 27 percent in 1990 to 21 percent. Fewer smokers translates into lower state medical and health costs, opponents of smoking say. But some of those testifying Tuesday were skeptical about reasons given for the proposed increase. "Are we raising the tax on cigarettes because we've got a big hole in the budget or otherwise?" said Gena Canning, a vice president of the Augusta-based Pine State Trading Co., a New England-wide wholesale distributor of food, beverages and tobacco products. Canning also said smokers are being asked to bear an unfair share of the tax burden. She asked lawmakers whether smokers should carry a larger share of the tax burden than corporate income taxpayers, and also said no other product is taxed so heavily. Businesses also said the proposed tax will eat into sales, affecting their bottom lines. Some said they never regain the lost sales each time the tax goes up. Both Canning and Chris Jackson, representing the Convenience Store Council of Maine, said the loss of business to stores across Maine's border, especially in New Hampshire, is a reality. Scott Moody of the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center questioned whether the tax will bring in the full $66 million a year the Baldacci administration anticipates, saying his group's analysis shows it will be closer to $45 million. Bubier, owner of Ron's Market in Farmington, said he's particularly troubled by the "floor tax" accompanying increases, in which the state gives store owners limited time to pay the increased tax upfront on cigarettes they have in their inventories. The Maine Coalition on Smoking or Health labels as "myths" claims that the higher tax will send smokers to other states, that it will hurt the state's economy and that is a regressive tax that hurts low-income people the most. An estimated 2 percent of Maine smokers purchase their products over the Internet, the committee was told.      What moron WRITES this stuff????   Higher tobacco tax saves lives, yields steady revenue Monday, March 5, 2007 It's understandable if tobacco lobbyists have to resort to making things up when it comes to a higher tax on cigarettes. The truth just isn't on their side. This week, the Legislature will take up the question of whether to raise Maine's cigarette tax by $1 a pack. The increase would bring the tax to $3, the highest levy by any state. The tobacco lobby is gearing up to fight the increase, but it has little to build its arguments on. Higher tobacco taxes have been shown to cut the rate of smoking, especially among young people. The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids says the tax would convince 6,100 adults to quit and deter another 10,300 children from taking up the habit. Given that one in three smokers will die prematurely as a result of the habit, lawmakers can save as many as 5,400 lives by raising the tax. Some of the arguments against the tax are suspect; others are just plain wrong. It is true that smokers as a group have lower incomes than the general population, but that also means low- and moderate-income people will likely benefit the most from the tax because they would be more likely to quit because of the cost. The notion that the revenues generated by a tobacco tax are unstable is a falsehood. In fact, the impact of a higher tax on smoking rates tends to fall very close to predictions. And tobacco tax revenues are one of the most stable sources of state income. From 2002 through 2005, for instance, the tobacco tax brought in a low of $96.3 million and a high of $98.4 million. In that same period, individual income-tax receipts fluctuated from $1.06 billion to $1.27 billion. Sales taxes varied from $836 million to $917 million. Higher tobacco taxes cause people to quit but also provide a steady and highly predictable source of state revenues. Lobbyists who say otherwise are just blowing smoke.   (Roll your own, people.  To hell with the state coffers!  This article states that raising taxes will only increase the states revenue.   And I have a bridge in Saudi I can sell you!).  BTW, is the current cigarette taxes going into the state coffers, WHY do they want MORE?  GLUTTENS, I say.  And this is what we voted into office.  ~gag!   Tobacco industry mobilizes to fight proposed tax hike     LOL!   Bar Harbor board skeptical of smoking ban February 15, 2007 Councilor Jeff Dobbs argued that health education about the effects of secondhand smoke has proven ineffective and that civil liberties are not at stake when the operation of motor vehicles are concerned.       Bar Harbor Considers Ban On Smoking In Cars With Minors January 28, 2007 Matt Bush Bar Harbor's close proximity to Bangor may influence a new law there. A law banning smoking in cars when minors under 18 are present will be discussed at Bar Harbor's February 13th town meeting. Town Council member Jeff Dobbs says he got the idea when he heard about Bangor's newly adopted ordinance. "Nothing against people who smoke, but I just don't think it's fair given the amount of information about second hand smoke that they should be smoking in cars with children who have no choice," said Dobbs. The resort is a destination for tens of thousands of worldwide tourists, but Bar Harbor is a lot smaller than Bangor, so news that it may ban smoking may not spread around the world as quickly. Just last week, councilors in Veazie, which is just north of Bangor, decided against adopting a similar smoking ban. click here I received the following letter today from Sen. Olympia Snowe!!  