The Yes on Proposition 56 Folks Had a Deadly Rally Yesterday
Did you brave the damp yesterday and see a collection of deadly artifacts–a coffin filled with toe tags, headstones, and skeletons at the Gazebo in Eureka?
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association in California and American Heart Association created a performance art piece in Eureka designed to bring attention to the Yes on Proposition 56 point of view. According to a joint press release, “The group poured 5,600 toe tags from a body bag into a makeshift coffin adorned with Marlboro labels at a downtown rally to illustrate the deadly impact tobacco has on kids and the importance of Proposition 56 to save lives.”
Proposition 56 will increase the tax on cigarettes by $2 per pack. (Other tobacco products will also see a tax increase.) (See Ballotpedia for more information on the proposition.)
According to the Tim Gibbs, Senior Director, Government Relations, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network California,
[The action yesterday in Eureka] is no joke to us. These toe tags symbolize the thousands of California children that start to smoke this year, and eventually die from the addiction….Nearly 17,000 California kids start smoking every year, and one-third of them, or 5,600, will eventually die from tobacco-related disease….Big Tobacco preys upon our children in hopes of hooking the next generation of smokers, and they are lying to California voters relentlessly in deceitful and discredited ads.
The No on 56 campaign, which outraised its opponent by over 36 million dollars, argues that the proposition is a tax hike designed to benefit insurance companies and other special interests.
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The no on 56 campaign is afraid to argue their real issue with the prop. That being that a tax increase will most like have a huge impact on their sales, but they can’t say that….. Screw tobacco companies, they should be responsible for the destruction their “products” cause!
That goes without saying with such a colossal increase. Maybe they just thought you were sharper than you actually are.
Maybe you stand in the mirror too long telling yourself “I am a smart person, people love me!” In reality you’re alone and a complete dumbass! Good luck with all that!
Centurions live too long for ya? They’re still living & smoking like there’s no tomorrow. Aged 112, 118, 123, 145, still smokin em if they got em.
Please pay attention folks, Ca is in a fiscal crisis concerning the pension systems, they are short billions and billions of dollars. This tax along with most all the tax increases will help address the problem. So when they say its for schools, road etc… it will go there, except it will only help the out its associated pension system. This tax goes to the general fund, not exclusively to a stop smoking program, free nicotine patches etc…
The cities and counties are getting squeezed by the state, that’s why you see so many bonds, tax increases etc… They will not address the problem, only squeeze more money out of its citizens.
Actually it does go into a special fund not general fund.it only squeezes money out of those who actually smoke and burden tax payers with their healthcare costs
Masta Masta, smokers pay for health ins too. Double price even.
Same bullshit. These idiots blame all tobacco. Protest the poisons added to tobacco; don’t demand more excise taxes on nature. Weed will follow the path of tobacco eventually. Paper poison and spray on thc cbd.
I hope you dont think that american spirits are any better for you.
Smoking anything is unhealthy
Just a theory, not a fact. Smoke kills some bugs or germs. Campfire smoke, for instance, is a great bacteria sanitizer.
Exactly, frigging spot on.
HOJ burns a permitted burn pile intentionally located near fruit trees to sanitize and keep tree free of most bugs……just make sure heat is not an issue……oh, and nanny staters who either hate burning or just want to spite by calling in the cops, err fire watchers…..
The fruit, btw, disease free, bug free……but still an occasional bird beak peck or manipulated fallen fruit……and helluva cache of fruit to donate to food for people outlets like the one in Eureka off Broadway a couple blocks…….
Gotta love rationale thought!
Exactly HOJ! I envy you, raising your own fruit. If I ever get the chance to, I will use your technique.
So smoking can kill unwanted pathogens in the lungs?
Hmm, Before they enter the lungs maybe?
HOJ! As I watched Myron Dewey’s livestream reporting this morning, they brought up yet another use of smoke. The Native Americans use tobacco smoke in their religious ceremonies, rituals. The smoke cleans away the evil spirits. I wish they’d cleaned away the evil spirits of anti-smoking, tax hungry zealots.
