Oklahoma Smokers

The city of Norman, Oklahoma may enact a public smoking ban in the near future.

The Norman City Council is considering banning all smoking in public parks, the golf course and even on city owned parking lots.

This after Noble, another Cleveland County town, recently enacted a ban on smoking in its public parks.

As smoking has been banned from more and more indoor locations it is only reasonable to expect that the anti-smoking zealots would go after outdoor smoking.

They have and have already achieved considerable success with smoking bans in football stadiums, zoos and now public parks.

The handwriting is all over the wall and unless smokers as well as others interested in individual rights take a more active role in public policy and decision making, odds are that before long smoking in public will be relegated to the same status as urinating in public; a criminal offense.

It strains the imagination that anyone would claim that second-hand tobacco smoke outdoors, in the presence of Oklahoma’s prevailing winds, constitutes a health hazard to anyone. Such claims simply fly in the face of logic and reason. Yet they play well to a gullible public eager to have someone to look down upon and yes, even to hate.

Some of the anti-smoking zealots have concluded that the health hazard argument of second-hand tobacco smoke outdoors makes no sense. Therefore they have switched tactics claiming that if smoking is not banned from outdoors in public parks, zoos and other facilities, children will see some adults smoking and concluded that smoking is ‘a good thing’.

That argument is as weak as is that regarding heath hazards from second hand smoke outdoors. If non-smokers have not indoctorinated their children in the evils of smoking they probably should be prosecuted for child neglect or in he least shunned for their political incorrectness.

If your children are convinced to take up smoking owing to the fact they see me smoke out doors, then all I can say is that you are pretty damned poor excuses for parents.

Otherwise you would have ‘taught them better’.

As of November 1, 2007 Oklahoma will have a new smoking ban courtesy of Senate Bill 473 by Sen. Cliff Branan, R-Oklahoma City and Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove.

This new law, already signed by Governor Brad Henry, prohibits smoking at all parts of a zoo to which the public may be admitted, whether indoors or outdoors.

The supposed justification for this new prohibition is that there are so many children who visit zoos and this new law will prevent them from being exposed to cigarette smoke.

This latest smoking prohibition is but one more step toward a total ban on smoking in public, including in your own front yard.

Don’t think it can happen?

It already has in a couple of California towns and don’t think for a minute that the anti-smoking zealots of Oklahoma are not looking forward to the day they can impose similar bans here. As they celebrate this latest smoking prohibition, the anti-smoking zealots are already plotting their next attack on your rights.

Until all Oklahoma smokers start voting to protect their individual rights, we will see new and more restrictive smoking bans coupled with tobacco tax increases in an attempt to eliminate both smoking and smokers from public sight in Oklahoma.

This new smoking ban does not take effect until November 1, 2007. If you are a smoker and are confronted while at the zoo by an anti-smoking Nazi prior to November 1st, just tell them to kiss your butt.

Your cigarette butt that is…

Is still discrimination and as such must be opposed.

Throughout history discrimination has existed in many forms.

While certain forms of discrimination are currently frowned upon, such as discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity and gender, other forms of discrimination are tolerated. These latter forms of discrimination include discrimination based on appearance, body weight, lifestyle and personal habits. Although these latter forms of discrimination are not readily admitted by those practicing them, they do exist.

On April 5th at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campus in Tulsa, featured “Wellness Week” speaker Ken Lackey, chief executive officer and chairman of the Nordam Group, came out of the closet and blatantly called upon the Oklahoma Legislature to authorize discriminating against smokers, America’s ’second class citizens’ in Lackey’s world view.

Lackey called for the repeal of an Oklahoma law which prohibits rejecting job seekers who smoke - permitting their rejection solely on the basis that they use tobacco products and without regard to their actual job qualifications.

Lackey said smoking and tobacco products not only are hazardous to the smoker but also to company employees. He further stated, “I can’t condone that. It puts a burden on the workplace”.

Lackey did not request legislative authorization to discriminate against those that consume alcohol but once he is finished with the smokers odds are he will get around to the ‘drinkers’. His kind always do, eventually.

After eliminating smokers and drinkers from the job pool, Lackey may wish to eliminate fat people, old people, young people and ugly people from the job pool also, as odds are none of them fit Lackey’s view of perfection. When one is as perfect as Lackey seems to fancy himself they often wish to surround themselves only with other perfect people and if they can not find perfect people, they will try to mold them from available stock through social engineering.

The mentality exhibited by Ken Lackey is that of the corporate bosses of old. Robber barons who created ‘company towns’ and controlled the lives of their employees while at work, and also their lives while away from work.

Lackey and his ilk do not view employees are individuals with rights, but rather company property to be molded into a form most beneficial to the company’s bottom line. In this regard, employees are no different from drill presses, saws, fork lifts and other ‘tools of business’; they belong to the company and the less say they have in their own lives the better for the company.

In an age where discriminating against people simply because they use tobacco products is common and considered acceptable by many it is not surprising that Ken Lackey asks for legislative approval to further that discrimination.

What will be surprising is if the Oklahoma Legislature does what it should and tells Lackey to ‘butt out’ of the private lives of those seeking employment with his company…

It has been 1 year since the smoking ban went into effect at restaurants in Oklahoma. In looking back over the course of the past year, what if anything has changed?

In our family we still dine out, although not as often as prior to the ban. Also we now spend our money only in those restaurants with a ’smoking room’.

Prior to the smoking ban we frequented a wide variety of restaurants both with and without smoking sections.

Sometimes we frequented the mom and pop - down home style places were the majority of the customers were smokers. At other times we frequented the yuppie style places where smokers if they were welcomed at all were in the minority. And on occasion we frequented the upscale places most of which had a bar and therefore a sizable customer base of smokers.

Since the ban went into effect the biggest difference we have noticed is that we no longer frequent the places that cater to the ‘yuppie crowd’ and we try to frequent the smaller mom and pop places that went to the extra expense of adding a ’smoking room’. We still on occasion frequent the upscale places, but not as often, as we are trying to help support the mom and pop operations that went the extra mile to cater to us smokers.

