Defiance: OH On Line Petition for Congressional Hearing

We want to take our country back…

WE THE PEOPLE request that Congressional Hearings be conducted to expose the truth about smoking bans being imposed throughout the United States. We desire to once again be a free nation whose health is not controlled by special interest groups. The corruption behind these bans is incredible. We have the right as citizens to ask that Congress conduct an investigation, utilizing neutral experts who have no connection to the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, World Health Organization, American Medical Association (who all profited heavily from the RWJF), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or any other organization or pharmaceutical company who has profited from these smoking bans.

Smoking bans across the U.S. are legislated or voted in based on lies and pure greed for financial gain and/or power. We ask that the following areas be investigated:

1. Smoking bans are based on “selected” and “cherry picked” studies. Studies that show no causal relationship are either ignored or discredited
2. Ex-Surgeon General Carmona’s 2006 Report
3. The money behind the bans – the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
4. Those who profit
5. Who are the 53,000?
6. Why are total bans the law when we have OSHA whose job it is to protect all workers?
7. Global corruption (Congress must investigate the U.S. involvement)
8. Why are there no lifetime limits placed on donations from foundations?

IN OHIO (where we’re most familiar with the damage):
• Bars & restaurants are closing BY THE HUNDREDS!
• Anhueser Busch sales to four large cities in Ohio are down 7.8% since the ban (draft beer down 8.1%) while sales to carry outs & drive-thrus are up 1.7%. People stay home (and DRINK and SMOKE at home). That’s a huge loss to the distributors and an even more devastating loss to Ohio business owners. Sales & Use Taxes losses for the last half of 2007 will prove to have hit Ohio hard!
• Ohio Job & Family Services posted a big loss of jobs in the hospitality & leisure industry instead of the even larger projected growth.
• Ohio is leading the U.S. foreclosure rates (obviously not totally to blame on Ohio’s smoking ban)

All because of smoking bans based on lies and corruption, Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Hawaii and all the others are suffering HUGE losses to business, jobs and their economy. And our citizens are mad as hell.

Follow the Money:
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation paid the ACS, ALA and AHA, etc. $99 million SO FAR for smoking bans. Why? Because RWJF is JOHNSON & JOHNSON who bought Pfizer OTC to get Nicorette in June 2006 and promised a per-share gain BY 2009. Then, they PAID the ACS almost $1 million to market nicotine replacement therapies. We are OUTRAGED that policies are driven by this pharmaceutical company FOR THEIR GAIN. How about a $75,000 “grant” to build grassroots support for an increased tobacco tax to fund tobacco cessation programs… or the $71,120 “grant” to pursue policy change to MANDATE coverage of smoking cessation services by Medicaid (grant recipient: American Cancer Society). Johnson & Johnson PAID for smoking bans, PAID to corner the market on the smoking cessation drugs, PAID the ACS to market their drugs and programs, PAID the ACS to lobby to have Medicaid pay for their products and PAID to have tobacco taxes increased to fund tobacco cessation programs. This has to stop. This is corruption in the biggest sense of the word. Johnson & Johnson makes money and we lose our businesses and our Constitutional Rights? (Private Property, to name one) Who is watching them? Who is protecting us?

And if sales to drive thrus and carry outs have increased and more people now drink and smoke at home, based on the ACS propaganda, THEY’RE responsible for putting the family in danger, instead of allowing drinking and smoking in an adult establishment where their alcohol consumption is monitored and limited.

The real cancer is the smoking bans and it’s a nationwide disease. The real deaths are our businesses and jobs (and homes).
The real cancer is the erosion of our Constitutional Rights. When you make decisions that impact our businesses, then you have TAKEN our businesses. We’re responsible for the loans, the mortgages, and all the bills yet YOU limit our clientele? The real statistics are the smokers who freeze outside in inclemate weather. The real statistics are the people beaten and killed when they step outside their safe place of employment to smoke, left vulnerable to thieves and murders. The real cancer is the hatred being created towards smokers. This issue is splitting this country in two and the unfortunate thing is, it’s all based on lies. People think because they read it in print, it must be true. Someone needs to be held accountable for the JUNK that was passed off as science. The lies perpetrated by the ACS, Ex-Surgeon General Carmona (who wasn’t around long after he did his “report”) and others created this cancer.

And for those haters of smokers, have you given any thought to the consequences of these bans and your hatred? If they can “TAKE” our businesses, what makes you think they won’t “TAKE” your homes? This has a much bigger implication than smoking. Just wait. The RWJF has expanded their “grants” to include obesity. Wait until they dictate what you family can and cannot eat. Don’t think it will happen? That’s what the business owners thought. What’s the difference between business “owner” and home “owner”? Our places are not “public”. Public funds don’t pay for them. The public is not forced into our businesses. They can elect to patronize or not patronize a business. THAT’S America! (or was) They’ll be in your HOMES and family business next.

Since this is a nationwide problem, we’ve initiated a nationwide petition. You can sign the condensed on-line petition, view the petition in its entirety and view all our supporting documentation at: http://opponentsofohiobans.com/onlinepetition.aspx…
If you don’t think the American People are mad as hell, read some of the comments on our website left by those who signed our petition.

This is America. WE are “WE THE PEOPLE”. We are NOT going to be run by lobbyists or pharmaceutical companies! WE DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION. If we are to lose our Constitutional Rights, Freedoms and our businesses, you OWE US THE TRUTH and an INVESTIGATION.