Now that you wrote the Native angle, same is true for forrest health…..”Dances with Wolves” ceremonial soul bonding……
To inhale or not, that is the real personal choice question…but then again, HOJ gets zero choice but death in a society of hypocrisy.
Cars, industry, mother nature, pick the poisons acceptible……..
No on 56…..how are kids getting their hands on tobacco??? Ya, go after the cause, not the source for a different cause.
Smoking is bad, but it is a great tool for the war on over-population and the fight for individual rights…….in a society set up by what turns out to be outdated, unmainstream elderly folk who have attempted its best to “engineer a society the outdated minority wanted a way back awhen”…..
Children are such adult tools, funny how these protesting adults make out tobacco companies as the bad entity, but fail to protest the actual individual suppliers and risque atf type beligerent parents/adults who never learned the term “moderation”, “obligation”, or “responsibility”….this is what a “sting using actors accomplishes”…..going after the guilty supplier, not producer….
Good Luck though,
HOJ votes NO
Enough lying taxation already…..
NO! It’s just another tax pure and simple. Like the paper bag tax. It’s not about the environment, it’s all about the money. Nothing more, nothing less.
So you dont think that the paper bag tax will encourage people to use reusable shopping bags?
As a cigarette smoker, I’m for sure against an additional 2$ per pack sales tax. However if it does pass I’m sure it will make some people quit smoking because as it is a pack of cigarettes is expensive. Also smoking does kill, but in all honesty it can’t be any worse health wise then living in, lets say China or any other smog ridden city.
HOJ nearly fainted last week filling up on gasoline……the hose air/gas fume vaporizer thingamajigs don’t work for shit, but don’t prove it to air quality, gas prices will go up even more to offset the new costs of regulatory overreaches……and health is still adversly affected….
Poison everywhere, but money dictates which poisons pay better!
HOJ: My god, you sound like the Prince of Fools.
You talk about the fumes coming from the gas pump, but I have total certainty that you would never consider buying an electric car to solve that problem, because that would mean you would eliminate the thing you wanna complain about… I have two EVs… actually, one of them is a fully electric pickup truck converted from gasoline… you sound like all you wanna rant about is anything that actually improves this planet.
Get a life, [edit].
lithium mining is way more eco-friendly , brine ponds , open pit mines and emf’s are a much better solution than petro and ethyl . have fun replacing your batteries.
What in this issue is improving the planet?
Talk about improving the planet, HOJ is on record writing 3 basic points…..even though the issue is about “how underage kids attain tobacco only legally produced for adult personal choices”
1) You are right, HOJ would never consider an all electric car……but an all electric truck if it can handle towing, range, hp capacity/needs, costs to maintain……not some wimpy Flinestone Bunion Burner
2) Smoking is good for culling out over-population, HOJ wants more people to smoke, not less.
3) HOJ’s only real option is death in a society of hipocrisy where ya pick an acceptible poison that is forced mainstream upon the consumer base as a whole……
HOJ never said EV was bad, just pointing out hipocrisy
Maybe someone can provide a reasonable, fair minded thought as to why any person would complain about hipocrisy proof?
BTW Bill Dale,
HOJ desires to read all your thoughts, but you were edited, sooooo, HOJ assumes you said something offensive to the madam editor in chief.
Sorry for your loss.😕
That’s great for you, unfortunately electric cars are only available to those with lots of money. Considering the lifespan and cost of the batteries, the cost of electricity, and the monthly payments on an electric vehicle (that is not a tiny death trap) I’m not sure they actually save any money or are less harmful to the environment.
What did it cost to make your electric vehicles? What range do they have?
Curious as to how you charge your electric car?cuz if you’re plugging it into the grid you’re charging it with burnt gas anyways and it’s less efficient than just burning the gas in the motor.
How does THC burn gas in a motor, curious?
Engine – gas
Motor – electricity
Hybrid – a new term
It might make a few quit, but it will make THOUSANDS go back to smoking, because the vapor products that help them quit will be taxed too, right out of existance.