We have noted a few restaurants, mostly yuppie style, that have gone out of business in the past few months. Whether the loss of smokers contributed to their demise or not would only be speculation. The only mom and pop operations we have noted closing were those which would not or could not install a ’smoking room’ meeting the requirements of the smoking ban.

In reality not much has changed for us, as we live in Tulsa with a variety of smoker friendly restaurants within easy driving distance. From what I have heard from friends in Oklahoma City the scenario is similar there, not much different than before the ban. If one wants to find a smoker friendly restaurant they can.

Of course there are a lot of smokers living and dining in the many small towns across Oklahoma where there is not much variety in the way of restaurants and we have not heard much from their customers as to how they are dealing with the issue. Hopefully there were at least some restaurants able to set up ’smoking rooms’ in towns in every county. If anyone would like to share their experiences in this regard, please let us know.

Prior to the increase in tobacco taxes and the smoking ban we purchased tobacco products when we needed them and with little regard to where. Since the tax increase and smoking ban we have purchased exclusively at tribal ’smoke shops’. This as our little ‘pay back’ to the state of Oklahoma. It only amounts to a couple of hundred dollars in tax savings a year at best, but it is money in our pockets rather than in the tax coffers of a state doing its level best to discriminate against smokers at every opportunity.

All in all not much has changed for us living under the smoking ban for a year, except for the fact that we have more money in our pockets from dining out a little less and purchasing tobacco products only in tribal ’smoke shops’…

It’s been 10 months since the smoking ban went into effect for Oklahoma restaurants and the vast majority of restaurants that formerly permitted smoking either happily or begrudgingly gave smokers the boot.

Some restaurants saw no change in their revenues, some saw their revenues increase and some saw their revenues decrease to the point they have since added ’smoking rooms’ to lure former customers back.

So, after 10 months of smoking ban how does Oklahoma’s ‘health status’ stack up? We don’t know yet, because many of the most recent statistics available are for 2005 or earlier. However those statistics paint a very unhealthy picture of Oklahoma.

For example:

Trust for America’s Health report for 2005 indicates that Oklahoma is the 13th ‘fattest’ state, with 25.4 percent of Oklahoma adults being obese, 61.5 percent of adults being overweight or obese and 15.2 percent of high school students being overweight.

An annual health report by United Health Foundation ranks Oklahoma 44th in the nation in the health of its citizens.

Men’s Health magazine in its 2006 survey of men’s health ranks Tulsa near the bottom of the list, at 96th out of 100 cities. The magazine wrote a letter to the City of Tulsa offering condolences.

Oklahoma’s 2003 (latest available) infant mortality rate of 7.8 deaths per-1,000 live births, is the 14th worst in the nation and is above the national average of 6.9 per-1,000.

According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report for 2003-2004 (latest available) 17.5 percent of Oklahoma children lack health insurance coverage. This is second worst rate in the nation.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services reports that Medicaid paid for the births of 55 percent of the 51,157 born in Oklahoma in 2004 (latest data available) and that about 35 percent of those babies were born to unmarried mothers.

In light of these statistics indicating that Oklahoma is one of the ‘fattest’, least healthy, least insured and most dangerous to kids states in the nation, doesn’t it make you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that the Oklahoma State Department of Health is so intent on making sure that your second hand smoke doesn’t invade the nostrils of others?

One can only wonder what they could accomplish if the State Health Department actually concentrated on even one of the sad statistics quoted above. Of course ‘going after smokers’ is a lot more fun than ‘going after fat people’.

One can only wonder what they might have in store for a fat smoker, if ever the Oklahoma State Department of Health actually decided to do something about obesity…

The listing of ‘Smoker Friendly Restaurants’ was updated on 9/05/06, with Tulsa area additions.

If you are aware of additions, deletions or corrections to our listing please let us know by commenting to this post.

The office of Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has sued a Canadian tobacco manufacture, Grand River Enterprises Six Nations Ltd. on a claim that the company failed to properly fund the required extortion account. The company manufactures Opal and Seneca cigarettes and was not a party to Edmondson’s deal with ‘big tobacco’ back in 1998.

Oklahoma enacted a “nonparticipating manufacturer” law in 1999 requiring tobacco companies who chose not to join the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement or which did not exist at that time to pay into an extortion fund. Manufacturers who sell tobacco in Oklahoma are subject to the statute.

Recently the Seneca-Cayuga Tribes sued Edmondson in federal court in Tulsa on a claim that  the tribe is soverign and therefore not subject to economic deals the state of Oklahoma cuts with anyone, especially deals to protect the interests of large tobacco companies by forcing smaller companies out of business.

Grand River Enterprises Six Nations Ltd. is one of three small tobacco companies that have sued the Attorney Generals of the various states involved in this scam. You can read more about that case which appears destined to the US Supreme Court by Clicking Here.

The Seneca-Cayuga Tribes sued Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson on Monday in federal court in Tulsa. The tribe contends that its tribal tobacco corporation is on the brink of collapse with the loss of 74 tribal jobs at the tribe’s facility near Grove, OK.

At issue is an escrow account into which the state of Oklahoma has forced to tribe to contribute $10 million thus far. The state maintains that since the tribe was not party to Oklahoma’s ‘deal’ with big tobacco companies back in 1998 it must pay into the escrow fund.

As part of the deal with ‘big tobacco’ the Attorney General promised the major tobacco companies to force small tobacco manufactures to pay into an escrow account supposedly an amount equal to what the small companies would have paid in kickbacks to the state, were they party to the deal with ‘big tobacco’.

The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe maintains that it is soverign and therefore not subject to economic deals the state of Oklahoma cuts with anyone, especially deals Oklahoma makes to protect the interests of large tobacco companies.

The Seneca-Cayugas allege that states knowingly or unwittingly agreed to help manipulate the tobacco market to protect big tobacco’s bottom line and overburden small tobacco manufacturers to the point of extinction.

The tribe is asking the federal court for a temporary, preliminary and permanent injunction barring the defendant Oklahoma Attorney General Edmondson from prohibiting the sale of the tribal corporation’s products within Oklahoma. The tribe is also seeking the return of the $10 million dollars it has paid into the escrow account.

More on this interesting case as it develops…

Yesterday’s release of a US Surgeon General’s report titled “The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke” has the ‘Smoking Police’ frothing at the mouth in their desire to enact a total prohibition on smoking in Oklahoma.

