Don't Ban Smoking

The smoking ban proposed by Rep. Susan Westrom (LD-Lexington) is a terrible idea. Westrom couches her desire in the cloak of better health and non-smokers rights. She is terribly wrong.

I smoked. I quit. I started back. I quit. I have survived kidney cancer. Studies told me the incidence of kidney cancer is higher in smokers. Kidney cancer is more likely in the obese. Kidney cancer is more prevalent in those with high stress levels. Kidney cancer is more likely in people with high blood pressure. DNA contributes too. My first cousin died three years ago. Undetected kidney cancer led to her early demise. I found mine. I am blessed. I know I am.

I tell this story to tell you this. Government cannot protect us from everything. Government's obligations are finite although those in authority want ever-expanding authority over every single aspect of our lives. If the apparatchiks would concern themselves about Liberty and how to promote it in our lives, the world and Kentucky would be a better place.

Cigarette smoke stinks. I don't like being around it. No one smokes on our job site now except in clearly designated areas. We made the decision to address the needs of our company. We did so because our fire insurance company advised us to prohibit smoking on the job. It was an economics decision and nothing else. Free people make good decisions that way.

The great debate on a smoking ban will begin soon. Truth be told, if the well-wishers in the General Assembly want to help us combat the evils of smoking, pass an outright ban on the sale and use of cigarettes. The decision to ban the product eliminates any further discussion. The problem that exists with this path is the subsequent loss of tax revenue, and no one in government has the courage to take the step to ban the sale and use of cigarettes because they want to spend the money so they can tell us what great things they do for us. By the way, please take note of the decrease in tax revenue from cigarette sales. Higher taxes results in lower revenues in every single case. A logical mind would decide that higher taxes is a very bad idea, but that is for another time.

Don't get me wrong. I know we need government. My life was saved because we have a great teaching hospital at UK. Government funds many of the functions of the hospital, and I am eternally grateful for it. I would spend more money on the work at UK's hospital, but I am letting my gratitude overrule all other considerations.

The thing I don't like is the hypocrisy of Rep. Westrom. She wants a smoking ban, but she wants the tobacco tax money so she can look good at the next ribbon cutting.

Either ban cigarettes altogether, or shut up.

I advise the latter.