I agree I smoke 20 dollars a carton that’s ridiculous. Everytime they have a vote for this every year seems like, they say money is going to this so where is that money then. They raised the age if we want to kill ourselves by smoking so be it. It won’t make some of us quit we will just stop eating lol.
Im sure it not worse than living in a city like beijing, but how is that relevant.?
Kym, thanks for providing the link to the “no” on 56 campaign. Presenting both sides so people can make their own decision.
Thanks for pointing that out, I missed it earlier.
Keep taxing the shit out of it, pretty soon tobacco will be worth growing for the black market, and while your at it throw a 2 dollar tax on a cup of coffee.
And gasoline. An odometer tax is coming soon too. It’s already in it’s “trial phase” per the CA DOT website. Unless you walk, there will be a small surcharge on top of everything you do that requires the use of a vehicle. I can only imagine that taxi and livery companies are going to pay a fortune for it. And of course, you and me. But what if you drive a hybrid or fully electric vehicle? Guess what? You’ll pay it too.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/road_charge/
http://www.mercurynews.com/2015/01/24/california-considers-replacing-gas-tax-with-per-mile-charge/
It already is a blackmarket commodity in many states. Calif will join them if this passes.
Yeah, coffee and cigarettes, that’s apples to apples…. If you would have went with taxing alcohol excessively you may have been on point!
Coffee, that is some black addiction right there…..no cream or sugar needed for the longterm user to be future addict with uncontrollable shakes at weening.
What is the cost to society of daily coffee consumption? How many die from coffee each year?
Don, good luck with that ATF takes people growing tobacco very seriously.
To be honest, I’m supporting the tax just on the slim chance that it cuts down on the number of cigarrete butts I see daily nearly everywhere I go.
Insist the public ashtrays be reinstalled.
So not PC though……
Imagine, if you will, a land of common sense where every individual was free to live their own life to the fullest. A land where public ashtrays lingered close by. A land where coins would recycle butts and provide spare change for the homeless who gathered them for redeeming. A land where everyone minded their own business, yet jumped into action to stop physical assaults on others.
That’s how our Founding Fathers & Mothers envisioned our land. A land where morals, principles, ruled over authoritarians. Science, state, church, govt, were to be subdued by the people, not the other way around.
I was going to make the same comment. This is the primary reason that I voted YES.
My friends is a smoker, he just makes sure the cherry is out and throws them in the trash, when we are out in nature he carries a film canister that he puts them in.
In California there are already a lot of taxes on cigarettes being paid by smokers. When those smokers stop, you think California isn’t going to make up for the loss some other way at the expense of nonsmokers? One day this tax hike on a mostly poor minority is quite likely going to become yours, too.
They already are doing this. The prop also heavily taxes vapor products, closing the competive industry down, sending workers to the unemployment lines. The state wants their smoke tax money, bond money, and too many smokers had quit real tobacco after discovering vapor. Groups like tobacco free kids, ALA, also rely on smoking tax funds.
The current tax is only 87 cents per pack. And if we buy your argument that this tax targets the poor because the poor smoke more, who is then responsible for paying the increased health care costs for these smokers?
Who’s going to pay for your health care when all the smokers stop paying up hmmm. What will be added next to the gov list of no care allowed if smoking, or who are obese? Obesity changes with the charts of the whim.
Drink soda? No healthcare for you!
Love to ski? No healthcare for you!
We, the God you worship, know what’s best for you. Now shut up & eat your bugs we’ve okay’d for you.
Actually, I subsidize everyone’s health care at the moment and have for the last 20+ years by paying a lot more insurance than I have ever used (through my employers) plus all the Medicare and associated taxes I’ve paid. If I manage to live to a ripe old age, I might get some of that back but I’m not counting on it.
So if we can discourage known unhealthy behaviors the we all collectively benefit by efficiently reallocating health care dollars to where they will do the most good. Why subsidize bad health choices for people who refuse to change?
Enjoy your eggs today, for tomorrow they will be the death ray again.
