Ban smoking in public places

ROBYN BLUMNER ask smokers to CEASE & DESIT LITTERING, in her column.

I couldn't agree more when we participate in the Beach Cleanup, the thing we pick up most are nasty cigarette butts, followed by empty cigarette cartons. And don't even get me started on the rude smokers who insist on blowing smoke in your face. It's time smoking in public places was banned. We all deserve CLEAN AIR, and it'll help prevent litter.

Sid Salter Questions Why Families Are Forced to Pay Higher Taxes on Necessities Then Cigarettes

Therefore, the priority of Mississippi government — Gov. Haley Barbour the lead dog and his lapdogs in the state Senate chief among them — is that we keep the 4-out-of-4 Mississippians who must purchase gasoline to get to work, school and church paying within 7 percent of the national average gasoline tax so that we can protect the apparent divine right of the 1-in-4 Mississippians who smoke to pay 72 percent less in tobacco taxes than other Americans. If there is any logic or fiscal responsibility in a state artificially keeping cigarette taxes almost 10 times lower than gasoline taxes, it’s lost on this writer. Gasoline is a necessity that must be purchased by virtually all Mississippi families and businesses. Cigarettes aren’t.

Read the entire column in the Meridian Star. It ticks me off to be forced to subsidize a nasty habit that causes cancer and pollutes the air we all breath. I for one am sick and tired of breathing the second hand smoke of the 1-4 Mississippians that choose to smoke. I will support candidates who will ban smoking in public places and will raise the cigarette tax.

Boo For Barbour

to embrace lowering the food tax is to embrace a culture of health and life, but to embrace keeping the cigarette tax at its present minuscule level is to embrace a culture of sickness and death.

Governor Barbour vetoed a bill that would have lowered the food tax while increasing the cigarette tax. I guess he is still in the pocket of Big Tobacco.

A Smoking Ban For Mississippi

Jackson City Councilman Leslie B. McLemore said he supports a statewide ban. "I think just for the health of all of our citizens whether they're in Jackson or Tishomingo," he said.

I hope it passes, I am so tired of having to breath second hand smoke every time I leave my home. You can't even go to the grocery store without having to run the smokers gauntlet as they feel compelled to stand outside the entrance blowing smoke in the faces of customers entering and leaving the store. Numerous studies have been done that show second hand smoke kills, so what gives smokers the right to pollute the air the rest of us have to breath? The ban would be of huge benefit to those who work in the service industry and who often don't have the option of working in a smoke free environment.