{"id":2256,"date":"2014-05-23T18:37:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T18:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2256"},"modified":"2014-05-23T18:37:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T18:37:30","slug":"mother-jones-jumps-on-tobacco-on-military-bases-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2256","title":{"rendered":"Mother Jones jumps on tobacco on military bases story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oldcamelad630\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mother Jones<\/a> has an interesting take on a story I posted about a few weeks ago, when a proposal to ban tobacco sales on military bases fizzled.<\/p>\n

Mother Jones writes: <\/span><\/p>\n

Suppose you wanted to quit drinking, but all the AA meetings in your town were held in the back of a bar with $2 well drinks?<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s basically the conundrum the US military faces when it comes to regulating tobacco. Smoking is a drain on the force, physically and financially, and over the years the brass has implemented all sorts of efforts to get soldiers and sailors to avoid it, with some success. But every time military officials make a move to stop offering cheap cigarettes to their personnel, they get shot down by the tobacco industry’s allies in Congress. In the latest skirmish, earlier this month, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee launched a preemptive strike to prevent the Navy from ending tobacco sales on Navy and Marine bases and ships.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One thing to remember, not only are tobacco products available on military bases and ships … they’re considerably cheaper than what you find in civilian retail outlets because when tobacco products are sold on military bases, the local and state taxes don’t apply. Seven times, advocates have attempted to have the prices on military bases raised to civilian levels and seven times, they’ve failed, thanks to Big Tobacco lobbying and Big Tobacco allies in Congress. Another study showed that the average civilian price of Marlboro Reds is $6.73 a pack, while on military bases, it’s $4.99 a pack, nearly 30 percent lower.<\/p>\n

According to Mother Jones, 36 percent of men aged 45-54 in the military smoke, compared to 24 percent of nonmilitary men in that same age group.<\/p>\n

All of this puffing amounts to a massive medical bill, not just for the men and women dying horrible deaths from cancer and heart disease and emphysema, but for the taxpayers, too. In his letter to the Navy, (Rep. Duncan) Hunter, R-Calif. (a proponent of tobacco sales on military bases), noted that banning tobacco sales would mean a loss of profits for the Military Exchange Command. In reality, cigarettes are a net loss for the military. For every dollar of profit from selling tobacco to personnel, according to data from a\u00a0<\/span>1996 Inspector General’s report<\/a>, the Pentagon spent more than nine dollars on healthcare and lost productivity.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mother Jones has an interesting take on a story I posted about a few weeks ago, when a proposal to ban tobacco sales on military bases fizzled. Mother Jones writes: Suppose you wanted to quit drinking, but all the AA meetings in your town were held in the back of a bar with $2 well … Continue reading Mother Jones jumps on tobacco on military bases story<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[293,294,57],"tags":[659,295],"class_list":["post-2256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-smoking","category-military-tobacco-sales","category-smoking-2","tag-military-smoking","tag-military-tobacco-sales-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/oldcamelad630.jpg?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-Ao","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2225,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2225","url_meta":{"origin":2256,"position":0},"title":"Committee votes to allow tobacco sales on military bases","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A loss for the anti-tobacco crowd. They had been a proposal to ban tobacco sales on military bases (not smoking, but sales), but the House Armed Services Committee (obviously stacked with Republicans) did the opposite, approving a measure to specifically protect tobacco sales on military bases. (Had to use a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Military"","block_context":{"text":"Military","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=287"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/us-marine-smoking.jpg?fit=375%2C262&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2092,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2092","url_meta":{"origin":2256,"position":1},"title":"Tobacco sales may soon be banned on U.S. military bases, U.S. Navy ships","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember the ubiquitous image of a dog-faced World War II soldier smoking a Lucky Strike between shellings from the Nazis? Well, that image has come a long way. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel came out last week and said he is considering banning all tobacco sales on military bases. Hagel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Smoking bans"","block_context":{"text":"Smoking bans","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=60"},"img":{"alt_text":"soldier smoking","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/soldier-smoking-246x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3879,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3879","url_meta":{"origin":2256,"position":2},"title":"California raises smoking, vaping age to 21; e-cigs banned in public buildings","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"California is the latest entity -- and the biggest -- to raise the age for buying cigarettes and vaping products to 21 (There's a misunderstanding here, it's not against the law for 18-year-olds to smoke or vape ... it's against the law to sell products to people under 21 now.).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"2C13DE0D00000578-3226486-Young_people_who_use_e_cigarettes_are_four_times_more_likely_to_-a-2_1441727432935","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/2C13DE0D00000578-3226486-Young_people_who_use_e_cigarettes_are_four_times_more_likely_to_-a-2_1441727432935.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3528,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3528","url_meta":{"origin":2256,"position":3},"title":"Study: One in three men in China will die from smoking","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Devastating study in the Lancet this month stating that unless smoking rates are cut in China, one-third of men in that country will die from tobacco-related disease. Something about this article that jumped out at me. China obviously has the highest population of any nation on the planet -- 1.3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/smoking-china.png?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/smoking-china.png?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/smoking-china.png?fit=630%2C354&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3531,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3531","url_meta":{"origin":2256,"position":4},"title":"Philadelphia proposes banning tobacco sales in drug stores","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The mayor of\u00a0Philadelphia last week proposed banning tobacco sales in pharmacies and drug stores. This story jogged my memory that I think San Francisco did the same thing. Sure enough, San Francisco did ban tobacco sales in pharmacies, in fact some time ago -- 2008 -- longer ago than I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "CVS Pharmacy"","block_context":{"text":"CVS Pharmacy","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=223"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Philadelphia.jpg?fit=780%2C438&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Philadelphia.jpg?fit=780%2C438&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Philadelphia.jpg?fit=780%2C438&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Philadelphia.jpg?fit=780%2C438&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3760,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3760","url_meta":{"origin":2256,"position":5},"title":"California Assembly approves bills to raise smoking age to 21 and to regulate e-cigs","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The California State Assembly approved a bill this week to raise the state's smoking age from 18 to 21. A number of cities and states have been doing this the past couple of years. I've on record as having a somewhat mixed view of this -- 18-year-olds can vote, join\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/california-legislature.jpg?fit=500%2C288&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2258,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions\/2258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}