Saturday, October 24, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #817
October 24, 2015 - Issue #817"Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think for themselves. They’ll only be able to parrot the information they've been given on the previous night's news." - Zbigniew Brzezinski (1979) |
Good laws create freedom, not a nanny state. Good legislation creates greater freedom, rather than impeding it. Senator David Leyonhjelm is running a Senate inquiry into government regulation of things such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Australia is facing a push from Libertarian politicians and market fundamentalists to roll back health legislation. But reducing the power of democratic governments to legislate for health is no way to increase freedom. Senator David Leyonhjelm? has organised a Senate inquiry into the "nanny state". The terms of reference of the inquiry relate mostly to public health, including sale and use of tobacco, nicotine, e-cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol, and bicycle helmet laws.
Nicotine nazis hate one thing: pleasure. Antipleasure puritans like our minister of health and his propaganda agency, the National Council Against Smoking, want tobacco added to the list of prohibitions. Official policy is headed towards tobacco prohibition followed by draconian measures against liquor, salt, sugar, complementary health, traditional healing, fast food, baby food and whatever else upsets killjoys. If you condone nicotine fascism, you have no principled argument against control of every aspect of life. The trend predicts prohibition of obesity and condomless sex, compulsory attendance at health clinics, mandatory exercise and the forced use of safe public transport. Harms or highs? Regulating narcotics, alcohol and nicotine. Think of the children: the danger of infantilising adult society. Given the emotion, fear and anger that surrounds this issue, the ideas discussed above represent an immensely challenging agenda for anyone holding office, even though a vast prize is there to be won for the leaders who will eventually make it work. The arguments against prohibitions and for enlightened risk-based regulation are extremely strong. However, opponents of this direction in policy thinking have what they consider a potent force majeure argument that overrides all else: "think of the children." Pressured by tobacco industry, Healdsburg halts groundbreaking law. Healdsburg broke ground this year by becoming the first city in California to raise the age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21. But the tough stand didn't last. Less than three months after the law took effect, city leaders are backing off enforcement out of fear of legal action from the tobacco industry. This week, after the city was warned by a national tobacco group that its ordinance could trigger a court challenge, the police chief notified 14 retailers that they can resume selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to customers 18 and older. The Stacks: When Smoking Was Fun. My dad smoked Pall Malls—and for period of time, More, those long, thin, dark brown cigarettes that were advertised to women. He smoked a couple of packs a day for decades. His aunts and uncles had smoked more than that, and for those of us of a certain generation, our childhood was filled with cigarette smoke (you'll find ashtrays on living room tables and backyard decks in our family photo albums). I recall the haze of the smoking car on commuter trains, and it wasn't uncommon to see someone brazen enough to smoke in a subway car, never mind airplanes, movie theaters, and sports arenas. |
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Friday, October 09, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #816
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October 9, 2015 - Issue #816 "A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom." - Bob Dylan |
Legal Tobacco
Watch: Ethan Nadelmann on Tobacco Prohibition. Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann discusses the dangers of incorporating the criminal justice system into the current and effective public health approach to discouraging cigarette use.
List of smoking bans in the United States. As further detailed in this list, smoking laws vary widely throughout the United States. Some places in the United States do not generally regulate smoking at all, some ban smoking in certain areas and not others, and some ban smoking nearly everywhere, even in outdoor areas (no state bans smoking in all public outdoor areas, but some local jurisdictions do). Illegal Drugs
Do Adults Have a Privacy Right to Use Drugs? Brazil's Supreme Court Decides. The past decade has witnessed a remarkable transformation in the global debate over drug policy. As recently as the mid-2000s, drug legalization or even decriminalization was a fringe idea, something almost no politician would get near. That's all changed. That the War on Drugs is a fundamental failure is a widely accepted fact among experts and even policymakers. Multiple nations no longer treat personal drug usage as a criminal problem but rather as one of public health. Many of them are actively considering following Portugal's successful example of decriminalizing all drugs. The global trend is clearly toward abandoning prohibitionist policies. The Court seems prepared to accept the pure civil libertarian argument against criminalizing drugs: namely, independent of outcomes, the state has no legitimate authority to punish adult citizens for the choices they make in their private sphere, provided that those choices do not result in direct harm to others.
Illegal and Legal Marijuana
Oregon: Marijuana. Before you head out to purchase marijuana, take a look at this Q&A link, for answers to many frequently asked questions, including who can buy marijuana, what can be bought and what can't, how to roll a joint and pack a pipe. So, where can you buy it in Oregon? Statewide, more than 200 dispensaries have told the state they plan to sell recreational cannabis.