Immediately after the release of the Surgeon General’s report, which is nothing more than a rehash of previous reports, studies and speculation, and which falsely claims there is no longer any scientific debate regarding secondhand smoke, Wes Glinsmann, chairman of the Oklahoma Alliance on Health or Tobacco, at a public press conference at the state capitol said:

The restaurant smoking ban was a big first step. But we have a duty to protect all workers from the dangers of secondhand smoke. There’s simply no reason that anyone should have to breathe toxins in secondhand smoke to earn a paycheck or as a consequence of patronizing a bar or other venue.

Pat Marshall, government relations director for the American Cancer Society and another ‘Smoking Police’ member chimed in on the issue stating:

We’ve heard the tired, old argument that if someone doesn’t like working around smoke, they can just get a different job. But not everyone has the luxury of just quitting a job and moving on.

She said legislation is needed to protect all workers, including those working in the entertainment and hospitality industries. Marshall is of course referring to greatly expanding the smoking ban enacted in 2003 that allows smoking in bars, veterans halls and separately ventilated rooms in restaurants.

Jim Hopper of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, in a limp-wristed response indicative of how his organization meekly accepted the smoking ban in restaurants, says changing state law under guidelines proposed by the health advocates would be unfair.

There can be no mistake about it. The anti-smoking zealots such as Glinsmann and Marshall have an agenda, one intended to totally eliminate all smokers rights and the right to choose in the state of Oklahoma. That these proponents of big government couch their biases against and hatred for smokers under a guise of ‘protecting workers’ is as obvious as the noon-day sun.

Not once do the anti-smoking zealots acknowledge the fact that the vast majority, if not all , restaurant employees currently working in the few ’smoking rooms’ currently allowed to exist in Oklahoma are smokers themselves and that as such they want to work the smoking rooms.

Of course truth is the very last thing the anti-smoking zealots, oh what the heck, let’s call them what they are, the anti-smoking nazis want to do is acknowledge the truth that not only do some people want to smoke, others also want to work in a place where smoking is permitted.

Freedom of choice, it’s a scary concept for the anti-smoking nazis. In their own minds they are conviced that they and they alone should be permitted to make the decisions for consenting adults and their view is that no adult to be allowed to consent to being in the presence of tobacco smoke.

That they resort to seeking to use the power of government to force everyone to comply with their view is simply an acknowledgement that their view is not capable of standing on its own and their message is insufficient to convince adults to give up their right to choose to smoke or to be in the presence of tobacco smoke.

Beware of anyone that tries to tell you that they are better qualified to make your decisions than you are. Everyone that tries to convince you to give up your freedom of choice is in reality a thief simply trying to steal your freedom of choice on the theory that they know ‘what’s best for you’.

No one should be exposed to tobacco smoke without their consent. That is a fact.

The other side of the coin, that side that people like Glinsmann and Marshall try to ignore, is that adults have the inherent right to consent to be exposed to tobacco smoke, either as a smoker themselves or to consent to being in the presence of smokers.

The right to choose, that is what Glinsmann, Marshall and their fellow anti-smoking nazis are trying to stamp out, along with all smoking in Oklahoma.

A ’smoking police’ double-cross is taking place primarily in Tulsa but it may extend statewide before long. It is a double-cross intended to force those restaurants that opted to spend the money to provide ’smoking rooms’ for their tobacco using customers to eliminate smoking completely.

The ’smoking police’ at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, arguably the most scandal prone agency of state government, have decided a new interpretation of the statewide smoking ban is in order.

This ‘new interpretation’ of the smoking ban, evidently one snatched from thin air, holds that the smoking ban prohibits any form of entertainment in ’smoking rooms’ of restaurants in Oklahoma. Nowhere in the law authorizing the smoking ban or in the Oklahoma State Department of Health regulations implementing the ban does the word ‘entertainment’ appear. But that has not stopped the ’smoking police’ for acting as if such a prohibition does exist.

A Tulsa World report titled, “Smoking Ban: New Interpretation: Stubbing out fun”, dated 6/18/06 reveals a lot about the health department’s ‘tinkering’ with the rules. That report revealed that as soon as the restaurant smoking ban went into effect on March 1st some at the health department began discussions about whether entertainment, including pool tables, karaoke and live music should be allowed in restaurants’ smoking rooms.

The referenced report quotes Nick Slaymaker, deputy general counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Health as stating:

“Although the law does not specifically mention entertainment, it was enacted to protect the rights of employees to work in a smoke-free environment. The law only allows for workers who serve food and drinks; other employees such as entertainers cannot work in a smoking dining room.”

The report further quotes Slaymaker as stating:

“It is the state health department’s opinion that the law limits what goes on in a smoking dining room. If the entertainment, such as live music or karaoke, is a substantial part of the operation, that is contrary to the purpose of a smoking dining room, and it would not be legal. Other types of entertainment such as video games would be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

Several Tulsa restaurants with ’smoking rooms’ although approved by the health department now find themselves under fire from the ’smoking police’.

Cowboy Sharkies, a family owned restaurant in Tulsa, spent $20,000 to construct a ’smoking room’ which was certified as meeting all the requirements of the smoking ban by the Tulsa City-County Health Department, which contracts with the State Health Department for restaurant inspections. The restaurant attributes much of its business to live musicians and karaoke in its ’smoking room’ and owner Chris Caughron says if he is forced to eliminate the entertainment or go totally non-smoking his business will suffer greatly.

Elizabeth Nutt, division director for consumer protection for the Tulsa City-County Health Department was quoted in the Tulsa World report as stating:

For the several weeks after the ban went into effect, restaurant inspectors were not told to look for evidence of entertainment when they checked out smoking rooms in local restaurants. Therefore, restaurants that have entertainment in smoking rooms passed the inspection. In hindsight, it would have been nice if we had had that information when we began inspections”

Nutt did not indicate whether she thought ‘it would have been nice’ had the restaurant owners who were considering spending thousands of dollars to construct ’smoking rooms’ also had that information. Of course sympathy for restaurant owners is the last thing demonstrated by the ’smoking police’ intent on intimidating those few restaurant owners with the courage to provide for their smoking customers.

