Where Does Control Stop?

Where Does Control Stop?
Matthew Q. Llewellyn, Founder
The American Libertarian Movement
ONLINE BLOG

For just over 26 hours now a new law has been in effect. The FDA, having a new and sweeping authority enacted a ban on all flavored cigarettes. These cigarettes can not be produced or sold anywhere in the United States. This new power comes from the Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act which was signed into power by President Barack Hussein Obama.

The tobacco control act, among other things, states a need to control the number of young smokers as this control will lead to a lower number of older smokers. Due to the rising cost of health care, our government believes it is their responsibility to reduce health care cost by controlling smoking. Looking out for your children as well, the bill, according to Obama, will stop evil tobacco companies from marketing cigarettes to your children. Obama stated, "constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn and where they play. Most insidiously, they are offered products with flavorings that mask the taste of tobacco and make it even more tempting."

Really?

Where they live... This must mean all those commercials big tobacco puts out, right? Tell me, exactly how is big tobacco marketing its product towards children where they live? Advertising tobacco products on radio and television was made illegal over a decade ago. The only place a tobacco company could possibly have an advertisement in your home would be in magazines that are geared towards an adult nature. If this is the case then I believe we have a different question to ask. Rather than accuse big tobacco of marketing to children where they live through these magazines, perhaps we should inquire as to why parents are issuing their 13 year old the latest copy of juggs or hustler.

Where they learn... This should just go without question, but, I'll cover it anyway. When is the last time you walked into a school and found a tobacco advertisement. Has big tobacco started a movement and started placing their advertisements in school buses and classrooms? Could it be that they are advertising on billboards which are visible to children along the bus route? No... it couldn't, because big tobacco is also banned from advertising on bill boards. If we're going to talk facts, let's talk facts. The only thing you will find in schools, which is where children are indoctrinated... I'm sorry... "learn"... are anti-smoking posters handed out via our tax dollars through the CDC, FDA, etc and so on. Interestingly enough, it has been proven, time and time again, that children are more tempted to smoke by anti-smoking posters than they have been by every other type of previously legal advertising combined. In reality, it's the government that is marketing tobacco to children... not big tobacco.

Where they play... Has anyone, anywhere, ever, at anytime, seen a big tobacco rep walking around the playground handing out samples? Anyone? No one? Not one person at all? really? This is absolutely shocking to me folks. Obama says big tobacco is marketing to children where they live, learn and play, but as we can clearly see, that is absolutely impossible. As established, the only people tempting children to smoke, are our elected officials. Of course we can't really blame our government for causing children to smoke via these anti-smoking campaigns, after all, they are just looking out for the best interest of the children right?

Putting everything aside and assuming the best intentions of government; Is it possible for us to find out what their logic in all of this is? If only we had a quote taken directly from a government representative in a high position of power, informing us about their position.

OH CRAP! Here's one right here...

“These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers." - FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg

Folks... their intentions couldn't be more obvious. They are trying to protect children and young adults from using flavored tobacco products so they won't become regular smokers.

It all makes perfect and clear sense now. The government is banning products which are considered gateways to dangerous habits. I'm going to miss tobacco and alcohol but this is for the childr... What? They're not putting any bans on alcohol? How could that be possible?

Alcohol producers make their greatest profits from the sell of flavored, alcoholic beverages. In fact, there are thousands of avenues dedicated to this. Just watching my television for a half hour, and searching through the channels, I found an immense amount of commercials for alcohol and shows dedicated to alcohol. We have commercials showing you how fun it is to go to the bar, and how, after consuming their drink, you become popular with the opposite sex. We have the food network and other special channels who host entire specials teaching us how to mix drinks with common fruits, vegetables and other drinks found in the average kitchen. Children can't even play baseball or go to a professional sporting event without being exposed to alcohol. Whether it's dad bringing a case of beer to the sideline of a kids game or a family wading through the crowds around the beer stand at the stadium, children are regularly and consistently exposed to alcohol. We even teach children about the benefit of a daily glass of wine in school... a glass of wine which could easily become a bad habit. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), "Habits developed in the youth are very hard to break later in life."

I don't know about you folks, but it seems to me that the only company advertising their product to our youth where they live, learn and play are the alcohol manufacturers. But... there must be an obvious reasoning here. Tobacco is a gateway drug, which is why they are so determined to ban it, yet alcohol, obviously, is not a gateway drug.

"A recent study by Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, states that the earlier children use the gateway drugs tobacco or alcohol or marijuana, the more likely they are to move on to other drugs." - Drug Watch International

Wait! What?

I thought alcohol couldn't possibly be a gateway drug. I mean... what's going on here? Tobacco companies are being attacked and their products banned left and right because they are gateways to worse things in life, such as tobacco addiction or other drug use. Why is alcohol not receiving the same restrictions folks?

