Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban

by refinish69
Wed Jul 30th, 2008 at 07:47:46 AM EST

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to ban drugstores from selling tobacco products. Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed the amendment to San Francisco's Health code. Any pharmacy found selling tobacco products could be fined $1,000.

A spokesman for the mayor's office Nathan Baird said "A pharmacy should be a place you go to get better, not a place you go to get cancer".

cross posted @ Doing My Part For The Left

So when will San Francisco ban the sale of alcohol, over the counter remedies such as cough syrup, sleeping aids, and fad diet pills which have been known to harm consumers, and also stop selling candy and junk food which lead to health problems? Is this just another form of Prohibition which did not work when the Religious Right of old wanted to ban the sale of alcohol across America.

As a smoker, I appreciate that everyone is so damn concerned with my health. I appreciate the fact that I can not smoke in restaurants, night clubs, or bars in most major cities so that other people can enjoy their night out. I understand not allowing me to smoke at work and even making me stand in the broiling heat, freezing cold or rain to take my break while people still do the fake couch as they walk by the smoking area to let me know they disapprove of my smoking. I accept all that grudgingly, but when you start limiting the places where tobacco can be sold you have gone too far. It is bad enough that some stores card me when I buy cigarettes. I know you have to be of age to buy them but when I am old enough to be most of the store clerk's father, it is a damn insult to ask for my ID or my date of birth. I am old enough to know what I am doing and even that it can be dangerous for me but that is my choice and not the government's.

San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Amen. (4.00 / 4)

I quit smoking twenty years ago and have no urge to go back. But I don't like to see smokers treated as outcasts and when non-smokers start crying for cigarettes to be banned it pisses me off.

As you point out, it's only a matter of time before they try to ban chocolate ice cream because it occludes your arteries.

What people put in their bodies is their business and nobody else's.

by Ed J on Wed Jul 30th, 2008 at 09:29:32 PM EST

Re: Amen. (none / 0)

Thanks. It just seems to get more ridiculous every year with what people want to regulate as the world spins out of control.

Doing My Part For The Left

by refinish69 (refinish69 at gmail dot com) on Sat Aug 2nd, 2008 at 06:31:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban (4.00 / 4)

And what about all the prescriptive drugs these places sell, like statin drugs, that are clearly bad for your health with long term use?

No, Lipitor, a multi-billion dollar drug by itself, probably is as profitable as all tobacco in the US combined (he he, my statistic!). No, that doesn't matter.

People in their 50's, 60's and 70's go and hang themselves on these prescriptive drugs, and not only contribute to their own demise of poor health, but feed a profit system that's destructive to the nation as a whole, as wealth concentrates way up in the 1%, those Big Pharma stockholders.

Cigarettes in New York City are now about $9.00 a pack, depending on the brand and where in town you buy. Does that stop people? To some degree yes, but at least there's access to this legal herb. Pointing the finger at drug stores is just political posturing for the mayor of SF, just another way to make himself look like a little darling. But political expediency trampling civil rights is de rigour in modern America. Don't forget folks, it's no longer a free country.

Share. Share resources, share delight, share burdens, share the healing. Sharing will bring us back from mass suicide. www.share-international.org

by Isis on Thu Jul 31st, 2008 at 09:37:22 AM EST

Re: San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban (none / 0)

I consider it posturing also and actually like Gavin Newsom but think he has gone to far on this one.

Doing My Part For The Left

by refinish69 (refinish69 at gmail dot com) on Sat Aug 2nd, 2008 at 06:32:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban (4.00 / 3)

the nanny state getting silly. You'd think the city doesn't have any actual problems the supes should be talking about.

I have the luxury of viewing san francisco politics as entertainment, sorry you're on the sharp end of the stupidity this time.

The Four Horsemen of Bushism: War, Corruption, Hypocrisy and Greed

by esquimaux (esquimaux1 at gmail dot com) on Thu Jul 31st, 2008 at 02:15:17 PM EST

Re: San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban (none / 0)

I don't live in SF just frustrated by the insanity of it all.

