{"id":2656,"date":"2014-11-19T02:36:29","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T02:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2656"},"modified":"2014-11-19T03:48:53","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T03:48:53","slug":"westminster-mass-goes-bonkers-over-proposed-ban-on-tobacco-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2656","title":{"rendered":"Westminster, Mass., goes bonkers over proposed ban on tobacco sales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New<\/a>
Westminster, Mass. New York Times photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OK, I fully expected this hearing to be heated, but even this blew me away.<\/p>\n

The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, has proposed banning all tobacco sales within town limits. It’s understandably a controversial idea.<\/p>\n

Well, the hearing\u00a0got so whack, it had to be stopped 20 minutes after it started<\/a>. Nearly 500\u00a0people showed up (in a town of 7,000), some of\u00a0them apparently from out of town, to the public hearing. It became so out-of-control that the town’s health board made no decision (and likely won’t at this point).<\/p>\n

Of course, the issues went way beyond just smokers vs. nonsmokers, as people brought up freedom of choice and personal liberties and the town’s proposal as a government intrusion on individual. (Wow, I’ve actually heard a lot of the same arguments about smoking bans. A lot of alleged<\/em> nonsmoking Libertarians gets riled up by smoking bans.<\/p>\n

It was heated enough, the New York Times wrote about the little town’s brouhaha.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0the Times:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just taking away everyday freedoms, little by little,\u201d said Nate Johnson, 32, an egg farmer who also works in an auto body shop, as he stood outside the store last week. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about tobacco, it\u2019s about control,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, I can dig that to a degree, but this next quote from the Times story is just plain silly.<\/p>\n

\n

As Wayne and Deborah Hancock grabbed a shopping cart, they joined in. All quickly agreed that the next freedoms at risk would be guns and religion, prompting Mrs. Hancock, 52, a homemaker, to say that she was afraid to wear her cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking, \u2018Am I going to be beheaded?\u2019\u00a0\u201d she said, not entirely joking.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A few brief comments actually got in during the hearing:<\/p>\n

\n

Wayne R. Walker, a town selectman, said that the selectmen had voted unanimously to oppose the ban. \u201cI detest smoking and tobacco in all its forms,\u201d he told the health board, but such a \u201cunilateral and radical approach\u201d as banning all sales would \u201ccreate a significant economic hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resident named Kevin West said that smoking was \u201cone of the most disgusting habits anybody could possibly do,\u201d but added: \u201cI find this proposal to be even more of a disgusting thing.\u201d The shouts after his statement prompted Ms. Crete, who had issued several warnings, to declare the hearing over.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, as the board adjourned the meeting, the crowd began singing “God Bless America,” and board members had to be escorted out with police protection.<\/p>\n

Oh, man, I’ve sat through too many of those kind of ginned-up public meetings. Really, at this point, the town should just drop it because it’s inviting \u00a0a mess of litigation in my opinion and ultimately probably won’t effectively stop anyone from smoking if they really want to. But, officially, the matter was simply postponed.<\/p>\n

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

OK, I fully expected this hearing to be heated, but even this blew me away. The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, has proposed banning all tobacco sales within town limits. It’s understandably a controversial idea. Well, the hearing\u00a0got so whack, it had to be stopped 20 minutes after it started. Nearly 500\u00a0people showed up (in a … Continue reading Westminster, Mass., goes bonkers over proposed ban on tobacco sales<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2657,"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":[224,365],"tags":[374,696],"class_list":["post-2656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tobacco-sales","category-westminster","tag-tobacco-ban","tag-westminster"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/18SMOKE2-master675-v2.jpg?fit=675%2C436&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-GQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2633,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2633","url_meta":{"origin":2656,"position":0},"title":"Town in Massachusetts considers banning all tobacco sales","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A tiny town in Massachusetts -- Westminster -- is proposing to ban all tobacco sales. The city is holding a public hearing on this proposal this week. If Westminster does this, it will be the first town in the U.S. to actually ban tobacco sales. A local store owner is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Massachusetts"","block_context":{"text":"Massachusetts","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=366"},"img":{"alt_text":"250px-Westminster,_Massachusetts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/250px-Westminster_Massachusetts.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2683,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2683","url_meta":{"origin":2656,"position":1},"title":"Westminster, Mass., drops bad idea to ban all tobacco sales","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I saw this coming from a mile away. Westminster, Mass., which came up with a proposal to ban all tobacco sales within town limits, dropped the whole thing after a huge uproar, both from a petition opposing it and a throng of people who showed up at the town's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tobacco sales"","block_context":{"text":"tobacco sales","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=224"},"img":{"alt_text":"no tobacco","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/no-tobacco.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3531,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3531","url_meta":{"origin":2656,"position":2},"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":2256,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2256","url_meta":{"origin":2656,"position":3},"title":"Mother Jones jumps on tobacco on military bases story","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"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. 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I expected the announcement next week. As fully expected, the Food and Drug Administration today announced that it intends to ban the sales of e-cigarettes to minors. The sales ban is part of a series of e-cigarette regulations proposed by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "e-cig bans"","block_context":{"text":"e-cig bans","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=252"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/e-cigs-minors.jpg?fit=618%2C416&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/e-cigs-minors.jpg?fit=618%2C416&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/e-cigs-minors.jpg?fit=618%2C416&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1087,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1087","url_meta":{"origin":2656,"position":5},"title":"New York to restrict candy-flavoured cigars?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Candy-flavoured cigarettes have long been banned, but candy-flavoured cigars are still legal. The American Cancer Society is pushing to limit the sales of candy-flavoured tobacco products -- cigars, chewing tobacco and loose tobacco leaf for water pipes -- mostly because it's well-known that these sweetened products are marketed not-so-subtly to\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1087#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRLJkr91yNRVlFvE-CSvHVfxFOvJHOz-fmSCHNDQpMr1fl9pxe8","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656","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=2656"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2679,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions\/2679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}