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The Royal College of Physicians missile nowhere mentions making smoking illegal, but making it anti-social, hard to find and prohibitively expensive. Alcoholic-beverage Prohibition in the U.S. didn’t make drinking illegal either, but prohibited its manufacture, transport or sale. When Prohibition came to America in 1920, 33 of the then-48 states were already dry. While not quite at the same level, Pennsylvania became the 25th state to adopt indoor smoking bans which became effective today. But national (alcoholic beverage) Prohibition failed in just 13 years because people wanted to drink. Tobacco prohibition will fail – as it has before – because there are plenty of people who want to smoke. It’s not widely remembered that tobacco prohibition was also tried in the U.S. less than a century ago. In Gordon Dillow’s excellent article called “Thank You For Not Smoking” for American Heritage in 1981, he noted that cigarette sales were banned by state law in Oklahoma in 1901, followed in later years by Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. Of these 13 states with cigarette prohibitions, six had repealed their laws by 1917 and ten had dropped the subject by 1921. Utah was the last to give up the fight in 1923. The chief campaigner against tobacco was an Illinois woman named Lucy Paige Gaston, whose efforts were similar to those of the more-famous Carrie Nation against alcoholic beverages. But having failed, as Nation later did, in her try at prohibition, Gaston ironically died of throat cancer in 1924. The antis are out for Prohibition; if you want to preserve the ability to smoke, you have to act. For those in Los Angeles and Southern California, you can check on our sister site devoted to oppose the current attempt by Los Angeles Councilman Bernard Parks to ban almost all smoking at WeAreNotCriminals.com. SCHIP bill appears dead for 2008, but will come back in 2009 Chris McCalla, legislative director of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association sent a circular to the trade this week that “according to the New York Times, Congressional Democrats do not intend to bring SCHIP legislation up again this year. They have concluded that the President would veto the bill and that the House Republicans will again have enough votes to sustain that veto. “Furthermore, according to the Congressional Budget office, the cost of the bill has increased, however, the revenues from tobacco taxes remain about the same. Because of the projected cost increases, Congress would need to figure out how to fund the extra cost. Opposition to the current SCHIP bill remains from Hispanic, African- and Asian-American members of Congress due to a lack of coverage for some immigrants. “Finally, time is a factor as Congress will be adjourning in the next three or four weeks, potentially leaving insufficient time for the legislative process to play out.” There is no doubt that this bill will be reintroduced in 2009 and will surely be agreed to if Barack Obama becomes President. Republican nominee John McCain was a co-sponsor of the original Senate bill on this issue, but has voiced some doubts about the reliability of the funding via tobacco taxes, concerns which now appear prescient. The current version of the bill increases the tax rate on all tobacco products, but importantly raises the tax cap on cigars from 4.875 cents each to a ceiling of $3.00. ~ Rich Perelman CLASSIFIED ADVERTISINGCigar Humidors and Cigar Accessories at Humidor Vault! Your online cigar humidor source, with rock-bottom pricing and fantastic customer support!A limited amount of classified advertising is available in this space on a weekly basis. For details, call Pat Harris at (213) 365-7965 or inquire by email by clicking here. Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below! Don’t forget to register for our drawing for free cigars and accessories! Just click on the “Register & Win” button above; enter today! Looking for a cigar party? Take a look at our exclusive list of hundreds of cigar events across the country, listed by state and date, only on CigarCyclopedia.com!
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Did you know?
“"Sandwich" filler includes both long and short pieces, with the long pieces folded over to form the "sandwich."
