Town of Westminster, MA going too far...

[DonH]

I told you Westminster was filled with ornery rednecks!

http://www.wcvb.com/health/westminster-considers-1stinnation-tobacco-sales-ban/29675512

 

[Gdaddy]

Man, they shot that down quick! Apparently the government didn't learn anything from alcohol prohibition.

 

[FmGrowit]

The health department needs to take away freedom of speech first, then have the public hearing. That way the health department will get the results they want.

Have a vote and anyone who opposes the ban gets put in jail.

 

[leverhead]

I told you Westminster was filled with ornery rednecks!

I'll still bet that the high minded ones win.

 

[Bex]

The health department needs to take away freedom of speech first, then have the public hearing. That way the health department will get the results they want.

Have a vote and anyone who opposes the ban gets put in jail.

Good one! This is the perfect solution....

Just another attempt to control an uncontrollable world....keeping young sons away from cigarettes, etc. You cannot be with them all the time, and at some point, young children grow up and make their own decisions, whether Mommy and Daddy, of a Board of Health chairwoman, like it or not.

"We're trying to save lives and prevent children from being future users."
This is a woman who should have stayed in the kitchen....

 

[DonH]

I'll still bet that the high minded ones win.

Nope, Mass has the town meeting system. All residents get to vote on these things. And it's the ornery cusses that always show up to the meetings to vote.

 

[deluxestogie]

"The decision rests solely with the board [of Health]..."

Bob

 

[DonH]

"The decision rests solely with the board [of Health]..."

Bob

Ooh, that's not good. But in a small town pressure can be brought to bear. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of the local store owners. But if the health board people want to make a national name for themselves, then it could go bad. It would be a bad trend to see start.

 

[bonehead]

if the states really cared they would spend all the tobacco settlement money on cesation classes and education. it sounds like a (do as i say not as i do). push your beliefs on other people sounds about rite. another spanish inquisition by monty python in the making. funny movie

 

[BarG]

It's really not 'nanny police', but a psychology of zealotry amongst individuals who are in governments, local councils, etc. who most probably had some loved one who smoked/had smoked deal with a cancer or illness situation in their lives. It is easy enough to project the responsibility for our decisions on to tobacco companies, soft drink companies, fatty snack companies, etc. - this zealotry is rampant in Ireland, as well. The politicians here are 'proud' to have been one of the first countries in the EU to ban smoking inside public places. I will not tell you the number of pubs that went out of business because of this. However, it does appear that 'they' are eroding the social acceptance of smoking - there is little public defense of the right to smoke, etc. Pub owners here did not become pro-active to try to save their businesses. In January, a law is passing here where you will be fined if you drive in your car with a 'minor', while smoking, due to cherry-picked second hand smoke 'statistics' (despite recent trials that have been unable to show a connection). I don't know how that relates to a 17 year old smoker, driving alone in his car, though....

The health department needs to take away freedom of speech first, then have the public hearing. That way the health department will get the results they want.

Have a vote and anyone who opposes the ban gets put in jail.

Every time you give up a freedom you are less free. In my opinion it's a move against our constitution. There are a lot of movemonts out to destroy the very thing that gives them the right to do what they do. If anything like that passes, those folks have there own damn selves to blame, when they make it illegal for whatever is next on the agenda. Give them an inch they'll take a mile!

 

[leverhead]

Ooh, that's not good. But in a small town pressure can be brought to bear...

Tar and feather?

 

[DonH]

Tar and feather?

I'm thinking of opening a torch and pitchfork store.

 

[BarG]

Not necessary, save your money, Just be sure to visit your local voting booth next election. They get their power from the peoples, that means you. me. and all of us. Like minded people have to unite against people who are well organized with an agenda to tear us down.

 

[leverhead]

I'm thinking of opening a torch and pitchfork store.

I love the smell of kerosene in the night.

 

[deluxestogie]

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/news/ci_26936907/westminster-tobacco-outrage-fuels-talk-recall

"In the aftermath of an emotional public hearing on the town's proposed tobacco-sales ban, some residents were discussing the possibility of recalling the Board of Health members who proposed the new policy."

Bob

 

[DonH]

Thanks, Bob, for that link. My favorite part:

Police Chief Sam Albert said Thursday he and his officers were anticipating an unruly crowd going into the event.
"Oh yes, I knew this would happen just from the pulse of the community," Albert said. "People talking at coffee shops, at ball games, at events."...


Albert estimated there were between 550 and 600 attendees in total at the hearing, even though the cafeteria's capacity is just 440. About a hundred people were in the hallway outside the cafeteria, he explained, and when police moved away from the doors to monitor the crowd, people in the hallway came into the room.

There were at least a hundred people in attendance that were not Westminster residents, Albert added, but the majority of the crowd was made up of emotional locals.
"There are really outraged people," he said. "It's more about taking away their choice, taking away their freedom, the feeling that government is taking over."

​

"Emotional locals." I like that one.
​

 

[DGBAMA]

Hats off to the Westminster Community for standing up not for tobacco, but for their rights.

For the store owner, the 5-6% of tobacco sales is not a big deal, what is a big deal is that probably represents 30%or more of his customer base and he would lose most of the other revenue from those customers. If they have to go elsewhere for tobacco, they will also get their convenience items at the new place. Tobacco at a convenience store is not a good profit item, it is a "door buster", it brings customers in, which generates profit when they buy other stuff.

 

[Bex]

Every time you give up a freedom you are less free. In my opinion it's a move against our constitution.

I always wonder about this, when I hear this debate. We are not 'free' in most senses of the word, but restricted by laws, society, peers, morals, etc. While we have freedom of speech, assembly, etc. (and there are caveats to each of these, as well), many of our other 'freedoms' are things we are free to do until we get caught. Sadly, there is nothing in the constitution about the freedom to smoke....

 

[Bex]

Hats off to the Westminster Community for standing up not for tobacco, but for their rights.

For the store owner, the 5-6% of tobacco sales is not a big deal, what is a big deal is that probably represents 30%or more of his customer base and he would lose most of the other revenue from those customers. If they have to go elsewhere for tobacco, they will also get their convenience items at the new place. Tobacco at a convenience store is not a good profit item, it is a "door buster", it brings customers in, which generates profit when they buy other stuff.

And herein lies the entire issue. Money and profit. You can be sure that if there was no profit motive to this resistance, this would have slipped through without much notice. The issue was not whether you could smoke in this town, public places, enclosed areas, etc. It was whether you could purchase tobacco there. Little to do with freedom, but a lot to do with capitalism....