Abdul Alhlou, owner of the Silver Flame Steakhouse says he spent more than $35,000 to build a smoking room in his restaurant. The smoking room, which was inspected and found to comply with the smoking room requirements, includes a piano bar. Alhlou indicates he was never told he could not have entertainment in his ’smoking room’.

Gary Mitchell, the owner of the Elephant Run Restaurant and Club in Tulsa is yet another victim of the ’smoking police’. Mitchell who says he spent more than $25,000 to build a smoking room in his establishment and was then told that he could not have entertainment in a restaurant smoking room. As a result the business went smoke-free on April 6th. The restaurant saw its business decline 33 percent in May compared with the same time last year. Further costly renovations are planned for the business, renovations which will permit it to be classified as a stand-alone bar and therefore able to have smoking and entertainment. That is of course unless the ’smoking police’ decide a new interpretation of the rules are in order again.

Owing to this blatant double-cross of Oklahoma restaurant owners by the ’smoking police, it is obvious that there is no limit to the number of ‘new interpretations’ of the smoking ban that will be thrown in the way of those wishing to provide for their smoking customers. Equally obvious is the fact that restaurant owners and their customers simply can not trust anything coming out of either the Oklahoma State Health Department or the Tulsa-City County Health Department, as they have a demonstrated track record of changing the rules to fit their fancy and whenever they desire.

It is truly unfortunate that those make the decisions and who are creating ‘new interpretations’ from thin air at both the state and local health department levels are appointed as opposed to elected officials. Were they elected official, the voters could hand them a ‘new interpretation’ on election day.

Since our last tobacco war update:

A resolution signed by representatives of 22 of Oklahoma’s 39 Indian Nations and tribes called on Governor Brad Henry to scrap the current tobacco compacts between the tribes and the state and return to the rates of previous compacts. Under the old compacts the tribes paid 25 percent of the tax rate applied to no-tribal tobacco sellers. Prior to the compact busting tobacco tax increase the tribes paid 6 cents per pack as opposed to the 23.5 cents per pack of no-tribal sellers. Under the new tax rate, 25 percent would amount to 26 cents per-pack. The state is wanting the trial shops to pay a variety of tax rates ranging from a low of 6 cents to a high of 88 cents per-pack while non-tribal tobacco retailers pay $1.03 per-pack.

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Attorney General Drew Edmondson filed suit against three foreign tobacco companies for refusing to pay Edmondson’s ‘blackmail’ for not being part of the $2 billion dollar ’settlement’ between Oklahoma and major tobacco companies back in 1998. The companies sued by Edmondson are Prime Mover, a Filipino manufacturer that produces cigarettes under the brand names Desert Sun, Melbourne and Unify; Tabacalera Honnington of Paraguay, which makes Parker cigarettes; and Tabacalera Nazionale of Paraguay, maker of Infinity cigarettes.

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At a symposium on sovereignty at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahma City, state senator Cal Hobson stated:

It is critically important that we have … a fair, level, honest and open system involving all 40 sovereign entities in Oklahoma — the 39 tribes and the state of Oklahoma.

Hobson went on to encourage Governor Henry to include one or two legislators in negotiations and talks involving tobacco compacts with tribal leaders, pointing out that some tribes will no longer talk to state Treasurer Scott Meacham, Henry’s designated negotiator.

State Rep. Joe Dorman encouraged the Governor to appoint an advisory committee. Dorman stated:

I would like to see legislators that are aware of the process be brought in as advisers to the governor. We were elected by the people just like the governor, and I think we have a broader perspective.

Contacted later, a spokesman said the governor is open to suggestions to improve the compacting process. Evidently the Governor is not ‘that open’ as he has not acted on either suggestion.

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The Oklahoma Tax Commission issued a press release reminding smokers that purchasing cigarettes on-line and not paying taxes on them is illegal. The Tax Commission claims that to date it has sent out more than 1,800 letters to taxpayers seeking $287,830 in back taxes and has collected $168,671.

Federal law requires that all on-line tobacco vendors provide monthly reports to the states of all tobacco products sold and shipped to the state’s residents. Of course no such requirement exists on international vendors. However persons contemplating ordering from over-seas on-line vendors should check customs regulations to determine the legalities of purchases

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Officials from Tulsa-area hospitals and medical clinics announced their campuses will become smoke and tobacco free Nov. 16.

The hospitals joining in this move are:

Cancer Treatment Centers, Claremore Regional Hospital, Continuous Care Center of Tulsa, Hillcrest Medical Center, Hillcrest Specialty Hospital, Jane Phillips Medical Center, Bartlesville, Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital, Parkside Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, St. Francis - Broken Arrow, St. Francis Heart Hospital, St. John Medical Center, St. John - Owasso, St. John - Sapulpa, SouthCrest Hospital, Tulsa Regional Medical Center and Tulsa Spine Hospital.

The clinics joining in the move are:

Cancer Care Associates, Eastern Oklahoma Ear, Nose and Throat, Health South Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Oklahoma Heart Institute, Oklahoma Physical Therapy, Utica Park Clinic, Urologic Specialists of Oklahoma, and Warren Clinic - Tulsa.

The announced smoking prohibitions cover patients, employees and visitors. The announcement also indicated that campuses will post signs about the new policy, and a hospital spokeswoman said people will be given cards about the new policy when they come onto the campuses. Enforcement details were not released.

Reese Jackson, president of the Tulsa Hospital Council, says:

“If people want to smoke or chew, they will have to physically leave the premises.”

Jackson did not indicate what if anything would be done about tobacco users congregating on the public sidewalk in front of the various hospitals and clinics. Since the sidewalk is not part of the campuses there’s little if anything that could be done other than clean up the resulting mess, hopefully on a daily basis. Likewise Jackson did not detail what if anything the hospitals planned to do about patients pushing their IV trees out the door and onto the sidewalk while their hospital gowns flap in the breeze. As usual, the devil will likely be in the details…

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Some Oklahoma health officials have their knickers in a knot over the increasing number of hookah bars opening across the Oklahoma City metro area, many in close proximity to colleges and universities.