Read how she disses 25-30% of her Maine constituents just because they choose to smoke a legal product!!!  I have written to her for over 10 years and I get the same old song and dance..............IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN! I wish with all my heart some Conservative would stand up and run against this gnome!  Because she would NEVER get my vote again! Now she wants to turn cigarettes over to the FDA!  Boy, Maine must sure love misery to have an idiot like this in Congress!   (She vowed to save Loring Air Force Base TOO!  heh!)   And Maine lawmakers are so worried about people who smoke????   Bangor to house 3rd drug clinic   February 02, 2007 Dawn Gagnon           BANGOR — A Rhode Island-based firm is taking steps to open the city’s third methadone clinic. The Discovery House clinic would be in the former Reid's Confectionery building at 74 Dowd Road in the Dowd Industrial Park off the Odlin Road. "We’re hoping to be open by the early spring," said Denise Howard, Discovery House’s executive director for Maine operations, on Thursday. She said in a telephone interview that the for-profit firm expects to serve about 200 patients during its first year in Bangor. Discovery House already runs clinics in Calais, Waterville and South Portland. The firm has obtained a city building permit for an estimated $22,000 in renovations to the building. Code Enforcement Officer Dan Wellington said Discovery House has been granted a certificate of occupancy, which will be issued after the construction work is completed, he said. Because substance abuse treatment facilities are considered a permitted use in the city’s industrial and service districts, no other city approval is needed, Wellington said. In the meantime, the company is applying for state and federal licenses, a process that will include facility inspections, Howard said. The proposed Bangor clinic would be the state’s seventh. Bangor is already the only community in Maine with more than one methadone clinic, according to information provided by Kim Johnson, director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse. Originally developed as a pain medication, methadone is widely used as a therapeutic substitute for illegal narcotics, such as heroin and prescription medications such as morphine or OxyContin. Treatment providers and other proponents say successful methadone therapy allows an addicted person to resume normal life activities such as finishing school, holding a job and raising children. Critics argue that methadone, itself addictive and potentially lethal if misused, simply substitutes one drug habit for another and contributes more to the drug problem than it resolves. As it stands, methadone clinics also are operating in Calais, Waterville, South Portland and Westbrook, Johnson said. Two other clinics are pending in Portland and Rockland. When asked why the company was opening a clinic in Bangor, Howard said it was "primarily just to provide access. There’s clearly an identified unmet need." Acadia Hospital, which accepts insurance, serves about 700 patients and has a waiting list of about 60 people, according to Johnson. Florida-based Colonial Management Group, which does not accept insurance, is serving another 165 patients at its clinic in the Maine Square Mall off Hogan Road, she said. Howard said Discovery House could accommodate both insured patients and those who will pay as they go. According to a 2003-04 national household survey, an estimated 30,000 Mainers are in need of, but lack access to, treatment for drug addiction. "Ten years ago, it didn’t look like that," Johnson said, adding that the issue then was alcoholism. Although there are vast chunks of Maine where no methadone services are provided, Johnson said, there are no state regulations regarding where clinics can operate. "We’re working on regulatory language [that would require clinic operators to demonstrate a need] but it hasn’t been passed yet," Johnson said. As for Discovery House, Johnson said, she did not expect any licensing issues. The company has been operating clinics in Maine since the mid-1990s and so is familiar with state and federal regulations that need to be met, she said. Johnson said the company’s track record in Maine is "pretty good." Because the Discovery House clinic would operate in an industrial park, far from residential and commercial areas, it isn’t expected to generate as much controversy as the community saw when methadone treatment facilities were new. Acadia Hospital's proposal to start an opiates addiction treatment program on its Stillwater Avenue campus more than six years ago did not come without controversy. Critics included city officials, local law enforcement and residents, all of whom worried that such a clinic would attract hard-core junkies and drug dealers, that crime in the city would escalate and