I will take the high road thank you.
If you smoke you are not allied with the Healthcare sociopath radicals or with the Tobacco industries selling you products you have not been allowed to investigate. An investigation was never provided through a simple ingredients list. A list if not regulated, as it currently is not, could show them both for the criminals they are. You stand-alone and have rights which are not being protected as both camps seek to profit from your misfortune. Not having the resources to make your voice heard is the disadvantage allowing this to happen. As with all wars you are the innocent civilian population being decimated as casualties of the warring factions being deprived of your international rights to security of the person. The combatants fail to honor the rules of engagement or those rights set out in the Geneva Convention or reinforced in Nuremberg. Civilian casualties have been excessive slated as preventable deaths by both sides yet no human civility has been demonstrated or any effort to prevent them. Rather war cries in the media have increased the effect in the planned violence in our streets. The casualties are thought to be necessary in order to contrast the extremes in media spin. How many have died already and how many more before we force them to listen and end the carnage being created for our own protection.
Smokers hold the high ground yet we believe they should be the ones to bear the shame. Smokers have for years through media presentations been taught to believe they should be ashamed of their personal choice to use a legal product. Governments have capitalized on that shame through the invention of what they call a sin tax. A sin not based in moral or ethical and in the wider view legal grounds. This tax is to compensate Government failures to act and prevent the so-called preventable deaths. I cite articles in the BMJ Tobacco control publication. By understanding the ethical perspective we can see the war on tobacco is largely based in low road positioning promoting hatred in society and can, if rights are demanded, be easily shamed and defeated. A jury trial should be unanimous in their decision when the facts are presented. Smokers are enduring an attack on their rights to the person. Misinformation of the Tobacco control movement violates international laws consistent with the laws, which resulted in the hanging of doctors in Nuremberg. Their own assessments of what they are engaged in are ignored by their fellows. When you examine the efforts of ASH and others without shame openly promoting the hatred of others. You have no need to walk in shame when the criminals are purchasing the media presentations, which made you feel you should. It is not as if their advisers had not warned them alas they fell to the wishes of the radicals now they will all be painted with the wide brush of their own choosing as stakeholders in the Great Healthcare Gold rush.
This is a quote describing how the anti smokers have failed to respect the rules of engagement in the war they declared on you. Stakeholders should now bear the shame. They indeed walk the low road in every perspective of ethical behavior.
“WHY IS ETHICS IMPORTANT IN TOBACCO
“The tobacco control community lacks a comprehensive understanding of ethics.6 The closest that exists is the 1989 book, No smoking: the ethical issues, in which Robert Goodin explores the ethical underpinnings of tobacco control policies and examines whether they are morally sound.7 Although it is somewhat dated and presents a rather formulaic response, it is still the most comprehensive identification of the ethical issues in tobacco control to date. Unfortunately, the book has fallen out of print and has not played a significant role in the tobacco control debate. Thus, despite Goodin’s assertion that "moral philosophy is an indispensable first step in [the] larger political campaign", little follow up work has been done.
In turn, this has allowed the tobacco control community to be defined by its desire to defeat the tobacco industry, at the expense of its desire to protect the public. This conclusion can be drawn from an examination of the metaphors used by the tobacco control community. One of the most common is the epidemiologic model in which the industry is characterised as a disease vector—that is, a flea or tick that should be controlled.8 Alternatively, the imagery has been that of armed conflict. Dr David Kessler referred to the efforts to pass Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation as "A Great American Battle"9 and other tobacco researchers have referred to tobacco control policy debates as "war".10,11 No less an authority than former Surgeon General C Everett Koop resorted to a pugilistic metaphor in his keynote address to the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in 2003. When discussing if the public health community should enter into conversations with the tobacco industry, he advised that:�
“An industry that has delivered so many punches below the
belt and kills a half million of its most loyal customers each
year just to make money has no right to ask for Marquis of
Queensbury rules.�12
“The power of the tobacco industry and its aggressive
opposition to tobacco control programmes may mean that
these metaphors are apt, but they are risky. For example,
within Dr Koop’s statement one could read a subtle
implication that the public health community would be
justified in not following rules of engagement. Right or
wrong, the implication of these metaphors is that the public
health community will operate outside of the rules to do
whatever it takes to win—hardly a moral foundation for
resonating with the public.�
In a war, we have to learn to expect casualties. Both factions are to avoid civilian targets. We do not have to accept casualties from friendly fire especially if casualties are the result of government incompetence or a plan designed to increase the profits of industry.
The articles listed here are highly important and should be understood in order to understand your rights as an individual. Currently those rights are being ignored knowingly and many do not realize it because ad agency spin has lead many of us to believe no such rights exist.
Tobacco Control Online, 15 Mar 2006 [Full text]
Individual rights advocacy in tobacco control policies: an assessment and recommendation
"Not safe" is not enough: smokers have a right to know more than there is no safe tobacco product
RWJF proves my point for me here. With the research in hand, they continued to fund unethical lobbyists ignoring their own research in the process. Industry and the health advocates deliberately funded violence and misinformation in our communities. Casualties are to all of community not only smokers as the non-smoking community is affected as well victims of unnecessary violence. Ignorance of the law can be no defense here, these research studies should prove, as the Tobacco papers did in the past the best practices in their own research has been ignored to the peril of others. The same accusations they leveled against the tobacco industries permanently vilifying the industry a perspective they can now share. Demonstrated here the ethical considerations were discussed and largely ignorred.
Framing tobacco control efforts within an ethical context
The source of funding, a shoot yourself in the foot perspective resonates well here. No cloak and dagger delivering of boxes to a garbage bin, but real research openly accessible and in their own words.
“Funding for this research is from a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The author also wishes to thank Amy Williamson, Joanna Cohen, James Katz, Stella Bialous, and Ken Warner for their helpful assistance on this work.�
Johnson and Johnson the family company?
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