You don’t seem to understand. For those who started young, ( weren’t legally capable of choosing to smoke or not), they are now completely addicted. It’s similar to the doctors and Feds coming down on pain medications for people. Let’s just increase the cost of a pack by $2. So, now your a man needing your legal fix, have kids and already barely cutting it to put food on the table. You make the right choice and don’t buy a pack. But then your withdrawals cause you to rage and become violent. That shit happens. All the time!
It isn’t right for them to raise the funds under the false pretenses of “making it more unaffordable for young people who arent of legal age to purchase”.
They are taxing tobacco products so heavily as they know people can’t say no to cigs. It’s guaranteed money. It’s like taxing bread or milk. But more effective
You are right, I don’t understand. You can barely afford to put food on the table for your kids and you continue to use a substantial chunk of your money to smoke. Use some of the many alternatives to stop smoking (gum, patch, therapy, will power) and then you’d have more money to get by on and be healthier long term. Otherwise those same kids are going to have to watch you die from emphysema or lung cancer and go through all of their money trying to pay your medical bills.
At 50 cents a pack, millions were addicted. Now the tax addicted freaks raise the taxes beyond compassionate then insult the smokers who don’t quit. They also insult the smokers who did quit, by switching to harm reduction products.
They disrespect people from all backgrounds, for money.
I need a sacred pouch to burn right about now. The demons are thick during ballot season.
Who forces hospitals to provide service regardless of the ability to pay?
Gubbamint, not the hospitals full of caring people.
Gubbamint uses Paul’s wallet for Peter’s lifestyle at the behest of public opinion (not a vote) based upon religious morals……hardly seperation of church and state……
Correct, HOJ. Everyone now believes they OWN everyone, because they’re FORCED to pay extra for healthcare they shouldn’t have to be paying. Then the same Masters vote for more control.
Slippery slope argument.
How do you figure it’s a slippery slope? When the govt controls your healthcare, they control who will be cared for. Those who are too disabled, elderly, rebellious to the latest propaganda enforced upon them, or who just plain use some of that ins money to save their life. The insured pay in, but the govt refuses to pay out.
When the open market, meaning the individual, controls their own healthcare, it is the responsibility of the individual to raise the money needed, choose a doctor, and get treated. Lectures-R-us will accomodate all, as well as the greenback dollar.
BTW, they say premiums are climbing %25. To cover the ones they refuse to fix yet take %45 more from.
Universal rip off.
Can we put some taxes to the real cancer causing agents in gasoline, sprayed on forests and foods, used to make foods, etc etc.
Look at our state prop that made warnings of cancer causing agents mandatory. I took a friend to enterprise car rental and there’s a sign outside their front door saying there are known cancer causing agents inside. Wha??? And people havta work there?
Sure smokings not great for u but a lot of that are the 300+ chemicals put into cigarettes, not the actual tobacco.
Putting so much time energy and money into this jyst leaves the true culprits laughing all the way to the bank, tobaccos being blamed while the Chem companies make toxic substances AND the treatments for the diseases caused by the same company. Full circle money making with all of us paying the real price
If people want this tax then gas should be taxed more as well, the fumes are way worse for you. I won’t vote yes on this as I don’t want to see more money go towards useless studies and programs that now apply to a much smaller segment of the cancer community. Companies doing cancer research love these kind of props, it’s money in their pockets, big biz wins again.
Maybe these folks would do better by young people if they focused more on prescription med problems amongst teens, smoking shuld b low on the list. That’s what I hear from teenagers at least!!
Too bad the 30,000 PER DAY aborted fetuses aren’t taxable, they’d rake in the money like a lava flow.
Instead, they choose to tax the minorities, the poor, the ex-smokers who switched to safer alternatives like vapor, while they promote the 44 new fda approved tobacco brands and the big pharma products.
By the way, those toe tags mean nothing until a specific disease attributed ONLY to tobacco is called. The military families who’ve been drinking radioactive water for over 51 years without the epa or gov reporting it or fixing it is a bigger problem.
But I’m sure they’ll just blame it on smoking like they do everything else since their first nuclear testings back in the 50’s.
I call bullshit on your abortion statistics.