that children no longer would be safe. That did not happen, and the clinic’s impact has been negligible. In addition, the community is much more informed, thanks in large part to a comprehensive study by the City Council's Special Committee on Opiate Addiction. In 2004, Colonial Management announced its plans to open a clinic in the Maine Square Mall off Hogan Road. Critics of Colonial's plan, including several fellow mall tenants, argued that the clinic belonged in a medical setting, as is the case with Acadia's clinic. Some worried the clinic would attract drug dealers, lead to loitering in the parking lot, put at risk the teenagers and young adults who work at and frequent the small strip mall and worsen the parking crunch that already exists there. That, too, has not come to pass.     Maine: Support for cigarette tax goes up in smoke January 24, 2007 - A spokesman for Baldacci said the governor would not be making a public response.   Maine proposal one of many tobacco tax increases being considered   January 14, 2007 David Sharp             LEWISTON, Maine --Standing behind a counter with Zippo lighters on display and a sign overhead displaying cigarette specials, Tonya Medlen didn't mince words about Gov. John Baldacci's proposal to raise taxes on cigarettes. The Democratic governor's plan to raise the state tobacco tax by another dollar -- to $3 per pack -- would raise $130 million over the next two years. "I think he's whacked," Medlen said while ringing up sales at Victor News. "Our cigarettes just went up, and he wants to raise them again?" Maine smokers can't help feeling that they're under assault. The state outlawed smoking in the few public places where it was allowed -- bars and pool halls -- in 2004. A year later, the tobacco tax was increased by a dollar per pack. Now Baldacci wants to raise the tax again. If the new increase is approved, the state tax would grow to $3 on July 1. That would be the highest in the nation among states. New Jersey currently has the highest state tax at $2.58 per pack. A couple of places are as high or even higher when state and local taxes are included. New York's combined tax is $3 per pack and in Chicago it's $3.66, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Those figures don't include the federal tax of 39 cents per pack. Health officials like Baldacci's proposal, which is accompanied by a $1 million increase in funding for smoking cessation programs. (Yes, like funding those nasty ads on TV and Race Car Teams across the state.  SOME health care!  They are a bunch of liars!) "Raising tobacco taxes is one of the most effective statewide public health strategies," said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the state's top health officer. "People do tend to cut down or quit in response to the increase in price." (She's a real ass, and we smoker's are paying her cushy paycheck with our taxes!) Even at $3, the state tax would not come close to covering the $7 in direct health care costs associated with each pack sold, not to mention the human toll of 2,400 premature deaths each year in the state, Mills said from Augusta. (More lies! Ask her to provide just one death certificate that states that a person died from smoking or even second hand smoke!) "The size of a small town in Maine is dying too early because of tobacco and many more thousands of Mainers suffer from chronic disease," she said. Ed Miller, executive director of the Maine Lung Association, said the previous $1-per-pack tax increase led to many Mainers deciding to quit. (Another lying ass!) In 2005, 6.6 percent of Maine's 210,000 adult smokers were assisted in quitting by the Center for Tobacco Independence, which operates a health line, said Dr. Susan Swartz, the director. That compared to 3.4 percent the previous year, she said. (Maine smokers didn't quit.  We went elsewhere or found better alternatives then paying the huge tax into the state coffers.  So old Eddie spews the lies that smokers have QUIT! WRONG Eddie, Wrong!) "There was a large percentage of smokers who took advantage of that tax increase to say, 'That's it. I'm done,'" Miller said. (hahahh pull your head out Eddie!) Maine isn't alone in trying to increase tobacco taxes. There are efforts afoot in at least a half-dozen other states to raise taxes this year. --Iowa Gov. Chet Culver wants to raise the cigarette tax by $1 per pack. --Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants to raise the tax by 84 cents. --South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford wants to raise the tax by 30 cents. --Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to raise the tax by at least 25 cents. --Maryland health activists want to raise the tax by $1 per pack. --Mississippi lawmakers will again consider increasing tax despite vetoes last year. South Carolina's state cigarette tax of 7 cents is currently the nation's lowest, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Other low state tax rates are 17 cents per pack in Missouri, 18 cents in Mississippi and 20 cents in Tennessee. In Maine, some worry that higher taxes will simply send more people to the Internet for mail-order cigarettes. Or smokers could simply cross