A lot of changes have taken place in New York over the past few decades, most importantly that the air has been "cleared" - no more smoking in bars, clubs and restaurants.
Along with these changes, the sales of Febreze stopped, and photographer Susanna Howe has noticed another change - that no one wants their photograph being taken while smoking. She says: "Even those people who you wouldn't think would be all squeamish about it dash to put the cigarette out when you raise the camera to your face."
She had to move quickly to take photographs of her friends while they were still smoking. These pictures will be featured in the "Smokers" exhibition and video installation at Bird in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The photographs are both stylish and funny images of the last Mohicans of smoking, those who are not yet ready to butt out.
The world certainly is going to be a strange place without smokers…
[Via: NY Times Blogs]
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The American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout is to take place on November 19th and many people will be throwing away their cigarettes in honor of the situation.
Jason Halford, 29 is going to be taking part in this action. He has been smoking for nine years and has tried to quit twice. He claims that he started smoking again both times because of stress related to lack of money and his job. The rising costs of cigarettes have not done anything to keep him from smoking. Halford said, "I buy cheap brands and look for dollar-off specials."
Many think that the price of cigarettes has an influence on smokers, but this is proving to be untrue.
According to Dr. Bruce Christiansen of the University of Wisconsin's Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (CTRI) in Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods, nearly half of the adults smoke, regardless of the fact that cigarettes cost $9 a pack, this means that one household can end up spending $15,000 a year on this habit.
The smoking rate has dropped, but only in certain layers of society, and the poorest are paying for smoking reforms…
[Via: suburbanchicagonews.com]
Due to a slip in Montana's statewide smoking ban, people who want to have a smoke with their beer are still able to do so, even though smoking indoors has been in place since the beginning of October.
The State of Montana indoor smoking ban has no effect on those living on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Smokers at the KwaTaqNuk Casino are still happily puffing away, and this chain of casinos has both smoking and non-smoking locations.
A treaty was signed in 1855 to establish this reservation, and this event took place before the State of Montana had been formed. This treaty acts as an exemption from legislation, basically the law has no effect on the reserve.
Though no official discussion has been put forth on the subject, Flathead Reservation officials say that in the future council could possibly decide to ban smoking but for now things are to remain this way.
This might be one of the rare occasions of natives truly enjoying the freedom they deserve.
[Via: kpax.com]
As bans on smoking grow stronger in the United States, laws prohibiting marijuana are easing up. Cannabis-related prosecution has been ordered to stop by federal prosecutors in the 13 states where the medical use of the drug is not illegal.
It is wrong to prosecute those people who comply to state existing state laws, according to Attorney General Eric Holder.
However, the air is not completely clear he warns, those using medical marijuana laws as an alibi to traffic the drug are still going to be subject to prosecution.
This is a very sharp shift in policy in relation to that of the Bush administration, and is all a bit ironic because smokers are now seeing the same tyranny that medical marijuana user once had to face, and the question has to be asked - will smoking bans be dropped in a few decades? Will all the money that has been spent on implementing these laws proven to be a waste?
[Via: BBC]
In the past, most believed the words of the tobacco executives that smoking was not addictive and that cigarettes did not contain carcinogens. Today, the FDA controls tobacco products, but Americans and the rest of the world has not learned its lesson. It should not be forgotten that the people who protect us from tobacco should not be followed blindly either.
It was announced recently that the Food and Drug Administration would be banning the sale of fruit and candy flavored cigarettes. Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said, "These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers." She went on to say that this ban will "break that cycle of addiction for more than 3,600 young people who start smoking daily."
The problem is that children will go to great lengths to get themselves in trouble. If they are not experimenting with cigarettes, it is in their nature they will get addicted to something else. Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard are the nation's biggest tobacco companies, and they do not even sell flavored cigarettes. Most flavored cigarettes have long been off the market. Most major producers of tobacco only use menthol in their cigarettes, and this is the only flavor that has not been banned. Go figure.
[Via: townhall.com]
