A Round of Applause

Take a moment, as there’s finally cause to celebrate. The Netherlands has pulled back their ban on smoking tobacco… at least in the smaller pubs. When faced with the massive amounts of pubs that have had to close up shop, this is an amazing financial move… and an incredible step forward in the night life of Holland. Lesley Foottit covered the story in his article MEP applauds relaxation of smoking ban in Holland. We’ll definitely be following news from Amsterdam as this unfolds… if not make a trip up there to check it out (I haven’t been back since the bans). Awesome news!

[originally posted on December 16th, 2010]

The Tasmanian Loonie

On Tasmania, the Southern Island of Australia, a quarter of the citizens are smokers. And now the “Green Jewel of Australia” has put forward a proposal that would ban smoking anywhere on Tasmania. Are they kidding? No… apparently not. If passed, the proposal would criminalize the sale, possession, and consumption of tobacco throughout the entire state. Fortunately, there have been some who have reminded the government of how prohibition affected America. Whether or not those voices will help stop the proposal remains to be seen. For more, check out the main article.

From the New Zealand Herald:

Tasmania may become world’s first ‘smoke-free’ state

Some food for thought. The average percent of smokers throughout the world is 17.7% of the population. Tasmania is well over the average, at 25% of their population, yet their life expectancy is an average 77.95 years [link]. Their life expectancy is well over the world average of 67.2 years. It even manages to beat out life expectancy leaders like Iceland (76.6 years) and Japan (76.5 years). Japan has the highest percentage of smokers, with 59% of their population lighting up. Iceland is up there as well, with 31% of their population smoking. Neither the media nor science has any answers as to why some of the highest life expectancy rates are found in countries with high smoking rates, so they choose to ignore it instead.

Check the numbers. Something’s not right here.

Thanks goes out to Joline from New Zealand for getting the word out!

45% of food-service workers smoke

Lindsey Anderson published the article “Workplace study: 45% of food-service workers smoke” in USA Today (2009). She covers many of the points-of-interest in a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Some of the quick stats you’ll likely find interesting:

• 28% of all full-time employees (age 18 to 64) smoke

• 45% of all food-service workers smoke

• 42.9% of all construction workers and miners smoke

• 12.3% of all workers in education, training and libraries smoke

Does anyone else see a trend? I’ve worked construction AND service. Although we work hard, we fucking party hard as well. I’m not seeing many librarians coming down to the bar and shakin’ their bootie (my apologies to the few —VERY HOT!— exceptions). Education? Same there. Yet, these same peeps who don’t shake it get to vote to pass laws that attack the rest of us. If this doesn’t smell fishy to just about EVERYONE, then I just don’t know what would. And these same peeps are suppose to be the educated people… not the stupid ones.

Ordering Cloves Legally

Yes, Americans can purchase clove cigarettes online legally as long as they are importing the kreteks for personal consumption. This is a crude reduction of the actual law, but it’s true. The laws that banned the sale of cloves in the States do not cover importing (on the personal level).

Wikipedia has slightly different information on the legality. In the main article for kreteks [Here on Wikipedia], it says that importing for personal use can be seized by customs, but the government can not stop “gifts” being sent to you that include clove cigarettes. However, in the main article on the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control bill [Here on Wikipedia], it states: The bill makes no provisions that ban the import of the banned items for personal consumption, only for “sale or distribution”

After checking the credentials, I decided to try it out. Clove Cigarettes Online was cheaper than the site that I’d used previously for importing kreteks. You need to send them the money via Moneygram. I ordered three cartons of Djarums, two blacks and one black tea. From Jakarta, Indonesia to Austin, Texas, shipping took exactly one week. Two days of that time were spent in customs. After the cost for shipping and the moneygram, the cost for three cartons of Djarums was right around $85. That’s awesome, and far cheaper than before the bans. I’m definitely back on cloves full time.

A Win Against the FDA

A Win Against the FDA: Many European smokers have already seen images slapped onto their smokes showing the possible negative side-effects of smoking. When they tried to do the same in America, the tobacco companies fought back using the 1st Amendment. As of November 7, a win was made in court in favor of smokers and the tobacco companies, and against the FDA, halting the attempts to add these labels in September of 2012. Not only are the labels offensive, but it has already been shown that smokers overestimate mortality risks, the risk of lung cancer, and life expectancy loss [“Risk Beliefs and Smoking Behavior”, Viscusi and Hakes, 2008, PDF]. American smokers can celebrate the win, and won’t be seeing half their pack covered up by these labels as long as the ruling holds. Obama’s administration has already appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but most sources state it will be a difficult battle for the FDA to come out on top here. Read the full article [Here on The Washington Times], and thanks to Ren for the link!

(Source: the-art-of-smoking.deviantart.com)

Quitting smoking can kill you

You read that right: Quitting smoking can kill you. Have you tried quitting smoking before? Ever had a thought like “it’d just be easier to kill myself”? Well, one of the drugs used to quit smoking is called Chantix. Read the side-effects carefully. It can take thoughts like “I want to kill myself” and make them a reality. No, seriously, read the side-effects here. Anyone planning to quit this New Years and has plans to use drugs to do it, be sure to read the side-effects before going into it… or… at least put my name down on your life insurance policy before you make the attempt. Me love you long time!

Pfizer’s original study [PDF] found “no evidence of increased adverse events”. This has come under public and scientific scrutiny, as the FDA’s own findings show that there are ten times more violent outbreaks in Chantix users than even in those using anti-depressants. Reports backing the violent and suicidal side-effects of Chantix seemed to have popped up in tandem. Here are only a few:

• Report from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices

• Report from the National Center for Biotechnology Information

• Report from the BMJ

This article on BNET has excellent coverage of the issue:

Anti-Smoking Drug Linked to Violence, but Pfizer’s Data Says the Opposite

[Originally Posted on Burn as One on November 1st, 2010]

Updates and a Hint of Clove

Intense Deliberation just turned us on to the “Callidora Theme” by Pour Etre Belle. Needless to say, we’re undergoing massive updates. We’re going to link to other smoking blogs for submissions and should have everything updated in a few hours. For the color scheme, we’re going with the tried and true Djarum Black color scheme: red, white and black. It’s a fitting choice, as all four of these prosmoking movements and groups that we’ve launched were all kicked off in response to the decision to ban clove cigarettes in the United States. I believe the pirate word for this is “venganza”, no? The war continues!