the border into New Hampshire, where the state tax is 80 cents per pack. Mills isn't overly concerned. The high cost of gas would likely offset the benefit of traveling to New Hampshire for cigarettes, and the cigarette taxes are comparable or higher in neighboring Canadian provinces, she said. So far, there's no organized opposition to Baldacci's proposal, but Republicans don't like the idea of raising taxes. "We cannot accept as a Republican caucus that this budget has to be balanced by tax increases on the backs of any one particular class of Mainers," House Minority Leader Josh Tardy, R-Newport, said. But, he added, it's early in the budget process and Republicans and Democrats have to work together. "Therefore I think it's way too early for anyone to be drawing lines in the sand," Tardy said. The governor's proposal further cements Maine's reputation as a place that's taking aggressive action when it comes to tobacco use. Last year, Maine became the first state to win a perfect score from the American Lung Association thanks to efforts to provide smoke-free environments, to raise the cigarette tax and to keep minors from smoking. It received a perfect score again this year. (Oh really??? Just last week, the city of Bangor adopted an ordinance that makes it illegal for motorists to smoke with children in the car. Among advocates of steeper tobacco taxes, the theory is that for every 10 percent increase in taxes there is an overall reduction in smoking of 4 percent, said Peter Fisher of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C. Many smokers seemed resigned to the fact that the public tide has turned against them. That doesn't mean they're happy about it. At Victor News in Lewiston, many customers expressed Medlen's sentiment that it's time for the state to target something besides cigarettes. "I think it's terrible. It's time to pick on someone else," said Peggy Rowe, a Victor News customer who's trying to quit smoking. Others were OK with Baldacci's proposal. "I hope it goes up enough to discourage my daughter from smoking," said Jim Lysen, who does not smoke. His daughter, a student at Hofstra University in New York, picked up smoking while touring Europe with a friend. Another Lewiston resident, Richard Whitney, said some people, his father included, will continue to smoke no matter how high the tax goes. Some of those people are those who can least afford to be spending money on cigarettes, he said. "It could go to $10 per pack, and they would still smoke," he said. "They'll stop buying everything else to buy their cigarettes."         Read http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/01/14/maine_proposal_one_of_many_tobacco_tax_increases_being_considered/   Rep John Martin of Eagle Lake,  targets smokers who get Medicaid   Another idiot lawmaker!!  We have thousands in Maine on meth, but HE has to go after the elderly on Medicaid! article here   Please email and snail mail this new page to everyone you know, and all your local politicians. Thanks!   Antis: What to expect The Cold Sharp Slap Of Reality Banning smoking in cars goes too far November 14, 2006- Read   Maine Group targets smokers in cars By Meg Haskell Saturday, November 11, 2006 - Bangor Daily News By Meg Haskell Bangor Daily News BANGOR — If a group of local public health advocates is successful, Bangor could become the first place in Maine where smoking a cigarette in your car is illegal when a child is present. A proposed city ordinance would allow police to impose a $50 fine on a driver or passenger who lights up in any motor vehicle if there is anyone younger than 18 in that vehicle. Under Maine law, it is illegal to smoke until the age of 18. Bangor pediatric dentist and child health advocate Jonathan Shenkin is the primary mover behind the proposal. Shenkin said Friday that he was dismayed by a recent report from the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. The report shows that despite a drop in smoking rates nationally, exposure to "secondhand smoke" — smoke in the air from a nearby cigarette or other smoking material — remains high. "The most shocking thing is that the population at highest risk … is young children age 4 to 11," he said. Shenkin also referred to a related study from the Harvard School of Public Health on levels of tobacco smoke in cars. That study shows that, even with the vehicle moving and the windows wide open, smoke from a single cigarette can reach levels high enough to endanger the health of children, older people and people with certain health conditions. Smoking with the windows slightly cracked or tightly closed resulted in levels high enough to pose a hazard to anyone. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, secondhand smoke from cigarettes contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or cancer-causing. In children, exposure increases the risk of developing asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia. It can cause coughing, wheezing and breathlessness and also increases the incidence of sinus and ear infections. