Ok, enough is enough!!! (condo, employment, buying)

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by tomspoon

Yeah it's not that our for-profit model of healthcare is broken or anything, it's those damn smokers making it more expensive for the rest of us!

I'm hearing two different arguments here: either tobacco should be heavily taxed so that the proceeds can go towards new schools and parks, or it should be heavily taxed so that nobody wants to do it anymore.



Right but the point is that there's a limit. This is bullying - you could care less that taxes continue to get prohibitively higher and higher on tobacco simply because you aren't affected.

By law, health insurance companies in MN are not-for profit...

[Beenhere4ever]

How about the first x ounces are tax-free. But then at some point, jack the tax way up because at that point the aim is obviously to get drunk, and getting drunk is a luxury.

[demtion35]

http://www.stillaproblem.com/

[Glenfield]

This is the most regressive tax we have. A much higher percentage of poor people smoke than wealthy people. These folks don't have much going for them in terms of fun and entertainment options. They do not need a bunch of do-gooders trying to make them quit, or spendthrift bureaucrats squeezing another dime out of their habit. We should give them a break and at least let them have a cheap smoke.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by golfgal

It was a HAPPY DAY when they banned smoking from public places. It's so nice not having to some home smelling like someone's cigarette!!

You don't have to pay the tax you know....

I also think you will find that the non-smoking population here is far larger and much more vocal....and no, there is no tax on clothing in MN.

How about some thank-you cards to the smokers of MN!!! If everyone quit smoking overnight, they'd be frantic to make up for the sudden loss, and there goes a sales tax on food and clothing!

Same thing would happen if people gave up their self-destructive addiction to driving a car! If even 25% of the drivers gave up that addiction suddenly, without warning, the gov't would call for an emergency session in St. Paul and imagine what they'd come up with to cover the losses!

I've been rolling my own for 12 years, I still only pay $1.25 a pack!

[Beenhere4ever]

One thing I really really hate is having a smoker sit next to me on the bus. They may not be aware, but their clothing STINKS!. We may not have second hand smoke, but we still have "first hand stink". Crowded buses mean we have our noses assaulted with all sorts of choice-driven smells. Stale cigarettes. Alcohol. Gone are the days when bathing habits were the worst option. I'll bet a few people avoid transit just to not to have to smell these things. For sure, it means a few more votes for those who want to tax those habits.

[tijlover]

Then you'd never survive a bus ride in Tehran, Iran. I just read a book about a woman who founded a school for social work over there. She insisted that her students start showering/taking a bath once a week, rather than once every 2 weeks!

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

This is the most regressive tax we have. A much higher percentage of poor people smoke than wealthy people. These folks don't have much going for them in terms of fun and entertainment options. They do not need a bunch of do-gooders trying to make them quit, or spendthrift bureaucrats squeezing another dime out of their habit. We should give them a break and at least let them have a cheap smoke.

I don't smoke and never have. That said, I don't care that it's a regressive tax. The poor guy doesn't have insurance and doesn't pay income taxes yet they take the most out of the system. At least we got some $$'s out of the poor smoker before they end up in the emergency room with smoking complications.

That said, I'm not a fan of taxing an addictive habit to excessive levels. Nor should the government put out marketing material like the lottery to get more people addicted to gambling. Just follow the money.

[Rhody2Mn]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

We should give them a break and at least let them have a cheap smoke.

Yes, let's encourage them to keep their nasty habit as eventually their "cheap smoke" will ultimately cost far more in terms of health and well-being.

I'm not picking on you, specifically, but it's very hard to have sympathy for smokers. It's truly a disgusting, horrible habit that should be banned. A relative of mine died of lung cancer from smoking her whole life, so that is why I'm so passionate about this subject.

[C-Chelle]

The 9 nastiest things in your supermarket

1. "Pink slime"
The meat industry likes to call it "lean finely textured beef," but after ABC News ran a story on it, the public just called it what it looks like — pink slime, a mixture of waste meat and fatty parts from higher-quality cuts of beef that have had the fat mechanically removed. Afterwards, it's treated with ammonia gas to kill Salmonella and E. coli bacteria. Then it gets added to ground beef as a filler. Food microbiologists and meat producers insist that it's safe, but given the public's reaction to the ABC News report, there's an "ick" factor we just can't overcome. The primary producer of pink slime just announced that it's closing three of the plants where pink slime is produced, and Kroger, Safeway, Food Lion, McDonald's and the National School Lunch Program (among others) have all pulled it from their product offerings.

2. Vet meds in beef
Hankering for a burger? Besides a hefty dose of protein, a 2010 report from the United States Department of Agriculture found your beef could also harbor veterinary drugs like antibiotics, Ivermectin, an animal wormer linked to neurological damage in humans, and Flunixin, an anti-inflammatory that can cause kidney damage, stomach and colon ulcers, and blood in the stool of humans. Still hungry? We didn't think so.