Over 60 million babies have been killed since Roe v Wade. Look it up.
No babies, only fetuses.
I looked it up for you. Google: How many abortions are there per day?
Answer: “According to WHO, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day. In the USA, where nearly half of pregnancies are unintended and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion [1] , there are over 3,000 abortions per day.”
Oops, you’re right, it’s 3,000 per day USA. Drop in the bucket.
The CDC states it was fewer than 2,000 / day in 2012 (the most recent statistics). But we’re getting a bit far afield from the Proposition in question.
Not really far off topic, when their entire campaign is all about saving the children.
By the way, the CDC also says 1,300 people die every day in the US from smoking-related diseases with more than $170 billion/year spent on direct health care associated with smoking-related diseases and another $136 billion/year in lost productivity.
That would seem to make the argument that anything we can do to discourage smoking would be a good thing.
Asking people if they’ve ever been around a smoker qualifies a toe tag in their tax incentive minds. Junk science.
The cdc is a PR machine for taxing.
The death tally constantly paraded was random generated by SAMMEC. If we were to replace the title smoking to FOOD, it would generate 900,000 deaths per year from eating.
I’m not impressed.
A good SAMMEC example,: How they come up with toe tags by FLU.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/flu-deaths-reality-check-1.1127442
Vendors at all stores, beware. Add more security! This bill will skyrocket the crime.
http://stockton-north.abc10.com/news/crime/110474-police-thugs-assault-clerk-rob-stockton-quick-stop
This prop also tosses ex-smokers and many vendors and their employees into the street. They will tax the only product that has helped thousands if not millions of people to stop smoking tobacco. Survey after survey asked vapers if they would stay off smokes if vaping were banned. (Over regulated & taxed). Many said no, they would go back to smoking.
The truth about vaping, why they hate us. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oxNM1pUoOn4
The epa inhumanely experimented on kids & the elderly, trying to prove their conclusions to Dr. Enstroms studies were not twisted. Naturally, the gov they work for excused the cases.
Dr. Enstrom’s studies proved that second hand smoke and diesel fumes were not deadly. The University slandered him, put him on leave, & sent the gov what the gov wanted to hear. You do remember CARB and the filters on trucks, the court battles don’t you. The epa won, of course. They had the media, the gov, in their greasy palms.
Today, finally, Dr. Enstrom is released from torture. http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/21611/
Michael J. McFadden has some alternative ideas. https://www.quora.com/Why-dont-we-take-more-drastic-measures-to-stop-people-from-smoking/answer/Michael-J-McFadden?share=471c3f71
Isn’t it interesting that anytime there’s a big cause…that has a lot of money at stake…it’s always “let’s bring in the kids”…especially when science is against the ploy.
Am I talking about smoking? Kind of…
Reality is, California does a really poor job of getting ADULTS off of smoking.
What gets ADULTS off of smoking? Vapor Products.
And thanks to the political maneuvering of Governor Brown, Senator Mark Leno, and Senator Henry Perea (resigned for to take medical lobbyist job with Pharma), vapor products are now considered “Other Tobacco Products”.
It has been proven by enumerable studies that vapor products are much less harmful that smoking tobacco. It’s the tar and carcinogens that kill, after all.
Look up Roswell Park Cancer Institute to see what they’ve found with e-cigarettes. They’re less harmful. And they’re helping people make the switch.
Which is really the problem. 42% of people that make the switch…they stay off of the truly harmful tobacco cigarettes.
And that’s cutting into the slush fund that is the state’s tobacco tax program.
Just last March (2015), the state of California sold $2 Billion in Asset Backed Tobacco Bonds. Why? Because they’re addicted to taxes…and they have absolutely no intention of getting people off of smokes.
What they are hellbent on…is killing vapor products.
The “Other Tobacco Products” additional tax…that’s on Vape. and it’s at an astonishing 68% additional tax…on something that the U.K. is lauding as one of the best alternatives to smoking.
Put “Nicotine Without Smoke” in your Google Search query, along with Royal College of Physicians; a 32,000 doctor association.