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to develop asthma, emphysema, lung cancer and heart disease as adults. Children, Shenkin noted, are seldom capable of avoiding riding with adults, or even older teens, who smoke. "So all our efforts to ban smoking in bars or in the workplace are not benefiting our children," he said. "We’ve failed our children." For several months, Shenkin has been working with local doctors, public health groups and police to develop an effective and enforceable ordinance to discourage adults from smoking in their vehicles when children are present. The group has drafted a proposal that will be presented to the Government Operations Committee of the Bangor City Council later this month. If the committee agrees the proposal has merit, public hearings will be scheduled before consideration by the entire council. As drafted, the ordinance would prohibit anyone from lighting up cigarettes, pipes or cigars in any motor vehicle when any person under age 18 is in the vehicle. Violations could incur a $50 fine, but only as a secondary offence, that is, if the vehicle is stopped for some other reason, such as speeding. Physician Geoff Gratwick, who serves on the Bangor City Council, said Friday that he will sponsor the proposal enthusiastically. He sees a ban on smoking in cars as filling an "unmet need to protect a vulnerable group of people — that is, our children, who can’t say no." Gratwick said the ordinance should not be perceived as an intrusive or heavy-handed measure, but rather as an opportunity to raise awareness among parents and other adults about the serious health consequences their smoking can cause in the children they care for. "If you love your children, this is something you should learn not to do," he said. Another supporter of the measure is Shawn Yardley of the city’s Department of Health and Welfare. Yardley said earlier this week that it’s "only logical" to protect children from secondhand smoke in the inescapable confines of a motor vehicle. "To me it makes perfect sense," he said. "My hope is that it will inspire others to look at it logically." If Bangor can lead the way, he said, perhaps state lawmakers will get interested in drafting legislation to extend the protection to all children in the state. Peter Arno, deputy chief of the Bangor Police Department, said Friday that the ordinance could be enforced in much the same way as the state law requiring seat belts to be worn. "This would not create a lot of added work for police," he said. "It’s a situation they would run into in the course of their day-to-day activities." Shenkin said similar measures recently have been adopted by the states of Arkansas and Louisiana and are under consideration in several other states. In Maine, he noted, current law already prohibits foster parents from smoking in their cars or in their homes when foster children are present, indicating the state’s acceptance of secondhand smoke as a health hazard. But Shenkin added that foster parents are state employees and the health of foster children is the state’s responsibility. Private citizens, he said, "should not be concerned that the next step is monitoring tobacco use in homes." The group hopes to garner the support of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce and the medical staff at Eastern Maine Medical Center before presenting the proposal to the City Council. The Government Operations committee is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, in council chambers at City Hall     Sen. Collins Introduces Legislation To Stop Tobacco Shipments Through the Mail 08/08/2006- Senator Susan Collins introduced legislation on Aug. 3 to help crack down on illegal sales of tobacco to children by banning the shipment of cigarettes and other tobacco products through the U.S. mail.   What's the MSA? The States get money from tobacco; tobacco gets it from raising consumer's prices on their product. So smokers pay the MSA money. States get money from taxes AND off the product. Now they are upset that they are getting less money than expected. Derr - raise taxes and drop MSA money, be HONEST about the fact that smokers are paying for the roads that everyone drives on!   The State of Maine has  become another Anti-occupied prohibition casualty, banning smoking from restaurants and bars!!! IF YOU CAN'T SMOKE, DON'T GO! - KEEP YOUR WALLETS SHUT! OVER 600,000 Mainers ARE SMOKERS!     RESEARCHERS BLAST CALIFORNIA EPA REPORT: SECONDHAND SMOKE FINDINGS BIASED, FLAWED   01/30/2006-The American Cancer Society stated unequivocally, in a written comment,  that it did not agree with Cal-EPA's conclusion that secondhand smoke was a cause of breast cancer, and that published evidence did not support the requisite criteria for causation.   DON'T LET THE HEADLINES FOOL YOU Court throws out challenge to EPA findings on secondhand smoke - (December 2002) - The ruling was based on the highly technical grounds that since the EPA didn't actually enact any new regulations (it merely declared ETS to be a carcinogen without actually adopting any new rules), the court had no jurisdiction to rule in the matter.  This court ruling on the EPA report is NOT a stamp of approval for that report. Judge Osteen's criticisms of the EPA report are still completely valid and is accompanied by other experts.