For those unaware, hookah is a fruit-flavored tobacco smoked through an octopus-like water pipe equipped with multiple tubes. Some health officials argue that smoking hookah is more harmful than smoking cigarettes. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) claims hookah smokers can inhale the equivalent of 100 cigarettes of smoke in a single session.

In a 2005 advisory note about water pipes, WHO said cigarette smokers take about eight to 12 puffs of a cigarette over a 5 to 7-minute period, while hookah smokers take in 50 to 200 puffs over a 20 to 80-minute period_ and the hookah smokers inhale a vastly greater amount of smoke per puff.

In Oklahoma, hookah bars are outside the recently enacted regulation of ‘the smoking police’ at the State Health Department. Odds are that the anti-smoking zealots will attempt to remedy that oversight during the next legislative session in February, 2007.

Developments since our last Tobacco War News update have been few but none the less significant, involving primarily the legal confrontation between the Osage Nation and the state of Oklahoma.

Currently the Osage Nation has two pending federal lawsuits against Oklahoma, the first in response to Governor Henry’s ‘emergency rule’ issued in January and a second in response to yet another ‘emergency rule’ issued in April.

The federal court in Tulsa in response to the initial lawsuit ordered arbitration between the Osage Nation and Oklahoma.

The second lawsuit, that which the Osage Nation filed in response to Henry’s April order spurred the Oklahoma Tax Commission during it May 1st meeting to suspend implementation of the rule ‘for at least 30 days’ while negotiations between the two parties took place. These negotiations are currently on-going. No agreement appears in the works.

Since the January ‘emergency rule’ is already in arbitration and April ‘emergency rule’ is now in federal court any action on the part of the Oklahoma Tax Commission and/or Governor Henry to apply the new rule will likely be met with another mandatory arbitration order from the federal courts. Currently both sides appear to be simply biding their time, hoping the entire mess will go away.

Since both ‘emergency rules’ violate the existing compact between the Osage Nation and Oklahoma and the latter rule has been suspended, the Osage Nation is not ’suffering’ an on-going loss. While negotiations are on-going Governor Henry and the Oklahoma Tax Commission have not as of yet been slapped with another mandatory arbitration order. This means the status-quo which existed prior to either emergency order is being maintained, at least temporarily.

On the restaurant front there have been no new reports of ‘the smoking police’ conducting outlandish raids against restaurants and it appears the ’smoking room’ inspections are moving forward.

Apparently many restaurant operators who thought that their new ’smoking rooms’ would pass health department muster have run into difficulty and are having to make additional modifications to gain approval. This is resulting in the restaurants having a smoking section one day, not the next and either later returning to having a smoking section or simply going smoke free altogether. Smokers wishing to dine in a smoker friendly restaurant are advised to call ahead to determine if the restaurant does in fact have a smoking section at that time.

A few news worthy events took place this past week in the tobacco wars.

First the sky did not fall on the Attorney General’s head as he feared it would while doing his ‘Chicken Little number’.

The State of Oklahoma received a new extortion payment from the tobacco industry, this one in the amount of $3,547,932.89. Attorney General Edmondson’s PR staff got the news on-line quickly. Here’s the Press Release.

It points out that seventy percent of the extortion money received or $2.48 million was deposited in Oklahoma’s Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund, which now has a balance of more than $302 million. Does anyone remember where the rest of it is supposed to go? Yep, right into the pork barrell kitty for Oklahoma’s Legislators to spend as they see fit. Also notice that the Attorney General’s press release proudly points out that this latest payment brings to more than $494 million the extortion money that our very own Attorney General has sucked out of the tobacco companies, or more accurately the wallets and purses of tobacco users. Don’t it make you feel proud?

On the same day that Attorney General Drew Edmondson was patting himself on the back for raking in the money, Paul Sund, Governor Brad Henry’s ’spin man’ was revealing that out of the kindness of its heart that the State of Oklahoma was delaying until May 1st enforcement of the lastest Tax Commission rule regarding smokes shops. This latest rule is yet another attempt to violate the compacts between the Indian Nations and the state.

The announced purpose of this delay was supposedly to give negotiations the chance to head off yet another federal lawsuit. Evidently governor Henry is not aware of the fact that he is cornered by the very compacts his point man in the war on smoke shops already negotiated. The Osage Nation was having none of this idiocy and sued the state again and the result will likely be identical to the last such lawsuit with a federal judge ruling that the state must negotiate with the tribe under the terms of their compact.

Governor Henry you need to wake up and smell the coffee. Just because your negotiator, Scott Meacham, ‘gave away the store’ does not mean you or the Tax Commission can violate the compacts Meacham negotiated and you signed. This is the case no matter how much Tulsa based Quick Trip Corporation whines. If you really want to help Quick Trip you might ask that the First Lady do all her shopping there and have her pick up a couple cartons of cigarettes while she is a it, as the chain is taking a beating on tobacco sales owing to YOUR compacts with the tribes. Compacts which in retrospect make Meacham and you look like a couple of county bumpkins taken for a ride by a used car salesman. A deal is a deal, you bought into it, you signed for it. Now you have to live with it until the compact expires.

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma House was racing to see if it could beat the Governor in violating these same compacts when it passed Senate Bill 1717, by Republican Rep. Ron Peterson, R-Broken Arrow. This bill would permit non-tribal retailers (read that Quick Trip) to sell cigarettes at a price 10 cents more than tribally owned stores if those tribally owned stores are are within a 25-mile radius.

Currently non-tribal stores are forced by Oklahoma’s outlandish $1.03 per pack cigarette tax to sell the same products at a much higher price, typically 87 cents per-pack and sometimes even more than the tribal outlets. The only way the state can reduce the price of cigarettes in non-tribal stores is to waive a major portion of the state tax of $1.03 per-pack on cigarettes. Since some tribes are selling cigarettes with 6 cents tax stamps, adding 10 cents to that makes for a total of 16 cents tax per-pack. Prior to Governor Henry and Scott Meachem’s renegotiating compacts with the various tribes the old cigarette tax was 23 cents per pack PLUS sales tax.

What’s so funny is that if the Legislature manages to pull this off and the tribes do not sue once again, Oklahoma’s tobacco tax increase passed by voters in November, 2004 will actually turn into a tax REDUCTION, something most Oklahoma smokers would greatly appreciate. All I can say is, it’s about time!!!

