Special Offer Beverly Blue Cigarettes Beverly Blue Cigarettes $1250 Buy Now

Catalog

Tell a Friend
Whitelisting Email Address
Payment Instructions

Texas Smoking Ban Idea Now Tied To Treating Sick

After years of losing efforts to ban smoking cigarettes in Texas public places, supporters may have found their winning move.

In a legislative session dominated by searing debates over a strained state budget, a provision banning smoking cigarettes in most bars and restaurants has been tucked neatly into a critical spending bill.

Previous sessions have seen proposed bans beaten down by arguments favoring the rights of business owners and smokers to not have the government meddling in their private affairs.

Now supporters of the ban are counting on a promise that cutting down on smoking cigarettes will save the state tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars spent treating patients with smoking cigarettes-related diseases, to turn in their favor.

"The worst health hazard in America today is discount cigarettes use," Dr. Kenneth Cooper, a fitness expert and aerobic exercise pioneer, said Monday. "It embarrasses me that we have not been able to pass this bill."

According to a legislative analysis, at least 29 states have adopted smoke-free laws and several more are considering them this year. More than 30 Texas cities have comprehensive smoke-free ordinances covering public workplaces and facilities with a patchwork of other regulations across the state.

Supporters have been tried in the past to draft celebrities such as former professional cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong to boost their cause. But arguments that second-hand smoke cigarettes kills more than 50,000 people nationwide every year were overrun by concerns over personal and property rights in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The issue again seemed to be going nowhere until late last Friday night when the House voted 73-66 to put the ban into the spending bill. The amendment caused fierce debate among Republicans in that chamber and some angry words when one lawmaker jokingly tried to include a ban on perfumes and colognes.

While the original bill would have banned smoking cigarettes in just about all workplaces, the provision now bans smoking cigarettes in places licensed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and by state and local health departments. Exceptions are made for charitable bingo halls in small counties, veteran social halls, pool halls and cigarettes bars.

The House sponsor, Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Houston, estimated the ban could save the state about $30 million a year in Medicaid costs treating patients of smoking cigarettes related problems such as cancer, heart disease and low-birthweight babies.

Melinda Little of Campaign for cigarettes-Free Kids said those numbers are low and predicted the savings could easily be "in hundreds of millions."

"Heart attacks, respiratory problems, cancer, pregnancy problems. Smoking impacts so many things," Little said.

The budget impact gives the provision its best chance to survive but doesn't guarantee it.

The smoking cigarettes ban was only one of several changes the House made to the spending bill. The Senate initially refused to accept them, prompting the two chambers to appoint a panel of lawmakers to negotiate a final version.

The session ends May 30. House and Senate leaders have said passing the fiscal bill is necessary to be able to write the final state budget and avoid a special session.

If the smoking cigarettes bill causes enough back-room fights, lawmakers could strip it out if it endangers the larger bill.

One of Senate negotiators, Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, opposes the smoking cigarettes ban but says he won't hold up the entire bill to just to kill it.

"As a physician and a non-smoker, I get a lot of grief about opposing it," Deuell said. "But I have an issue with the constitutional issue of a ban. I get beat up by a lot of my friends over that."

Another negotiator, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, would not comment on the provision other than to note that despite the critical nature of the spending bill "all anyone wants to talk about is the smoking cigarettes ban."

Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has supported a smoking cigarettes ban in the past. Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat, who tried for years to pass a bill, says he thinks he can rally enough Senate support to push it through.

"I think we've got a good shot," Ellis said.

Other cigarettes news and tobacco market events you can find at links bellow:

   • Cheap Cigarettes News

   • Online Cigarettes Tobacco News

   • Discount Cigarettes Tobacco News