Smokers Rights Newsletter -

updated weekly. Keep abreast of the latest news on the war on the smokers, helpful

hints and our wins across the United States.

Statistics and Data Sciences Group Projects

I think any anti who tries to dismiss the findings of the U.S. Department of Energy labs at Oak Ridge, should be confronted with the question: "Are you saying that DOE researchers committed scientific fraud and that their findings on ETS exposure are untrue?"

More on Second Hand Smoke Frauds

You read the lies about second hand smoke and passive smoke....now read the TRUTH!

Maine Smokers Fuming Over Tax

Maine: State appeals Tobacco Delivery Law ruling

7-23-05 -I'd like to know what other "16" states Rowe is talking about.  Some states are trying to collect taxes from

Internet cigarette sales when an online vendor turns in his customer list.  Some states in New England have tried to

stop mail order delivery of tobacco products but there surely isn't "16" states in New England.

And if parents aren't home to monitor their credit card usage by their teenager, and if the parents aren't home to monitor the teens package delivery's to the home, who's fault is that?  It sure isn't our fault!

Maine: Court strikes down portions of Maine anti-tobacco law

05/31/2005 -U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby said that while Maine's statute is laudable and

well-intentioned, it runs afoul of federal interstate commerce laws by impeding delivery services.

Maine: Taxing the smoke you breathe

7 -08-05 - Taxing the smoke you breathe
Coffee Flavored Coffee by Peter Cook 

Maybe I don't understand all of the details here, but why are they raising cigarette taxes to help balance the budget if they ultimately want to prevent smoking? Won't the latter goal harm the efficacy of the former?

If the Baldacci administration and the legislature really want to take a principled stand against tobacco, it would pass a law to make its sale, use and import illegal in the state of Maine.

But I think the legislature was wrong to remove the right of business owners and customers to make that determination for themselves. Restaurants and bars are private industries, not public utilities.

My major problem with the anti-smoking rationale for the tax hike is that I just do not believe taxation policy should be used for social engineering projects. It's not the state's job to discourage personal behavior just because those in the government happen to disagree with it or believe it to be risky. I would suggest taxing other risky behaviors, but don't want to give the legislature any ideas.

The simple fact of the matter is that smoking is legal.

It's time for the members of the legislature and the governor to stand on conviction and either make smoking illegal, or stop pretending to care about the health of its smoking citizens while profiting from their addiction.

M aine: Panel OKs $1 tax hike on cigarettes - 6-15-05

Black Mountain bans smoking throughout ski resort - starting 1 September 2004.

RUMFORD, Maine -- Skiers who enjoy a smoke in the lodge or on the lift won't be able to light up this winter at the Black Mountain of Maine ski area, where the board of directors has banned the use of all tobacco products.

Senators That Voted Yes for Tobacco Bill - State By State

Senate gives the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products.

Though hailed as a breakthrough by public health groups, the measure faces an uncertain future because it was approved as part of a massive corporate tax bill that must still be reconciled with the House of Representative’s version. Those talks are expected to be long and complex.

click here

 

Maine: Next round of youth cigarette ads is unveiled (Get Ready

6-15-04

Isn't it 'wonderful' how the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine is using the tax money spent by adults who buy cigarettes in Maine?  Now we have to undergo more childish, asinine TV ads when we are trying to watch a program.

Pity they can't use the tax money for prescription drug care and to help sick kids.  Very sad indeed.  I believe the cigarette tax money Mainers shell out should be going toward health care, and not given to TEENS to dream up shoddy commercials that make me think they are on 'ecstasy' when they create them.

