Issue #775 – Property Right Newsletter, October 10, 2014

?October 10, 2014 – Issue #775

“Common sense is not so common.”
– Voltaire

Australia: David Leyonhjelm: Senator David Leyonhjelm thanks smokers for keeping up habit, says generosity via taxes ‘truly staggering.’ A crossbench senator has thanked Australia’s smokers and attacked successive governments for increasing tobacco taxes in a speech in Federal Parliament.

Liberal Democratic Party Upper House representative David Leyonhjelm voiced his gratitude to smokers for the $8 billion they provide in tobacco taxes each year. “Your generosity to the nation’s Treasury is truly staggering,” he told the Senate.

In his speech Senator Leyonhjelm argued the tax on tobacco hits the poor hardest and makes the Government’s tax increase “all the more perverse”. Senator Leyonhjelm also criticised bans on smoking in public places and institutions, including prison.

Shipyard workers picket smoking ban at six Vigor Industrial facilities in Oregon and Washington conducted unfair labor practice (ULP) strikes. Opland said the company has expanded tremendously over the last several years, and with that growth it has begun operating “more and more like a dictatorship.”

Big tobacco pushes e-cigarettes as ‘medicine’: E-cigarettes are a medicine designed to reduce the harm of smoking according to documents 7.30 has obtained from a British American Tobacco company’s submission to the Therapeutic Goods Association, but health experts dispute that claim.

World Health Organization Wants in on Bloomberg’s Sweet, Sweet Cigarette Tax Money.: Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s most enduring legacy is that of the ultimate nanny stater.

In addition to his failed Big Gulp ban, ban on trans fats, and ban on e-cigarette use in public places, Nanny Mike also pushed a range of anti-smoking policies including a ban on smoking in public places and a really massive tobacco tax hike that drove the price of a pack of cigarettes in Manhattan up to as much as $14.50. All in the name of public health.

Fired Researcher Who Killed Self Was Evaluating Drug Backed by Clark.: The researcher who committed suicide after being fired from the British Columbia health ministry in 2012 was designing a way to evaluate a project that was one of Premier Christy Clark’s pet initiatives and that included a drug that continues to generate serious safety warnings.

At the time that Champix was being considered for funding in B.C. it was already the subject of warnings elsewhere.

The Tyee reported that France stopped paying for the drug publicly and both Health Canada and the Food and Drug Administration in the United States issued warnings about the drug.

Time to end nationwide litigation against Pfizer anti-smoking drug Chantix.: All of the nearly 2,900 lawsuits claiming pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.’s smoking cessation drug Chantix triggered suicidal thoughts and other psychological problems in patients have been settled – for about $300 million – so the nationwide litigation should now be dismissed, a federal judge in Alabama ruled Monday.

Despite the end to those lawsuits, Pfizer next week will continue its fight with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a less severe warning label for Chantix.

Airbrushing History

Tucker Carlson:: Smoking in children’s cartoons is a “symbol of freedom and masculinity.” Expressed outraged that male comic book characters were being “wussified.”

The Truth? Latest Anti-Smoking Effort Is a Hot Mess.: Using Paparazzi Shots of Smoking Celebrities and Calling Them Idiots Is Cheap. With great power comes great responsibility. Spider-Man’s uncle said that once.

And if it’s good enough for Spider-Man’s uncle, it’s good enough for the folks over at the American Legacy Foundation.

In the latest iteration of its “Truth” campaign, the group switches gears from getting kids to stop smoking to getting celebrities to stop smoking – while blaming them for teen smoking and calling them unwitting dupes of Big Tobacco.