On Friday, April 7th Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson shifted into full-scale Chicken Little Mode regarding a possible reduction in the extortion money customers of the big tobacco companies pay to forty-six states each year. Edmondson is terrified that Oklahoma’s slice of the extortion pie, typically $65 to$70 million a year, will be reduced and he is now issuing dire warnings of the sky soon to fall.

In statements following a talk Edmondson gave on tobacco litigation at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Health on Friday, he stated, “The threat is very real. The timing of the threat is still up in the air”. Edmondson went on to state, “It’s a fluid situation right now in terms of whether the companies are going to withhold this year or pay under protest or pay a part of what they owe. The litigation is inevitable”.

The event which put Edmondson into Chicken Little Mode is a New York appellate court ruling on Thursday that disputes over reductions in tobacco payments must go to arbitration. The reduction to the states could amount to more than $1 billion a year, one-sixth of the total extortion money the states receive from ‘big tobacco’, or more accurately the customers of the major tobacco companies, each year.

At the heart of the scare afflicting Edmondson is basic economics. When the states blackmailed the big tobacco companies into paying the $6 billion a year in extortion money, a provision of that negotiated agreement permits the big tobacco companies to reduce their annual payments if their market share has eroded as a result of the higher prices they are forced to charge in order to afford the extortion payments.

With forty-five of the big tobacco companies party to the extortion agreement with the states and eighty smaller tobacco companies not party to it, it is pretty obvious what is happening. Customers of the extorted companies faced with drastic prices increases, coupled with endless increases in state taxes on tobacco products, are opting for the lower priced products of the smaller companies. These products not subject to the extortion fees which hamstring their bigger companies. The market share of the smaller companies is going up while the market share of the bigger companies is going down.

This is ‘Basic Economics 101′ stuff. It is why most of us do not drive luxury vehicles, live in quarter-million dollar homes and jet off to Europe for our vacations. Evidently Attorneys General are not as familiar with ‘Basic Economics 101′ as are normal people, otherwise they would realize that consumers confronted with a choice between premium products they can no longer afford and non-premium products they can afford will always go with the lower priced products rather than doing without.

Mr. Attorney General, let us assure you that the sky is not falling, nor is it going to fall. We would however point out that while the goose that lays the $6 billion dollar golden egg each year is not dead, it is in ill health and to a large degree owing to the greed on the part of politicians. Rest assured that Oklahoma Smokers are familar with basic economics and will continue to find ways to control spending for tobacco products. One such way is to purchase less costly but inferior products. Another way is to elect less greedy politicians.

Yesterday Oklahoma Brad Henry gave his stamp of approval to yet another violation of compacts between the State of Oklahoma and various Indian Nations. In doing so he has personally decided that it is perfectly acceptable to break the very compacts he and his designated negotiator, current State Treasurer, Scott Meacham were so proud of back in 2004.

The facts are simple. Compacts between the State of Oklahoma and the various Indian Nations pertaining to tobacco sales had expired by 2002. At the time out-going Governor Frank Keating did not want to involve himself in renegotiating them, leaving the task to the new governor. Along comes Brad Henry as governor and he designates Scott Meacham as his negotiator in establishing new compacts and negotiate he did.

As part of the compacts between the state and some of the Indian Nations a requirement was included mandating that the state maintain the sales tax on tobacco products. Other aspects of the agreements granted ‘tax advantages’ to the tribes one of which was that the tribes only had to collect twenty-five percent of the then state tax of twenty three cents per pack on cigarettes, or six cents per pack.

Then something really weird happened. The Oklahoma Legislature with the backing of Governor Henry passed a bill calling for a vote of the people to raise the tobacco tax to $1.03 per pack from the then current $.23 per pack. As part of a convoluted formula the sales tax on tobacco products would be eliminated, an additional $.80 per pack would be added bringing the total to $1.03 per pack and the tribal smoke shops would be rebated half the increase or $.40 per pack. Oklahoma voters approved this tax increase in November, 2004 and it went into effect on January 1, 2005.

But wait! What about those compacts that Meacham had negotiated with the tribes and which Governor Henry had signed? Did not those compacts include requirements that the sales tax on tobacco products be maintained? And did they not include requirements that the ‘tax advantages’ the tribes had be maintained even in light of increased tax rates? Of course they did. But when has a little bit of lying stood in the way of greedy politicians wanting to suck more tax dollars out of the wallets and purses of the taxpayers?

January 1, 205 rolled around and Henry, Meacham and the rest of the tax loving crowd of Oklahoma politicians licked their lips waiting for that wave of new money to roll ashore. Only problem was, it wasn’t quite the wave of money they hoped for. It turned out that many tribal smoke shops had through their compacts with the state managed to avoid having to pay the higher tax rate and were in fact selling cartons of cigarettes about $10 less than the price non-tribal stores were being forced to charge under the new tax law.

Mike Thornbrugh, spokesman for Quick Trip stores, Oklahoma’s largest convenience store chain, squealed like a stuck pig about the disparity in taxes pointing out that the store chain had canceled its expansion plans for Tulsa area stores and demanded government “do something” to level the playing field. Thornbrugh of course blamed the Indian Nations for the fact that Quick Trip was taking a beating on cigarette sales and a herd of Oklahoma politicians including Henry, Meachem and legislative leaders took notice. They had to take notice, otherwise the truth, that being that they and the compacts which they created were the core of the problem facing non-tribal stores, would come out. And that would not play well at election time.

Throughout 2005, Henry, Meacham and others tried to devise ways to circumvent the very compacts which Meachem negotiated and Henry signed for if those compacts are honored there’s not a thing the state can do to help Quick Trip or other non-tribal merchants some of whom are figuratively calling for Henry’s and Meacham’s heads on a stake. To make matters worse, leading Republican politicians have been making political hay of Henry and Meacham’s folly in negotiating the compacts.

Confronted with a political disaster Brad Henry did what politicians have done for years, try to break their agreement with Indian tribes. He has now done this twice. The first time was when he approved a plan to limit the number of cartons of cigarettes wholesalers can sell to tribal smoke shops. That plan was shot down when the Osage Nation went to federal court and obtained an order mandating binding arbitration. Now Henry has come up with a new plan, one to require wholesalers to include the $1.03 per-pack tax in all cigarette sales to tribal smoke shops. This plan too is doomed to failure as the Osage Nation has already announced it will be back in federal court on Monday morning. While Forked Tongue Brad Henry can try to lie, cheat and ignore the very compacts he signed, the federal courts are going to continue to make him abide by them.

