Butting Heads: Town's Tobacco Ban Hearing Shut Down for Being Too Rowdy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: NBC News

Butting Heads: Town's Tobacco Ban Hearing Shut Down for Being Too Rowdy
39 minutes

WESTMINSTER, Mass. — Only a handful of people were able to speak on a proposal that could make the tiny Massachusetts town of Westminster the first in the nation to ban all sales of tobacco products when boos and shouts from the crowd shut down the public hearing Wednesday night.

Sixty or more residents in the packed Westminster Elementary school gymnasium were registered to share their opinions. Some among the audience of several hundred toted signs opposing the ban; some had participated in a rally earlier.

But amid shouts of "America!" and "Freedom Now," Board of Health chairwoman Andrea Crete gaveled the hearing to a close just 25 minutes into it instead of taking comments.

~snip~
Joyce McGuire, a Westminster resident and nonsmoker who opposes the ban, also was disappointed the hearing ended early.

"I think people are really angry because they feel this is being shoved down their throats," she said. And with the proposal drawing national media attention, she added, "I think we all feel really embarrassed. I don't think this is the way our town is."


Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/butting-heads-towns-tobacco-ban-hearing-shut-down-being-too-n247471

[yeoman6987]

1. What is becoming of our great country

Ban this and ban that. Should not be the way.

[CBGLuthier]

2. Yeah goddammit bring back DDT.

Perfectly good poison just like tobacco after all.

[MADem]

4. No, no, no, no, no....

Tobacco is not yet banned at the federal, state, or county level. It's not illegal. No legislature has sat and heard evidence and decided to ban it.

I could do without the substance, myself, but it's just not "on" to ban perfectly legal substances even if they might be bad for you.

I know a person who uses tobacco medicinally to assist with postural hypotension. It doesn't have many medical applications, but there's always the rare one.

Here's the thing--vendors can decide FOR THEMSELVES to not carry it (like CVS recently did). But for a town council to declare that merchants can't sell this or that, well, that's just authoritarian.

Next thing you know, they'll "outlaw" movies with too much s-e-x in them, or books with suggestive passages. Hey, those prurient thoughts are bad for you...what's the difference between dirty minds and dirty lungs, n'est pas?

[rpannier]

8. Back to the days of Banned in Boston

This time it'll be Banned in Westminster

I agree.
I do have a problem with banning perfectly legal things
If a merchant chooses not to carry that's one thing

[MADem]

13. It'll go over like a lead balloon....

And of course, the right wing will blame the whole thing on "liberals" notwithstanding the contributions of "crunchy cons" and "tiger moms" in the mix on the pro-ban side, and "free to be" and "cold dead hands" types on the other side.

After the town hall was shut down and a shitload of people escorted out, the committee deciding the matter said they'll take recommendations in writing only. The police rather dramatically escorted them to their cars "for their protection."

That was the take away on NECN this morning, anyway....

[sir pball]

16. Actually if it's used wisely and properly, DDT is one of the best ways to fight malaria.

Lightly misted onto walls and other surfaces in mosquito-ridden areas, it's persistent and environmentally isolated while still extremely effective at controlling the insects (they fly in, land on the DDT, and Bob's your uncle). The problem is with the indiscriminate spraying of tons of the crap all over every place imaginable...even water's toxic at a high enough dose.

[valerief]

3. Tobacco should have been banned over a century ago.

[lancer78]

5. So should have the thing in your

Avatar's hand. Oh wait, we did ban it, how did that turn out?

[valerief]

17. Ha! It was only banned after it was saturated throughout the culture. nt

[jtuck004]

6. Oh come on, it's just small "f" fascism. And it's for a good cause, eh? n/t

[The Straight Story]

7. Ban abortions in towns, tobacco, whatever

People like banning things on the left and one the right - sad to see but both parties seem to love controlling the choices of others.

[rpannier]

9. Pretty Much

They just choose which things they want to ban and criticize the other for banning things they like

[UglyGreed]

10. As a former smoker

I do not believe it should be outlawed. To each their own, as long as they are respectful and smoke where others do not have to breath in the secondhand smoke.

[MADem]

14. What nerve!!!! A SENSIBLE approach to the issue? Here? On DU?

FWIW, I agree with you.

[UglyGreed]

15. I better be careful

I might get labeled......again

[HockeyMom]

11. How did Prohibition work out?

End of story.

[N.Y. to Paris]

12. I'm sorry,

I don't mean to make light of it, but this immediately took me to Blazing Saddles...."Yeah! What Gabby Johnson said!!! I think Morgan Freeman said it best when talking about smoking the herb..."you can't stop people from doing what they want to do!" I don't smoke anymore, but I couldn't care less about it, this country has lost its fucking mind.....