Watch: Marijuana strain-guide for beginners. With practically an infinite number of marijuana strains to choose from at pot dispensaries in Oregon, we asked a 'budtender' at Panacea, a dispensary off NE Sandy, to explain the basic differences between strains and recommendations for beginners. AND Kids Get It: Cannabis Needs to be Regulated. AND The Flower. The animation is a meditation on the social and economic costs of marijuana prohibition. AND Truth in Media: Feds Says Cannabis Is Not Medicine While Holding The Patent on Cannabis as Medicine. Here's Why We Hear So Many False Claims About Cannabis. Because my research focuses on neurological function, I often come across claims about cannabis' impact on the brain. You've likely heard them too: claims that cannabis use lowers IQ by up to eight points, that use of the drug causes schizophrenia, and that it impairs cognitive function in the long term. What's fascinating about these claims is that they're almost always "based on the scientific evidence." But is that really the case? AND Could Marijuana Help Prevent the Rare Brain Disease Afflicting Football Players? The leading researchers studying the brains of deceased football players just released new figures showing they have found evidence of CTE in 87 out of 91 brains of former NFL players. AND Forget What You've Heard About Cannabis, Science Says It's Wrong. Many scientists are increasingly frustrated by the disregard of scientific evidence on cannabis use and regulation. To set the record straight, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), a global network of scientists working on drug policy issues, released two groundbreaking reports evaluating the strength of commonly heard cannabis claims. AND Prohibition Is the Real "Gateway Drug." Drug warriors claim that marijuana is a "gateway drug." On the contrary, it is the policy of drug prohibition - not the drug per se - that creates a gateway into a criminal underworld of crime and contaminated products. Canada: Marijuana. Marijuana is infinitely worse' than tobacco, Harper says as he encourages pot debate to go up in smoke. "Tobacco is a product that does a lot of damage - marijuana is infinitely worse and is something we do not want to encourage." Last year, Health Canada kicked off an anti-marijuana ad campaign - repeated shortly before the start of the election campaign - that said the drug was responsible for lower IQs, a statement derived from two separate studies whose conclusions have since been challenged. Kansas: Shona Banda Faces Decades in Prison Because Her Son Questioned Anti-Pot Propaganda. A fifth-grader's comments about marijuana lead to felony charges against his mother. Banda's son heard some things about marijuana that did not jibe with what he had learned about the plant from his mother. So he spoke up, suggesting that cannabis was less dangerous and more beneficial than the counselors running the program were claiming. That outburst of skepticism precipitated a visit to the principal's office, where the fifth-grader was interrogated about his mother's cannabis consumption. School officials called Child Protective Services (CPS), which contacted police, who obtained a warrant to search Banda's house based on what her son had said. Wisconsin: A 'deal with the devil'? Native American tribes push for marijuana legalization. Two Wisconsin tribes, the Menominee and the Ho-Chunk, look to follow South Dakota's Flandreau Santee Sioux, seeing a potential revenue stream – but it could force them to cede some of their sovereignty to federal and local governments. The idea of legal marijuana has some Native American tribes seeing green – but will it cost them in the long run? "Keep in mind some local law enforcement will not pause to ask whether they have any authority on tribal lands," he said. This, he said, could have far-reaching consequences. "That raises significant Indian sovereignty implications, potential civil rights violations for those individuals who will find themselves in the cross-hairs of non-tribal cops, and other profound legal consequences." |
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Friday, October 02, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #815
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October 2, 2015 - Issue #815 "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - Ronald Reagan |
Consider big picture of smoking restriction. Bluffton Town Council has found some smoke, but we're not sure they've found a fire. And it may want to package its discussion with other restrictions cities are adopting to shape behavior for the common good. How about the plastic bag issue? Beaufort also considered a ban on balloons at parks, due to litter left after birthday parties. These types of restrictions can be enacted. But don't think it will be a walk in the park.
Council Recommendation 2003/54/EC. By Frank Davis. The measures advocated are additional to the provisions of the Directive on tobacco products adopted in 2001, and those of the Directive on advertising and sponsorship of tobacco products adopted in May 2003. Europe's legislators have, moreover, ensured that these measures are consistent with the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO), which, at the time of adoption of the Recommendation, was still being negotiated. AND UKIP conference: Smoking ban 'more harmful' than pit closures. It was evidence of a "bankrupt" Labour telling people "what to do and think". In contrast to Labour, he said, UKIP would stand up for working people by giving them more power over their lives. Ecig consumer wants and "needs." By Julie Woessner and Carl V Phillips. The basics of what consumers and would-be consumers of low-risk tobacco products want is no mystery. You have heard it a thousand times: Consumers want high quality products, innovation, variety, and the freedom to choose which products they want to use, along with freedom from punitive taxes and other unjust laws that restrict use and enjoyment. 
Why adults do not need nannies. Over the last few weeks I have learnt two things. First, a lot of people dislike the nanny state. The incredible popularity of the Senate Inquiry into it - both in the media and among the general public - is testimony to that. However, it is also clear that lots of people are confused what the term "nanny state" means, even among those who ought to know. At its core, nanny-statism involves enacting laws and enforcing policies that interfere with or manage personal choices, when the only consideration is the individual's own good. If we can trust people to vote – a difficult and demanding choice with profound consequences – we can trust people to know what to eat, to drink, to buy, what video games to play, and whether or not to smoke. At its core, nanny statism is a threat to universal franchise.
Is the minimal state a reasonable response to the nanny state? David Leyonhjelm is chairing the Senate inquiry into 'Personal Choice and Community Impacts'. As we can see, an idea that seems intuitively appealing turns out to be quite radical. The great virtue of the harm principle is its clarity. As Mill says, it asserts: ... one very simple principle as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control. For many people, including myself, this parsimony comes at too heavy a price.
In the Habit: A History of Catholicism and Tobacco. By John B. Buescher. Saints who smoked, popes who puffed, and others who snuffed. In 1873, impoverished Confederate veteran Chiswell Langhorne (left) moved his family from Lynchburg to Danville, Virginia and began looking for work. The owner of a Danville tobacco warehouse had recently developed a new system of selling tobacco by auction... 
Macau total smoking ban may pare casino revenue by up to 4.6 percent. "According to the Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau‘s preliminary assessment, 23 percent of all visitors [to Macau] are smokers. Among these smokers, about 30 to 50 percent smoke while they are gambling," Lei said, adding that the city's gaming revenue would be "impacted" by 2.76 to 4.6 percent if 20 percent of all smoking gamblers who had originally intended to gamble in Macau would choose not to come due to the ban.
Belgium: One in 6 cafes disregarding anti-smoking legislation. The Public Health Minister’s office revealed that 3,000 inspections led to the conclusion that 16% of cafes do not enforce anti-smoking legislation. |
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