It is time for Brad Henry, Scott Meacham and the other tax loving politicians to come to grips with reality. That reality is that even though the compacts which you negotiated and signed evidently mean nothing to you, they are going to come back to haunt you time and again. It’s time to act like men, admit your mistakes and promise to do better next time. If you do not do so, odds are that the voters are going to make sure you do not get an opportunity for a ‘next time’.

“It’s a crock. I served my country fighting for these freedoms and now we’re giving them up one at a time. What did I fight for? We’re becoming a communist country.”

Those are pretty harsh words. They were attributed to Vietnam veteran Butch Butler, in a Associated Press report published by the Daily Oklahoma/Newsok.com on April 3, 2006. Mr. Butler is the owner of the Wagon Wheel Diner, located on U.S. Highway 70, near Wilson in Carter County, Oklahoma.

According to the referenced report, eighty percent of the establishment’s customers are smokers. When the smoking ban went into effect on March 1st, Butler complied with the law, declared his establishment “non-smoking” and in the next two days saw his business decline by seventy percent. As a result Butler told his customers to just go ahead and smoke. This in hopes that his rural location would mean that his establishment would just be ignored. Wrong!

The Health Department smoking police swooped down like a vulture eyeing a carcass and shut him down. Mr. Butler’s business was one of four shut down last month by the State Health Department ’smoking police’ for violation of the Oklahoma smoking ban. The business remains shut down as the date of this writing. This while Mr. Butler awaits the approval of his newly completed “smoking room” which must be inspected and approved by the smoking police. Smoking police who do not seem to be in any hurry to approve restaurants attempting to comply with the law.

That Mr. Butler is a victim of Oklahoma’s smoking ban is without question. With an estimated eighty percent of his business comprised of smokers he is at the mercy of the smoking police intent on stamping out all smoking in Oklahoma. Butler had no choice, he was forced to either make expensive modifications to his establishment, in hopes of winning the stamp of approval of the smoking police, or he his business would not survive. At this point in time it is not possible to say whether his business will survive or not. What is apparent is that there’s currently one less eating establishment open in the area of Wilson, Oklahoma. A business forced to close by the smoking police.

Mr. Butler is right, we are becoming a communist country when we take away the rights of private business owners and their customers to choose whether they prefer a smoking or non-smoking policy.

To Butch Butler we can only say, thank you sir for your sacrifices in serving your country during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately it appears that many of your countrymen do not understand the concept of freedom, individual and property rights or the value of a free enterprise. If they did there would be no smoking police and your business would not be closed today.

During March, 2006, Jacob Sullum of “Reason” magazine penned two fine articles on smoking and its relationship to government.

In the first titled, Clean Air Calabasas Sullum refers to the Los Angles suburb of Calabasas,which basically outlawed smoking everywhere including outdoors, as a “smoke-free, family-friendly atmosphere of moralistic intolerance”. Sullum’s assessment is right on the money. Sullum further points out, and rightfully so, that supporters of the “smoke free city” mentality predict that this intolerance will spread to the entire state of California and ultimately the nation.

Owing to our nation’s habit of adopting every idiocy which arises in California, such dire predictions may not be without merit. Oklahoma smokers must be vigilant, otherwise similar smoking bans will surface, first at the local and ultimately at the state level. The best protection against this type of idiocy is best expressed in the smoker’s rights motto which states, “I smoke and I vote”. We must make that message very clear to those at all levels of government.

Sullum’s second article, State Cigarette Mob Can’t Kick the Habit he touches upon the mutual “protection racket’ existing between the states and big tobacco. A scandal which has arisen as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement between the big tobacco companies and the states.

This agreement between tobacco companies and the states while encouraging all parties involved to mumble platitudes of “smoking is bad for your health and you should not smoke” in reality links the financial interests of state government and tobacco companies in a ‘common cause’.

Sullum hammers his point home with the words of Colorado Treasurer Mark Hillman:

Because the settlement payments are tied to cigarette sales, Mark Hillman notes, states are sending “a mixed message to citizens that ‘We want you to stop smoking’ because it’s terrible for your health, but ‘We need you to keep smoking’ to pay for government programs.” Nowadays the states rake in more money from smokers than the cigarette companies do. Big Government and Big Tobacco have not just joined forces; they’ve become synonymous.

As we pointed out here in “Tobacco’s Double Addiction“, the state of Oklahoma is so addicted to tobacco money that the Attorney General is in panic at the thought that Oklahoma’s kickback from tobacco companies might be reduced. So much so that he has hit up the state legislature for funds to hire more attorneys, just in case.

Who knows whether the Attorney General was motivated to enter into the Master Settlement Agreement for the potential health benefits of Oklahoma smokers or if he was simply in it for the money. There is no doubt where his motivation now resides. One needs only to follow the money to understand what is important to Oklahoma Attorney Drew Edmondson today.

Few, if any, would argue that nicotine is not addictive. It is not only a very addictive substance it is also a ‘pleasurable substance’ for a lot of people. There is however one aspect of tobacco that is much more addictive than nicotine and that is tobacco money. It may even be more pleasurable to politicians than nicotine is to smokers.

While estimates are that twenty-five percent of Oklahomans are smokers, it appears that practically all of Oklahoma’s elected and appointed officials are tobacco money addicts. So much so that the federal government might wish to require some type of warning on the tobacco money flowing into the Oklahoma treasury.

The amount of tobacco dollars estimated to be sucked into the Oklahoma treasury from both tobacco taxes paid by consumers and ’settlement’ money paid by tobacco companies this year is $361 million. This while the estimated state spending on Medicare/Medicaid costs for treating smoking related illness is $201 million. This results in an apparent $160 million dollar net ‘profit’ for the state from tobacco companies and consumers.

