Monday, May 5, 2008

GOP Willing To Watch Kids Become Addicts

As the proof keeps rolling in, the Republicans are looking out for the few individual bar owners interests, and protecting their bottom line from the anti-smoking nanny staters

Despite all the common sense and public health issues that have prompted entire countries to ban smoking, Wisconsin is worried about the poor addicted smoker. Where will they go, and why have we been so mean to these second hand smoke puffing cherubs of death?

Besides cutting down on heart attacks and diseases related to second hand smoke, we can ad this story to the long list of benefits that never sink bellow their special interest bottom line.

AP-“Restaurant tobacco bans influence teen smoking
A Massachusetts study suggests that restaurant smoking bans may play a big role in persuading teens not to become smokers. Youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones, the researchers reported in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The findings back up the idea that smoking bans discourage tobacco use in teens by sending the message that smoking is frowned upon in the community, as well as simply by reducing their exposure to smokers in public places. The study found that strong bans had a bigger influence on whether smoking grew into a habit, reducing their chances of becoming smokers by 40 percent.”

Let’s face it, Republicans rarely look further than their own elections, so maybe it’s a little to much to ask that they peer off into the future and think long and hard about their legacy; painful deaths and health care costs all paid for by future generations.

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