Prop 86 under attack from Tobacco Profiteers

In Germany where they already have oppressively high taxes on cigarettes, the mafia sells them illegally on street corners, simply so people can evade the taxes. There, my friends who smoked begged me to smuggle some cigarettes through customs on my way back from the Czech Republic.

This kind of supply-side approach doesn't work. This is attempt to "rid this society of tobacco without making illegal" is just prohibition-lite. People will keep smoking whether cigarettes are cheap, expensive, or even illegal -- the only difference is the economic cost of their habit. At least when they are cheap, people might be able to afford aids to quit, should they want to.

In a free society, anything which is legal should also be free of being taxed to oblivion. If people chose to smoke, that is their choice, and any attempt to interfere with what they chose to do with their body is a patently coercive measure. This is no less coercive than interfering with a woman's right to chose abortion, or a patients right to chose among medical treatments of various types. This might be a bad choice, but there are many other choices people believe to be bad that we nonetheless tolerate - what is the biggest killer in this society? Not tobacco, unhealthy high-cholesterol foods. Nonethless, you can buy a Big Mac without paying an $8 excise tax.

Vote no on this oppressive measure. Going along with such things in the name of "health" not the only way to be a "lefty" activist. Some of us still believe in individual freedom.

Food and abortion are not like tobacco at all. Any food, including hamburgers, is better than tobacco. Abortion is also far better for women than unwanted pregnancy; a woman faces death every time she becomes pregnant and an unwanted pregnancy is a disaster psychologically as well. Abortion is a necessary part of women's healthcare, whether over 18 or under 18. You should tell your friends to stop smoking; that is the solution to their craving for a poisonous drug. These taxes on tobacco are commonly referred to as luxury taxes, and if people want the luxury of indulging in inhaling a poisonous substance, they can pay for it or quit. It is much cheaper to quit. The biggest killer in any capitalist society is the profit motive, which causes poverty and war; it is not tobacco or high cholesterol. It is obvious that the reason there is resistance in the left-of-center political community to this tobacco tax is because there is smoking on the part of some of those who consider themselves to be opponents of this bankrupt social order, capitalism. THE SOLUTION TO YOUR SMOKING PROBLEM IS TO QUIT SMOKING RIGHT NOW, and if you have to pay more for your cancer sticks, that will hasten your long overdue decision to quit smoking, or if you are under 18, to never start. You can eat hamburgers, vegetables, celery sticks, carrots, fruit, drink lots of water. just go without smoking ("go cold turkey") or whatever other positive remedy you have to kick the deadly smoking habit. Acupuncture is helpful as is group therapy offered by Kaiser for Kaiser members, and various charity organizations. If there is a will, there is a way to kick that stinking rotten deadly smoking habit. And as to those of you who are under age 30, you can certainly kick that habit right now with very little effort, and we must all teach all children to never smoke.

ONE OF THE BIG ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS IS THE DECLINE OF SMOKING IN THIS SOCIETY. Before 1984, we had lots of smoking in the offices and other buildings in this society, and it made lots of people sick, both smokers and non-smokers. The rise of health consciousness is always good for any society, and we should stay on that path.

Yes on 86, 87 and 89, No on all the rest of the state propositions, especially NO ON 85 TO DEFEND THE RIGHT TO ABORTION AND NO ON 90 TO SAVE RENT CONTROL. Tenants in SF: Yes on H, and Yes on F through K. IF YOU HAVE MOVED, YOU MUST RE-REGISTER. Go to your country registrar this coming week and register and complete a vote by mail application as well. For peace candidates, vote Peace & Freedom or Green. WE NEED EVERY VOTE.