Alcohol is not only full of literally thousands of flavor possibilities, but it is readily available and unmonitored in virtually every single home in the United States. Every drinking adult with children has alcohol stored in their home, whether it be in the fridge or in a closet, it's there. Alcohol is advertised to children from every possible direction we can imagine. It's at baseball, basketball, football and hockey. It's on TV commercials, it has TV shows dedicated to it and it is glorified in every single magazine you can find on the shelves... magazines which by their very nature, are marketed for children and young adults, such as the latest pop culture or skating magazine. Every single possible place you can go or imagine, in every single place children live, learn and play, they are exposed to alcohol in overwhelming numbers. Interestingly enough... what will you not find advertised or in a position to expose itself to children in all these same places is what? ... Tobacco.

So what's with the all the laws attacking tobacco? I mean seriously... what's going on here?

Are you ready for the truth folks?

Here it comes...

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Almost...

And here it is. This law is exactly what the bill which give it its power is all about... control. The government wants to control every single aspect of our lives and force more and more people to become dependent on them. Think about this for a minute... and I mean really think about this.

Tobacco is a user-effective drug, meaning, its effect are primarily directed towards the user. To date, there is not a single shred of credible evidence suggesting tobacco has any harm whatsoever to anyone but the actual user. This is why all the anti-smoking and second hand smoke people are required to say "may" instead of "does". In fact, there's not a single shred of credible evidence that smoking causes cancer, which is why the packs also say "may" not "does" or "will". Does it cause numerous health problems? You bet it does. High blood pressure, heart disease, emphysema, hardening of arteries, tooth decay... the list goes on. But these are not what they focus on... they focus on the big and scary one which is much, much harder to fix. Let's face it, if you tell someone they are having a heart attack, you are able to comfort them by explaining the steps that are going to be taken over the following few hours to save their life. However, if you tell someone, God forbid, that they have cancer, you'll be delivering a blow which may cause fear for years to come. The same goes with saying "you might", or "may".

Again I must ask... Why Tobacco? Is not alcohol much more dangerous? Let's touch on this very quickly.

According to the Division of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, "About 90% of people in Western countries use alcohol at some time in their lives, and 40% experience temporary or permanent alcohol-related impairment in some area of life as a result of drinking." Furthermore, "Acute alcohol use is associated with suicide. Suicide completers have high rates of positive blood alcohol. Intoxicated people are more likely to attempt suicide using more lethal methods. Alcohol may be important in suicides among individuals with no previous psychiatric history."

Of course these are user-effective problems... the problem with alcohol, versus tobacco, is that alcohol is not only user-effective. According to Markham's Behavioral Health, in 2008, 87,000 innocent people were killed in the United States by drunk drivers. That's 29 times more people than killed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

Folks... why is our highly concerned government, who is only looking out for our best interests, going after tobacco and not alcohol? Easy. Tobacco has become the hated habit of our society, being despised not only by non-smokers, but by smokers and hardcore drug users, such as meth, who don't smoke cigarettes. But alcohol... well... everyone loves alcohol. And there you have your answer.

The government is slowly taking more and more control of our private lives. More and more, every day, every year, with every bill, they are moving further and further into our private lives, controlling every possible function we will let them get their hands on.

So my question for you is this articles name... What does control stop?

They choose to control tobacco today claiming rising healthcare cost and so on. But what about tomorrow? What if they decide the population itself is becoming too large. Will there be population control? The Chinese already have it... will we soon follow in suit? Will single parents and married alike, who can not afford children but keep popping them out, be forced to get fixed? What about breeding? Will that become forcibly selective? It's already occuring in many countries folks. The government cross checks people, uses a predetermined guideline and establishes who you can marry and who you can procreate with. Will our government soon declare, that in the best interest of our nation and health, that they will determine this for us as well? Where does it stop?

Folks... it doesn't stop... and... it doesn't just stop at control that is as obvious as this. It goes all the way to your financial affairs as well. The government continues to raise the taxes on tobacco higher and higher in an effort to control our private lives, thus forcing us to make the decisions that they can't force us to make any other way. Eventually, the cost due to taxes will be so incredibly high that no one will smoke. However, the programs that tobacco taxes funded will continue to open their doors every day but will need a new source of funding. When this happens, and it easily will folks, all of our taxes are going to go up. And it won't stop there. As they move from habit to habit, the cycle will just continue to repeat itself. As time goes on, more and more people will find themselves needing government assistance, thus making them dependent on government, thus giving the power hungry people in our government the control over your lives that they so desperately desire.

Where does it stop? Well... I guess we'll just have to find out. I bid you good day friends.