3. Heavy metal oatmeal
Sugary and calorie-laden, those convenient instant-oatmeal packets all have one thing in common. They're sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which, according to tests from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, may be contaminated with mercury. The group tested 55 samples of HFCS and found mercury in a third of them at levels three times higher than what the average woman should consume in a day.

4. Filthy shrimp
Food safety experts refer to imported shrimp as the dirtiest of the Seafood's Dirty Dozen list, and it's not hard to see why when you consider the common contaminants: Antibiotics, cleaning chemicals used in farmed shrimp pens, residues of toxic pesticides banned in the U.S., and pieces of insects. Less than 2 percent of all imported seafood is inspected — clearly, that's a problem.

5. MRSA in the meat aisle
Hard-to-treat, antibiotic-resistant infections are no joke. Superbug strains like MRSA are on the rise, infecting 185,000 people — and killing 17,000 people — annually in the U.S. Thought to proliferate on factory farms where antibiotics are overused to boost animal growth, a January 2012 study from Iowa State University found that the dangerous organisms wind up in supermarket meat, too. The dangerous MRSA strain lingered in 7 percent of supermarket pork samples tested. The bacteria die during proper cooking, but improper handling could leave you infected. The spike in superbug infections is largely blamed on antibiotic abuse in factory farms that supply most supermarkets.

6. Pregnancy hormones in a can
Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that acts like the hormone estrogen in your body, is used to create the epoxy linings of canned food. What food processors don't tell you is that the chemical was created over 70 years ago as a drug that was intended to promote healthy pregnancies. Though it was never used as a drug, the food industry saw no problem adding this pregnancy drug to a wide range of products, including canned food linings and plastic food containers. "Low levels of BPA exposure has been linked to a wide range of adverse health effects, including abnormal development of reproductive organs, behavior problems in children, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic changes that result in altered insulin levels, which leads to diabetes," says Sarah Janssen, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. And its use in canned food is the number one reason why 90 percent of Americans have it in their bodies.

7. Bacteria-infused turkey
Turkey marinated in MRSA? It's true. A 2011 study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that half of the U.S. supermarket meat sampled contain staph bacteria, including potentially lethal MRSA. Turkey was the worst offender: Nearly 80 percent of turkey products samples contain staph bacteria. Pork (42 percent) was next in line in terms of bacterial contamination, followed by chicken (41 percent), and beef (37 percent). Researchers ID the overuse of antibiotics as the culprit.

8. Moldy berries
If pregnancy hormones in your canned fruit isn't enough to make you turn to fresh, consider this: The FDA legally allows up to 60 percent of canned or frozen blackberries and raspberries to contain mold. Canned fruit and vegetable juices are allowed to contain up to 15 percent mold.

9. Rocket fuel in lettuce
Lettuce is a great source of antioxidants, and thanks to the great state of California, we can now eat it all year long. However, much of the lettuce grown in California is irrigated with water from the Colorado River. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado River water is contaminated with low levels of perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel known to harm thyroid function, and that perchlorate can be taken up inside lettuce plants. A separate study from the Environmental Working Group found perchlorate in 50 percent of store-bought winter lettuce samples.

The 9 nastiest things in your supermarket | MNN - Mother Nature Network

2013's updated Dirty Dozen produce list

2013 Dirty Dozen List
The fruits and vegetables that rank the highest in pesticide load are known as the Dirty Dozen, and the EWG advises that if you can’t afford to buy all organic produce, you should at least buy organic versions of these 12 items. There are also two extra Dirty Dozen Plus vegetables on the list. The explanation for those is below.

1. Apples
2. Strawberries
3. Grapes
4. Celery
5. Peaches
6. Spinach
7. Sweet bell peppers
8. Nectarines
9. Cucumbers
10. Potatoes
11. Cherry tomatoes
12. Hot peppers

Dirty Dozen Plus category
This plus category includes domestically grown summer squash and leafy greens, specifically kale and collards. While they didn’t make the top 12, they were found to be commonly contaminated with pesticides that are exceptionally toxic to the nervous system, including organochlorine, which has been banned for home use and withdrawn for many agricultural uses, but is still applied to certain commercial crops.


2013's updated Dirty Dozen produce list | MNN - Mother Nature Network


......But let's keep blaming tobacco for all health related issues.

STOP targeting one group!!! There is bad stuff for you everywhere you turn!!!


Industry pollutes the Land, Air and Water daily but we call that business and allow it to continue. We need to go after the people that make these products and tax them, NOT the end user. However our perfect government made it so that "Big Tobacco" is protected back in 97 or 99 (not sure without looking it up). It's not fair they go after the end user PERIOD!!!

and for those that complain about smell... well there are MANY smells out there that we cannot control..... wow, how petty!