That's right! Every time you buy a pack or a carton, that tax money is used to make these commercials.  The FEDS aren't paying for them, and Maine Government isn't paying for them, but the SMOKERS!

I've smoked all of my adult life, and my teeth sure aren't yellow.  I think a little personal hygiene should be taught, don't you?

I wish Maine smokers had a better say in how their tax money is being spent.  I know several health programs this money could better support.

 

Six months on, opinion still split on smoking ban

Bangor Daily News - 6-4-04

"I don't believe the health community ever grasped the financial impact of this," Grotton said. "The law brought forth great pain."

 

 

Maine Smoking privileges cause AMHI tension 

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Four AMHI employees went to a hospital after being injured May 4 in a scuffle that they said was triggered by a forensic patient's demand to smoke more and be left alone while smoking.

Cigarette smoking privileges have traditionally been used as rewards and punishment to control patients' behavior, Morrill said.

 

"The more you make it a big deal the more it gets to be a big deal . . . I don't know what to do with this thing. This is the next thing I'm going to have to tackle," said Jamie Morrill, AMHI's acting superintendent

 

 

Maine Session closes without deals on borrowing or tax relief

A package combining increases in taxes on tobacco and alcohol to raise funding for school aid and property tax relief programs failed in the House on a 62-76 tally.

 

 

There is a bill before the Maine Legislature that would increase the cigarette tax by an outrageous $7.50 per carton. If passed, smokers will have to pay an unbelievable $17.50 per carton in state taxes alone. MySmokersRights wants to encourage our membership to speak out against this ridiculous tax, because if you don't, it will likely pass. So, it's important that you take action immediately to prevent this smoker tax increase and protect your hard-earned money.

Please take a moment to e-mail your state Rep. Philip Bennett today and urge him to reject cigarette tax increases. In your own words tell him:

Reduce spending instead of unfairly targeting smokers with tax increases. 
Smokers in Maine already pay more than their fair share in taxes. 
You'll remember on Election Day whether your legislator voted to increase smoker taxes. 
To write Rep. Philip R. Bennett, the address is:

Rep. Philip R. Bennett
State House Station 2
Augusta, ME 04333

To phone, the number is (207) 287-1430.

 

Partnership For a Tobacco Free Maine

CHOKING MAINE'S ECONOMY

If the Maine Health Coalition wants to ban smoking everywhere, then the Tobacco Settlement Money should be pulled from the state coffers.  Why should the smokers in Maine continue to  pay Maine Healthy Partnerships their big pay checks when all they are doing is controlling people, laying off jobs and closing business's.  It's got to stop

 somewhere!

 

Maine:  Do not smoke if your a foster parent!  The DHS says so!  It's ok if you sprawl on the couch at night drunk though!

DHS creates smoking rules for foster homes, vehicles

2-26-04 - article here

 

 

 

Maine: Smoking ban suffocates profits at area bars ~ and so it starts....

2-16-04

AUGUSTA -- Bar patrons might be finding it easier to take a breath when downing a pint, but the smoking ban is choking local pubs.

 

State sues local bar on smoking violations

2-12-04 - The Attorney General's Office today announced the filing of two lawsuits against bars for allowing smoking in violation of the ban that became effective Jan 1. In both cases, citizen complaints sparked investigations at McGillicuddy's in Brunswick and the Caswell House in Harrison that led to the suits.

article here

Tired of paying high taxes on your cigarettes?  Buy from the Reservations, on-line or roll your own.

Roll Your Own Help

"Robert A. Levy, Cato's senior fellow in constitutional studies and an
expert on tobacco litigation, argues that smoking bans represent
meddling, snooping, busybody government at its worst. He says bans are dismissive of the rights of an unpopular minority -- namely smokers --without any basis in the Constitution, science or logic.

"Ordinarily, we rely on common courtesy and mutual respect when individuals relate to one another." Levy says.  "But nosy, intrusive government has polarized the dispute between smokers and non smokers.  As a result, venom has replaced respect and obstinate behavior has replaced common courtesy.  It is government, not secondhand smoke that has poisoned the atmosphere.

Tourist Season and the Smoking Bans in Maine

Check it out if you plan on vacationing in Maine and if your a smoker.

