ATTN Smokers: Oregon may soon require you show a prescription for you to avoid a year in jail

robeiae · Jan 25, 2013

RichardGarfinkle said:
I was assuming this was one of those ironic bills offered to make a point on other issues. My first thought was that the sponsor was trying to draw a contrast between how tobacco is treated and how pot is treated.

It's certainly possible, but Greenlick crafted a real bill, from whay I see, a serious bill with all the t's crossed and i's dotted.

'Course, some people go overboard with irony...

And in Oregon, pot is treated very well, comparitively speaking.

regdog · Jan 25, 2013

Dear Government,

If I want to drink a Big Gulp while chain smoking and eating transfat laden deep fried food, I'm going to. Why don't you busy yourselves fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, revamping our educational system to make us leaders in the world economy and bring jobs back to the US instead of giving tax breaks to corporation who outsource.

Big fuck you.

Sincerely,
reg

Plot Device · Jan 25, 2013

regdog said:
Dear Government,

If I want to drink a Big Gulp while chain smoking and eating transfat laden deep fried food, I'm going to. Why don't you busy yourselves fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, revamping our educational system to make us leaders in the world economy and bring jobs back to the US instead of giving tax breaks to corporation who outsource.

Big fuck you.

Sincerely,
reg

My hero!

(Heroine.)

.

TreeJet · Jan 25, 2013

As a habitual chain smoker of 8 years, I'd start a revolt. I have the right to the pursuit of happiness and smoking makes me happy damn it! Convince store owners would lose a HUGE source of income, they'd be on board. This would be the equivalent of the tea taxes britian imposed on the colonists. Don't fuck with American social conventions and niceties, we get angry.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need a cigarette after that rant.

TreeJet · Jan 25, 2013

regdog said:
Dear Government,

If I want to drink a Big Gulp while chain smoking and eating transfat laden deep fried food, I'm going to. Why don't you busy yourselves fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, revamping our educational system to make us leaders in the world economy and bring jobs back to the US instead of giving tax breaks to corporation who outsource.

Big fuck you.

Sincerely,
reg

Don · Jan 25, 2013

regdog said:
Dear Government,

If I want to drink a Big Gulp while chain smoking and eating transfat laden deep fried food, I'm going to. Why don't you busy yourselves fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, revamping our educational system to make us leaders in the world economy and bring jobs back to the US instead of giving tax breaks to corporation who outsource.

Big fuck you.

Sincerely,
reg

Plot Device said:
My hero!

(Heroine.)

.

TreeJet said:
As a habitual chain smoker of 8 years, I'd start a revolt. I have the right to the pursuit of happiness and smoking makes me happy damn it! Convince store owners would lose a HUGE source of income, they'd be on board. This would be the equivalent of the tea taxes britian imposed on the colonists. Don't fuck with American social conventions and niceties, we get angry.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need a cigarette after that rant.

TreeJet said:

Once again, government does an excellent job of promoting the causes of individual liberty and self-determination. It may be the one thing they do really well.

Ari Meermans · Jan 25, 2013

robeiae said:
It's certainly possible, but Greenlick crafted a real bill, from whay I see, a serious bill with all the t's crossed and i's dotted.

'Course, some people go overboard with irony...

And in Oregon, pot is treated very well, comparitively speaking.

I wonder how he proposes to make up the lost revenue from the Tobacco Tax the state collects. According the Oregon Department of Revenue site, they collect $1.18 per pack of cigarettes sold, generating about $2B in revenue for the general fund and the Oregon Health Plan among other programs.

missesdash · Jan 25, 2013

TreeJet said:
As a habitual chain smoker of 8 years, I'd start a revolt. I have the right to the pursuit of happiness and smoking makes me happy damn it! Convince store owners would lose a HUGE source of income, they'd be on board. This would be the equivalent of the tea taxes britian imposed on the colonists. Don't fuck with American social conventions and niceties, we get angry.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need a cigarette after that rant.

Okay now I have this image of thousands of "heavy smokers" dragging their oxygen tanks and pausing to catch their breath while "staging a revolt."

TreeJet · Jan 25, 2013

missesdash said:
Okay now I have this image of thousands of "heavy smokers" dragging their oxygen tanks and pausing to catch their breath while "staging a revolt."