Doing My Part For The Left

by refinish69 (refinish69 at gmail dot com) on Sat Aug 2nd, 2008 at 06:29:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban (4.00 / 2)

As a non-smoker I understand and appreciate non-smoking restaurants and workplaces, but anything other than that is too much, IMO. As a pot smoker I need cigarette smokers puffing away to camouflage me when I light up in bars, so I don't appreciate any steps to limit smoking in bars or where tobacco products can be purchased. Also, marijuana paraphernalia is often labeled as a tobacco smoking accessory to comply with the law, so any restrictions on tobacco sales inevitably hurt paraphernalia sales.

by KansasVoter on Thu Jul 31st, 2008 at 05:52:20 PM EST

Re: San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban (none / 0)

Well, that is one outlook I never thought of but hey an ally is an ally. I will let you know that cig smoke has never hidden pot smoke and never will. LOL

Doing My Part For The Left

by refinish69 (refinish69 at gmail dot com) on Sat Aug 2nd, 2008 at 06:28:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban (none / 0)

Do you suppose brownies and beer might go together? At least that would solve the camouflage issue;-)

"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." Dorothy Thompson, Journalist

by Indianadem on Sat Aug 2nd, 2008 at 08:52:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

San Francisco Passes Drugstore Tobacco Ban | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Go to: [ Booman Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]

. Home
. About
. Contact
. Advertise
. FAQ
. Search

Username:
Password:

. Make a new account
. Reset password

Proud member of

The Liberal Blog Network

a FeedBurner Network

Advertise in The Liberal Blog Network

Subscribe to this network

Gift Cards * New Arrivals

NOTE: Overstock bests Amazon's prices and is "blue."

THE BOOKS WITH "BUZZ":
______________

Learn the real story behind the WMD in Iraq:

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
by Ron Suskind

Read Barack Obama's vision for America:

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama

DaveW recommends:

I Am a Strange Loop
by Douglas Hofstadter

Need some laughs?

I Am America (and So Can You!)
by Stephen Colbert

rae recommends:

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire
by Morris Berman.

On BooMan’s shelf:

The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End
by Peter W. Galbraith

This looks interesting:

Adventure Divas
by Holly Morris

Here’s a good one from
Elizabeth Gilbert:

Eat Pray Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Crash" * Best Motion Picture, Academy Awards * Only $11.79 at Overstock * 2006 SAG Winner, Best Ensemble

Check out
Powell's new section:
NEW FAVORITES
Selected new arrivals at 30% off

Recommended by Indianadem and ejmw:
The Conscience of a Liberal
by Paul Wellstone

From northcountry’s bookshelf:

The New Golden Age:
The Coming Revolution Against
Political Corruption and Economic Chaos by Ravi Batra

A novel about contractors in Iraq from the woman that runs The Spy That Billed Me:

Outsourced: A Novel
from RJ Hillhouse.

Download Sleeper Cell on iTunes

(Better than "24") Download Weeds on iTunes

(Hilarious 1/2-hour adult comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker) Download Late Nite with Conan O'Brien on iTunes

Download South Park on iTunes

James Hunter - People Gonna Talk:

Great Deals
----- * ^ * -----

Find mystery novels by Nancy Pickard ("Kansas")

Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power by Phyllis Bennis (interviewed on DN!)

Featured by Keith Olbermann, New (Powell's Sale): Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum (whose other books merit serious consideration)

"Explosive" State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
by James Risen

The book the CIA doesn't want you to read: Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
Larry Johnson's review

BT's all-time best seller:

PERMACULTURE:
A Designers' Manual
$79.95 * Sale: $59.95

Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History (Third Edition)

The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor And Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy Egan

Green Press Initiative
----- * ^ * -----

Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists by Eleanor Mills * NYT review

Bury Me Standing: the Gypsies & Their Journey

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus

Brokeback Mountain
by Annie Proulx
----- * ^ * -----
Check out Powell's
"At The Movies"

Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World by Noam Chomsky (Power & Terror: Post 9-11 Talks)

The Price of Privilege:

How Parental Pressure and
Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of
Disconnected and Unhappy Kids
by Madeline Levine

Save 35-70% on
name brand clothing,
footwear, and outdoor gear
at SierraTradingPost.com
:

We listened to PEN American Center's "State of Emergency" and found 1940s books by Curzio Malaparte only at Alibris. (Selection (MP3) excerpted from "The Skin.")

Banned Books * Are you a fan of Film Noir, Art House, Documentaries or Hong Kong Action? * Searching for a long-lost children's book or a first printing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on vinyl? Find it at Alibris!

:
:

Booman Tribune Homepage
admin@boomantribune.com
powered by Scoop

More blogs about Blogs at Technorati.