The U.K. is a Universal Healthcare system…so, they actually interested in the health of their citizens, unlike our “For Profit” healthcare system.
Regarding the $2 per pack of smokes…that’s a joke. If they really wanted to cut smoking, they’d have gone for something like $20 per pack. $2 just stings the pocket book…it’ll never cause an addict to quit, or even reduce consumption.
Oh, and these so-called health groups?
Read the actual ballot text to see how much cash that will be doled out for their sponsorship. It’s not pocket change…and it’ll be written into the constitution.
Plenty of $$$ reasons to tax the hell out of Vapor Products.
This thing passes — better get those litter bags ready…cause SMOKING will come back more than it is now…cause all those vapers that switched…they’ll come back to the cheaper alternative.
Don’t be fooled by fancy footwork by lobbyists and corrupt lawmakers.
Well said.
Well said Fig! They want to begin taxing at %64 for quitting smoking.
Appreciate your involvement, insights.
You and Shak are dope (cool, down, legit)😊
Cigarettes are a great way to thin the human horde. Smoke em if you got em. Thanks!
The centutions happily oblidge.
Keep raising the price until it’s over $200 a carton. Smokers are a huge drag on public resources, they need to chip in for their fellow tarhuffers who can’t afford the medical costs. The No campaign is directly sponsored by Phillip Morris, which is like the cartels saying they don’t support Cannabis legalization; follow the money. If you want to smoke, that’s your business. Just don’t be surprised that there’s an actual Stupid Tax added on.
Prop 56 is an attack on society’s smallest minority: smokers- those least able to defend themselves. It’s no different than walking up, hitting them over the head and taking their money. But Prop 56ers think it’s ok because they do it from behind the cover of the ballot box.
Why do you do it? Simple enough: Because you can.
Exactly Fred.
Everyone who has ever thrown a cigarette but on the ground deserves to be taxed, heavily.
The visual of shuffling through butts like leaves on a brisk fall day is funny. Maybe they can be glued together to form nice padded paths for holiday shoppers. But then the foot massage industry would collapse.
Maybe they can be glued together to form office cubicles or turned into bicycle tires!
We must do something quick though, before the stores open tomorrow, lest we be waist high in them.
Or the shit beat outta them, it would feel much better, ya think? Don’t forget dog walkers, shit on lawns and sidewalks, bikers, peds and any other disrespectful phucktard.
On the Regulator Show, the main anti-smoker zealot in Calif kept repeating what I will paraphrase from memory. “Smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer. Most people don’t know that!”.
He was trying to dam the British Royal Academy of Doctors who proved that Vaping saves lives. While doing so, he dammed himself and his pets the ALA.
Fyi, he is the tobacco free kids head honcho, the university’s head spin doctor, the one most often seen & heard promoting hate.
I’m with Fred Mangels on this one.
If it’s all so really very bad and evil, how come they didn’t seek a ballot initiative to OUTLAW TOBACCO?
Oh, then there wouldn’t be a big pot of cash they can use government force to dip into to fund their phony-baloney foundations with 6 figure salaries, swanky fund raisers and fear mongering political campaigns “for the chirren” , would there?
Count on these clowns doing the exact same thing to pick the taxpayers pockets once we have legal, taxed weed.
If these people really thought tobacco was so evil, they’d seek to outlaw it, instead of making a living off of it via government force. They are just as greedy and evil as the companies producing it.
Spot on!😉
Spot on ! (in stereo)
They have been pumping out regulatory spins on it for a few years now. Those nonsense studies aren’t just for laughter.
Seriously! Trying to get someone to do something healthy for themselves is one thing. Great if you can get someone to take steps to change their ways. That being said.
Do you really think this added “tax” money that will be collected if this proposition passes will go to help, aide or educate anyone.
NO – NO – NO and NO.
The money will go into some FAT CAT LAW MAKERS pocket.
If you don’t know that then you know nothing about our government!!!
With the turbuculosis pandemic sweeping through Massachusetts, you’d think the CDC, ALA, etc would find more important things to do.