i love how smokers seem to think that the signs on every entrance to this school that prohibit smoking in the vicinity of the entrances contain a rain exception clause.

it’s been raining most of the afternoon. the stairwells and much of the first floor reek of cigarettes. thanks, guys.

(y’know, it’s days like this that make me think smokers deserve whatever ailments they get from their habit. addiction, my ass. they’re just assholes.)

over at the conspiracy, juan non-volokh makes mention of the cato/acs FDA regulation debate that has leaked into the blogosphere. i figured, what the hey, i’d weigh in. i’m passingly familiar with both sides — my former employer is one of the major groups supporting FDA jurisdiction over tobacco, and several years ago i attended a pool party at robert levy’s house.

referring to the supreme court decision finding that congress had not intended to give the FDA oversight over tobacco products, levy writes,

Instead of inquiring whether Congress intended to give the FDA jurisdiction over tobacco, the court might have tackled this more vital issue: May Congress constitutionally assign its legislative role to an executive agency?

i would find it rather odd for the supremes to tackle this question and answer it in the negative, as it seems mr. levy would like them to do — mainly because it would unravel most existing government regulation, and because i think it’s physically impossible for congress to tackle all the regulatory issues on its own. one could argue that the agencies could come under congressional pervue rather than the executive’s, and i don’t really have a problem with that. but the regulatory agencies have a role to play in our government, regardless of which branch houses them.

Consider the influential “Wade” balancing test in products liability law, which asks that liability for injury be determined by weighing the following factors:

1. The usefulness and desirability of the product-its utility to the user and to the public as a whole;

do cigarettes have usefulness? for the nicotine addict, they do — they provide his nicotine fix. are they desirable? the tobacco industry has certainly tried to make them look so; you don’t need to go further than the nearest virginia slims or lucky strike ad to know that. but what about to the public as a whole? useful? desirable? probably not — unless you start adding in the salaries of those employed by the tobacco industry, including paper manufacturers, advertising designers, the subsidization of magazine costs, etc. but do you weigh that against the direct and indirect health costs? hospitalization, lost work hours, premature death, and so on and so forth.

*sigh*

my background is in public health. academically, socially, upbringingly, you name it. i was brought up with discussions of contraceptive technology and statistical models at the dinner table. i’m the only kid i know who got the broad street pump as a bedtime mystery story. i gave my first sex ed talk in the fifth grade. and for the last seven years, i’ve been working for what is increasingly being known as the “anti-smoking industry.”

last fall i started law school. and now i increasingly find my fairly totalitarian public health views at odds with my legal and political notions of individual liberty and the proper role of government and regulations in our lives.

not to mention the part of me that’s always felt, “if they’re stupid enough to start smoking….”

Parts excerpted from Anchorage Daily News, November 26, 2003

HOMER, AK — A local businessman who had just finished testifying against a proposed smokefree ordinance collapsed with a heart attack in the council chambers and could not be revived.

Robert Keys, a former smoker, told a packed city council meeting that he sat at a table of smokers every morning for coffee and conversation at a local restaurant without trouble. “It hasn’t bothered my health any,” Keys testified. In fact Keys, a veteran, said he’d just had an echocardiogram about six weeks ago at the hospital at Elmendorf Air Force Base. “They told me I had the heart of a very young person. So I think all this baloney about tobacco smoke affecting people’s health is just that. Baloney.”

Keys returned to his seat in the council chambers. Less than five minutes later, gasping noises from Keys interrupted further testimony. The room was cleared and emergency help summoned.

Among those at the meeting were the city fire chief, head EMT, and a doctor. Attempts to resuscitate Keys en route to the hospital were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest in the emergency room at South Peninsula Hospital, Homer Fire Chief Bob Painter said.

The council meeting was recessed until next week.

Keys told the council he had started smoking when he was 8 and quit when he was 35. Keys was active in local government affairs. Several years ago, he ran unsuccessfully for the city council.

“Bob actively voiced his concerns for city government over the years. He was strong in his beliefs,” said Mayor Jack Cushing, who was chairing the meeting.

The council recessed Monday before it ever got around to introducing the controversial smokefree ordinance. Cushing estimated that at least 30 people had come to testify about the measure. It is scheduled to be taken up with other council business when the meeting resumes on Monday.

“It’s a shocking, horrible tragedy,” said Annette Marley, who attended Monday’s meeting for the Homer Alliance for Fresh Air. “We can’t make a causal relationship between his being around smokers and his death, but we know you have a 30 percent higher risk of dying of chronic heart disease if you’re a nonsmoker exposed to smoke in the workplace.”

echoing the strains of the late leni riefenstahl’s defense of triumph of the will and olympia, isaac mizrahi (whose contribution to fashion design is far more insignifcant than riefenstahl’s contribution to film) was recently quoted as saying,

“If a designer or any artist takes funding from tobacco companies, I admire them. Shouldn’t art be more important than policy?” wsj, 15 sept 03, b1

well, the germans have left the americans out in the cold by caving to EU pressure to sign and ratify the FCTC.

would it be wrong to say, “nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah”?

two brown students have opened an after-hours hookah bar at a popular off-campus eatery. to do so, they sought advice from brown’s entrepreneurship program and are now competing for a $15k program grant.

it’s always nice to see people strike out on their own and find success. given the recent media reports of the rising appeal of hookah bars nationwide, it’s likely that “smoky waters hookah bar” will do well, if the principals nurture the business properly.

several students are less than happy about the venture, while others have commenced howling about personal liberties.

smoking is an entirely legal, “adult” pastime. huge corporations make billions every year peddling the weed that is known to cause several types of cancer, contribute to heart disease and hypertension, and so on and so forth. it’s enough of a health problem that the CDC has a whole office devoted to smoking and health. kills about four hundred thousand americans every year, costs the nation billions in healthcare.

but, like i said, it’s entirely legal, so why shouldn’t two bright young men make money exploiting the desires of their insecure classmates to be hip and cool at the expense of their health, just like the multinationals do?

on wednesday, april 30, the white house press briefing featured the following exchange:

EXCERPT
Q A different topic. The tobacco treaty at the U.N., the U.S. wants
some changes to it that critics say will weaken it significantly.
What’s the administration’s —

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, this is this is — if ever there was an issue involving standard language in treaties, this is it. We wanted to be a signatory to this treaty. We have made clear that we want to sign it, we want to ratify it. The language here deals with what’s called the reservations clause, which is a standard procedure in treaties. And this reservation — the reservation clause simply prohibits signatories from making reservations of sections of the treaty. Reservations is a standard part of treaties. So you really haven’t seen anything different in our approach to this treaty. It is a treaty we want to sign, we want to ratify with the standard language.

“standard language” my ass.

nick sent me this one. i have no idea where it’s from — anyone know, and i’ll put a link to it.