That's true! We'd probably stop for smoke breaks every ten minuets! l

Plot Device · Jan 25, 2013

missesdash said:
Okay now I have this image of thousands of "heavy smokers" dragging their oxygen tanks and pausing to catch their breath while "staging a revolt."

TreeJet said:
That's true! We'd probably stop for smoke breaks every ten minuets! l

True story:

Elderly genetleman in a wheelchair that I used to care for was a member of a sculling team in Philadelphia for disabled people.

http://prohealthcareproducts.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/scull-race.jpg

His team entered the dragon races every year. One of his teammates, a Russian dude with a very heavy smoking habit, partnered up with him for the two-man race that year. My client sat in the front-seat position, and his partner sat behind him (thus my client couldn't see his partner). The whistle blew, the gun sounded, and the race was on. My client started rowing for all he was worth. All the other boats were speeding away, but my client's boat was barely going anywhere. He called back to his partner, "C'mon! We're losing 'em! I feel like I'm doing all the work!" And then he suddenly smelled the smoke. He stopped rowing and turned to look: his partner had dropped both oars and was puffing away on a cigarette. "What the hell are you doing? We're in a race?" His partner replied: "I can't help it! I need a smoke!"

(That old man was just so full of terrific stories. I never met the Russian dude, but when my former client told me stories like this one, I could always see it in my head. I can hear the Russian accent of the man I never met. I can see my client turning and shouting at him. I swear, his life would make the most awesome movie.)

cornflake · Jan 25, 2013

He'd probably do better to go the Bloomberg way. The prescription thing has a ton of pitfalls and isn't going to stop smoking.

Raising taxes on cigarettes, however, does stop smoking. New York has the highest cig taxes in the nation. I think brand-name cigs are close to $13 a pack, over $4 of which is made up of city taxes (I think, haven't checked).

As well, Bloomberg banned smoking in all public buildings, public parks, stadiums, etc., and is trying to ban it, or allow it to be banned, in apartment buildings.

Same as the soda thing - he originally wanted to tax any sugary beverage, but couldn't. So he banned big drink cups with sugary beverages. Find a workaround and change habits and it may work.

Don · Feb 1, 2013

Congratulations to Oregon Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland), winner of the January 2013 Nanny of the Month award for these efforts on the behalf of the prison-industrial complex and the prescription-writing income of poor doctors everywhere. He beat out the lawgivers of Mount Dora, Florida, who propose to ban tethering pets outside unattended.

He also beat out Rep. Bill Zedler (R-Arlington, TX), who wants to license strippers. He claims its to dissuade women from going into that line of work; I think he wants to give the licensing exams. Now that's a job I'd move to Texas and come out of retirement for.

I gotta say it's interesting to see a politician admit that the reason for licensing is to raise barriers to entry rather than to protect the customer (from ugly strippers??) although it's usually a profit protection move, not a moral protection one. I bet he got his "discreet powermonger" card pulled for that one.

Plot Device · Feb 1, 2013

Don said:
He also beat out Rep. Bill Zedler (R-Arlington, TX), who wants to license strippers. He claims its to dissuade women from going into that line of work; I think he wants to give the licensing exams. Now that's a job I'd move to Texas and come out of retirement for.

Licensing strippers will set up the strippers themselves (male or female) as stalking fodder.

Any time a profession needs to be licensed, the licensure becomes public record. The ability to be an ANONYMOUS stripper will be taken away from these men and women --consisder that virtually all strippers with few exceptions use stage names. This is the sort of thing that can harm them in the present via stalkers who want to learn their trues names and even home addresses. And it will harm them in the future since the existence of the license will follow them around for the rest of their working lives. (And you thought it was just a fluke every time nude photos of the latest Miss America candidate got revealed by the press.)

Licensing strippers is a bad idea all around. I truly hope women's advocacy groups jump all over this one.

Ken · Feb 1, 2013

... taxing cigarettes out of existence seems like a better way to go.
It's more subtle and smokers don't put up much fuss.
And with taxes, at least the money goes to the city, state, and government.
With prescrips it'd be going to drug comps. As if they don't have enough loot as is!

cornflake · Feb 1, 2013

Plot Device said:
Licensing strippers will set up the strippers themselves (male or female) as stalking fodder.