So where do you reckon that $160 million gets spent? If you said tobacco use prevention and cessation programs, you would be only slightly right. This year Oklahoma is spending $8.9 million on such programs. This about 40 percent of what the CDC recommends Oklahoma spend annually for such programs, ranking Oklahoma 21st in the nation in spending to get its residents to refrain from using tobacco products. Of course this is better than last year when Oklahoma spent about half that amount and ranked 32nd in the nation.

Once stop-smoking programs are funded, what’s left, approximately $150 million, is split between the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund and the general fund. Originally the split of ’settlement’ funds was fifty-fifty with half flowing into the old tobacco trust fund and half into the general fund, from which the legislature could spend the funds as it saw fit. Owing to a constitutional amendment in 2000 the split will by 2007 become seventy-five percent of the annual ’settlement’ take to the trust fund and twenty-five percent to the general fund.

Oklahoma politicians have become so ‘hooked’ on tobacco money that Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is hitting up the legislature for a half-million dollars extra to hire new attorneys to insure that Oklahoma continues to slop at the money trough of the tobacco companies. Under the provisions of the ‘tobacco settlement’ between the big tobacco companies and forty-six states the companies party to that settlement can reduce their annual payments to the states, if their market share decreases, and decreasing it is.

As various states have increased their tobacco taxes, as Oklahoma did in 2005 becoming one of the states with the highest tobacco tax rates in the nation, tobacco users rather than eliminating their use of tobacco have been increasingly moving to ‘cheaper’ brands. These are products of companies not subject to the ‘tobacco settlement’ of 1998. This market realignment is decreasing market share for those companies that are subject to the settlement and under whose provisions the companies can and are decreasing their annual payments to the states.

Oklahoma politicians, and especially the Attorney General, are in a panic that the big tobacco companies will not only lower their annual payments but might also sue to have the settlement itself nullified, owing to the rapidly changing economic picture for ‘big tobacco’. The Attorney General claims he needed the extra half-million worth of attorneys to prepare for just this eventuality. If you get the impression that the Attorney General is ’stocking up’, akin to how some tobacco users stock up just prior to a huge tobacco tax increase, you would be right.

Addictions are like that…

Last week was a bad one for one McAlester, OK restaurant. The owner of What About Bob’s says he feels targeted and apparently that feeling is justified, judging from news media reports which indicate that the restaurant had been visited by the Health Department officials six times within a few days and on one inspection officials informed the owner of deficiencies in his smoking section. The restaurant owner says he fixed them.

The next afternoon, March 22, Health Department officials swooped down upon the restaurant again and shut it down because they say the building’s smoking section is not in compliance with state law. Evidently they did not wish to bother with re-inspecting to determine if in fact the changes made by the owner resolved their concerns.

That same afternoon the owner faxed a letter to the State Health Department promising he would not allow smoking in his establishment until his smoking room is deemed compliant. The restaurant was closed half a day on Tuesday and all day on Wednesday, as its owner awaited permission from the state Health Department to reopen. He was finally allowed to reopen on Thursday.

News media reports quoted the restaurant’s owner as saying:

This is all about strongarm tactics. They continually make new rules. It’s just nothing but wrong. My whole beef on this is there is no hearing, no judge, no due process. I mean if the bank wanted to foreclose on your house, you go before a judge before that foreclosure happens.

He also went on to explain his frustrations with not only the smoking police but their effect upon his business and the lives of those that work for him.

It’s a separate room with its own heat and air system. The exhaust vents outside. We comply with all that. I can’t afford to be closed, even for a couple of days. I’m a small business guy. I got people who work here with kids, man. People depend on this place.

Pittsburg County Health department Administrator Mike Echelle says that the department of health isn’t trying to ruin businesses. This statement rings hollow however in light of the fact that if the department was concerned about the effect of their tactics upon business they could have simply ‘cut a deal’ on the spot to permit the restaurant to remain open while prohibiting smoking until the facility passed their inspection. This rather than keeping the business closed for a day and a half while a bureaucrat in Oklahoma City shuffled a fax making the very same promise.

This type of punitive action on the part of the health department should be expected by those restaurant owners that have created the special ’smoking rooms’ mandated by the smoking police. It has been obvious since the anti-smoking law was enacted that the State Health Department is going to make it as difficult as possible for restaurant operators to accommodate smokers. These strong armed tactics are likely a message being sent to those restaurant owners that choose to exercise their rights under the law. A message saying we are going to make it as difficult and costly as we possibly can if defy our wishes and if you go out of business, tough luck.

The State Health Department has set up a toll free number. One which they encourage people with complaints against smoking optional restaurants to call. That toll-free number is 1-800-ONLY-AIR, or 1-800-665-9247. While they probably do not wish to hear from smokers complaining about the strong arm tactics of the smoking police, it is the right of everyone to do so. Besides, every call made to that number comes out of the State Health Department budget. What better way to make your voice heard? Smokers might wish to call now, and call often just to insure their message gets across loud and clear.

It seems that Governor Brad Henry and his cohorts in the state capitol never learn. Just days ago a federal judge in Tulsa ordered binding arbitration between the State of Oklahoma and the Osage Nation, this over a Tax Commission rule approved by Governor Henry and which violated the tobacco compact between the Osage Nation and the state.

Just yesterday the Oklahoma Senate passed and forwarded to the House Senate Bill 1950 by Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington which is Governor Henry’s latest attempt to ‘fix’ his flawed compacts with Indian nation smoke shops.

This ill-advised bill seeks to alter the relationship between the State of Oklahoma, the Tax Commission, tribal smoke shops and their wholesalers and is just as much a violation of the compacts between the state and the Indian nations as was the Tax Commission rule over which the federal court ordered binding arbitration.

One would hope that Governor Henry and his ‘friends’ would eventually learn that once the compacts between the State of Oklahoma and the Indian nations were signed that it is too late to go back and try ‘do overs’ just because Henry’s compact negotiator blew it and left tribal smoke shops with a distinct tax advantage over non-tribal retailers. Evidently both Governor Henry and his ‘friends’ is the Senate have a steep learning curve. A steep learning curve that will result in more federal lawsuits, more discord between the state and the Indian nations and more expense for the taxpayers of Oklahoma.

Governor Henry, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. A deal is a deal and you can not go back for ‘do overs’ just because your designated negotiator was not smart enought to get it right the first try.