American Cancer Society Admits "Mistake" in Ad

53,000 deaths caused from second hand smoke?

click here

The anti-smoking zealots believe they can get away with saying or doing anything if the subject is smoking. This proves they can't if we remain vigilant.

Wanda Hamilton

National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals

The claims that second hand smoke causes 50,000 deaths can no longer hold up due to the report by the CDC.

Smoking In The News: Bans & Restrictions!

Keep abreast of the latest news

Business's that have closed due to smoking ban - click here

The AMA Will Kill You 

Along with their buds the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation!!!

We are not part of any other organization, but we are part of the 50 million American citizens who are being taxed to death to pay special interest groups to make us feel like second-class citizens. And we are tired of it.-Spinner  

From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation site:

February 25, 2002 - National Health Organizations Challenge Governors: Increase Excise Tax on Cigarettes and Save Lives

A national coalition of public health organizations today saluted governors who have proposed increasing their states’ cigarette excise taxes and challenged governors and legislators in every state to increase cigarette taxes by a substantial amount.

click here

And this:

The Consumers For Affordable Health of Maine is receiving over  $992,060, until 2004 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Now......where is this money going??!!

Consumers For Affordable Health Care in Maine

COALITION

Read the connection between Consumers of Maine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, then select   Tobacco.                                                                                                                                                                                                  There is a group under the Consumers for Affordable Health Care that calls itself the Coalition.  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation states on their site that they are:

Paying $992,060 to Consumers for Affordable Health Care in Augusta, Maine 

Consumers for Affordable Health Care Foundation 
Augusta, ME 
SmokeLess States: National Tobacco Policy Initiative 
3 years, ending 05/31/04   $992,060  ID#041925 

Alliance For A Healthy Maine Joins Nation's First Multi-State Effort to Raise Tobacco Taxes By 50 Cents

Released: November 16, 2000

The Alliance for a Healthy Maine announced the "Maine Health Access Campaign" that seeks a 50-cent hike in Maine's tobacco excise tax during the 2001 legislative session in order to decrease tobacco use and increase access to health care coverage.

Well, they got it!  I hope all the adult smokers in the state of Maine are happy to be carrying the whole state! When the Tobacco Settlement money was supposed to cover the health care of sick smokers, should there be any.  

"They" want a Tobacco Free Maine, but not before they bleed the smokers dry.  "They" can't "balance the budget" ... "they" can't cover health care without cigarette taxes.  

Maine has $150 million for the "rainy day fund."  Maine has $30 million for laptops for 7th graders.  

The War on Smokers in Maine is UNACCEPTABLE

Constitutional and Antitrust Violations
of the Multistate Tobacco Settlement

Not surprisingly, the object of the crime is money—$206 billion to the states and billions more to contingency fee lawyers. The cover for the crime is the maddening complexity of the Master Settlement Agreement, which documents the deal. The real victims are the people whom the states and their lawyers set out to protect—smokers, who get nothing out of the settlement yet must pay the entire cost.

The Freedom of Choice Pin - Wear It With Pride

You are not alone

click on picture to order

Yet Another Fight Against The Pandemic of Corruption

INFORMATION YOU NEED TO FIGHT BACK!  

You read the lies about second hand smoke and passive smoke....now read the TRUTH!

The dangers of passive smoke are a scientific fraud, and those who say there are dangers are either incompetent, or liars. For ample scientific information on the passive smoke fraud, click here..

More on Second Hand Smoke Frauds

Maine Health Care   click here

                  A sad story, indeed.........

The Anti Crusade Against the Elderly click here

The reason the Government is working to get us all to quit smoking, is so Big Pharm can get our money for quit smoking aides!  

Getting burned by the high cost of pre-manufactured cigarettes? Start saving your hard earned money by "Making Your Own". Join the elite crowd of smoker's who have begun to "fight back".

The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter

Sign up to have it emailed to you

We are not part of any other organization, but we are part of the 50 million American citizens who are being taxed to death to pay special interest groups to make us feel like second-class citizens. And we are tired of it.-Spinner

"The taxing power...
must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change."
Ronald Reagan - 1981

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