Big Brother may ban smoking in your house – what’s next?
Dear Friend,
By now, smoking has been banned nearly everywhere: in bars, in restaurants, in offices, in movies, on planes, and – this one always gets me – at outdoor stadiums. The only place it’s still OK to smoke is in the privacy of your own home, right?
Wrong.
There’s a growing movement by the anti-smoking fascists throughout the country to create a smoke-free housing law. This law would ban smoking in multi-unit residences like apartment buildings and condominiums. That tug you feel is anti-smoking lobby trying to pull away another of your personal freedoms.
I’m not a believer in smoking bans. And as a believer in personal freedom, I’ll also be the first one to hand you a match if you want to light up.
I’ve pointed out time and again that smoking is not the primary cause of lung cancer. And yet, this myth persists. And the anti-smoking lobby is using it to further their cause.
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the smoking ban provides several hundred miles of blacktop. Why? Because wholesale government bans enacted under the guise of the “greater good” are always, always about the restriction of personal freedoms. (Did you know that Hitler was the original mastermind behind government regulated smoking bans? It’s an interesting little story, and I’ll tell you about in the December issue of The Douglass Report .)
As I was sayingSmoking bans are the first step on a slippery slope toward the obliteration of our individual rights. The simpletons in Congress and the Senate are often more concerned with celebrating our rights than protecting them. The smoke-free lobby seems to neither realize nor care that such a ban is discriminatory and, therefore, unconstitutional.
Thankfully, there are some smart people other than myself who are speaking out against this ban. Many real estate companies are pointing out that this so-called “health concern” is about to take a big swipe at the sanctity of one of the most fundamental American rights: private property.
Don’t let all this smoke cloud an issue that’s crystal clear. When the government comes to your door and says they want to pass a ban to protect you – and your children – slam the door in their face. Whether you light up after you slam that door is up to you. And that’s exactly how it should be.
I was right again: The FDA can’t protect you
Here’s an item that highlights the hypocrisy of the FDA that I’ve been speaking out against for so long.
In October, a witness told a Congressional subcommittee that the FDA cannot guarantee the safety of the nation’s drug supply. And it’s no wonder: Materials from foreign drug manufacturers (ones that, no doubt, aren’t exactly “quality assured”) make up as much as 80 PERCENT of all the ingredients used by U.S. drug makers. And the FDA freely admitted that most of those materials don’t even get a first glance (much less a second one) by inspectors.
So the high-and-mighty, regulation-and-red-tape-happy FDA can’t protect us after all. Big shock.
In fact, the few inspections the FDA does conduct at overseas drug plants are even less thorough than the so-called inspections that the agency conducts in the States. While the FDA is supposed to inspect domestic drug makers every two years, incredibly, there’s NO SUCH requirement for foreign drug suppliers.
This is part and parcel of the FDA’s eagerness to push new drugs hurriedly through the approval process (naturally with a helpful goose from the wealthy and all-powerful pharmaceutical lobby) – anything to speed the process along in the interest of making a buck. Saving lives? Protecting the consumer? Well, that’s a few numbers down on the agenda.
Does this make sense? Of course not.
And yet, hardly a week seems to pass without the discovery of some hidden toxin from a Chinese manufacturer. Whether it’s lead paint used in children’s toys or cut-rate toothpaste with diethyleme glycol (a poison that’s used in antifreeze), it’s just a matter of dumb luck that no one here in the States has died.
Keeping my fingers crossed,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