Any time a profession needs to be licensed, the licensure becomes public record. The ability to be an ANONYMOUS stripper will be taken away from these men and women --consisder that virtually all strippers with few exceptions use stage names. This is the sort of thing that can harm them in the present via stalkers who want to learn their trues names and even home addresses. And it will harm them in the future since the existence of the license will follow them around for the rest of their working lives. (And you thought it was just a fluke every time nude photos of the latest Miss America candidate got revealed by the press.)

Licensing strippers is a bad idea all around. I truly hope women's advocacy groups jump all over this one.

How?

I mean say Sue gets a stripping license under her own name.

Now she goes to club Nude Alot and strips under the name Chardonnay. How can someone stalk her based on the license?

Nevermind that working as a stripper following someone because of a license being revealed via background check wouldn't, I wouldn't think, reveal anyone who wouldn't be revealed by a background check now. It's in your employment history.

Don · Feb 1, 2013

Plot Device said:
Licensing strippers will set up the strippers themselves (male or female) as stalking fodder.

Any time a profession needs to be licensed, the licensure becomes public record. The ability to be an ANONYMOUS stripper will be taken away from these men and women --consisder that virtually all strippers with few exceptions use stage names. This is the sort of thing that can harm them in the present via stalkers who want to learn their trues names and even home addresses. And it will harm them in the future since the existence of the license will follow them around for the rest of their working lives. (And you thought it was just a fluke every time nude photos of the latest Miss America candidate got revealed by the press.)

Licensing strippers is a bad idea all around. I truly hope women's advocacy groups jump all over this one.

Zedler knows that; it's why he proposed the law in the first place; he wants to keep women from going astray and "wrecking their lives." No mention of men at all. I guess he figures the males can handle the job, but those poor, weak, misguided women...

The conservative lawmaker said he hopes the measure, if it passes, might encourage women to find another line of work.

"They won't want to get a license as a stripper from the state of Texas," Zedler said of his legislation. "I think it would keep a lot of girls from getting involved in that lifestyle and basically wrecking their lives.

"This will force everyone to clean up their act," he said. "Overall, it will be a benefit to everyone concerned."

regdog · Feb 1, 2013

Has anyone told Zedler that men strip too

robeiae · Feb 1, 2013

Don said:
Zedler No mention of men at all. I guess he figures the males can handle the job, but those poor, weak, misguided women...

regdog said:
Has anyone told Zedler that men strip too

I think the licensing is a bad idea. And I'm fine with strip clubs being legal.

That said, number-wise there's no comparison here, men to women. Men also get raped. And to ignore that reality would be foolish. But when speaking about the topic, it's okay to talk about it with regard to women; the fact that men are raped too doesn't need constant acknowledgement.

So while I agree that the law is a bad idea, I don't think the "what about male strippers" angle is particularly noteworthy, especially since the bill itself isn't actually limited to women, only.

And all of that said, the strip-club business can be a dangerous one and imo, many young people (though the vast majority are women) get sucked into a destructive and dangerous lifestyle. I watched The Sopranos yesterday, by the way.

Mustafa · Feb 1, 2013

Plot Device said:
I predict a lot of sleeze-ball docs who barely passed their exams will set up "prescription mills" for cranking out cigarette prescriptions left and right.

While I don't doubt there are a lot of sleeze-ball docs, since there are a lot of sleeze-balls in general so the proportion is probably the same, the "barely passed their exams" does not mean the same thing in medical school as it does in other places. Many of the exams in medical school require a minimum grade of 80% to "pass." Doctors who "scrape by" do so by standards that would be rather impressive in other programs.

Mustafa · Feb 1, 2013

I agree that cigs should be taxed out of existence, rather than becoming a restricted substance. It's a little difficult to turn back the clock on such things, especially when there are so many people already addicted.

ATTN Smokers: Oregon may soon require you show a prescription for you to avoid a year in jail

robeiae

Touch and go

regdog

The Scavengers

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

TreeJet

lost in wild thought

TreeJet

lost in wild thought

Don

All Living is Local

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter

missesdash

You can't sit with us!

TreeJet

lost in wild thought

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Don

All Living is Local

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

Ken

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Don

All Living is Local

regdog

The Scavengers

robeiae

Touch and go

Mustafa

New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin

Mustafa

New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin