Pipe Smokers Intelligencer

The Tobacco business as we have known it in the past and as we understand it today is going to change.

Some of the changes are not going to be pleasant for those of us who enjoy pipes and cigars.

An argument can be made about how we embrace change: philosophically we know that change, as Zeno said, is constant.

We either incorporate change into our daily existence, fight it, or accept some parts, reject other pieces and fight the rest of it.

Change, then, is always complex.

The push is coming, however. The Food and Drug Administration which now regulates tobacco products as it does our food and drugs is beginning to flex its muscles.

On Monday, Jan. 18, the FDA said it would require tobacco manufacturers to document what they put in their tobacco products. They are looking for scientific detail here.

Eventually this act will lead to more change, more regulation and ultimately to different products being developed. Some will be acceptable; others will fail to attract a following.

More social change is also rising on the horizon.

Also on Monday, Jan. 18, a hospital in Chattanooga, TN., said it would no longer hire people who use tobacco products. A test for nicotine will now be part of the hospital’s routine drug test requirements for employment.

Test positive for tobacco–even if it is the patch or gum–and you are disqualified for hiring at Chattanooga’s Memorial Hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity Catholic Order of Nazareth, Ky.

This new stance by the hospital, I would imagine, will be tested, since just about all hospitals in America receive some sort of federal or state funding, which means they must be an equal employer in their hiring practices.

In fact, Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health, said as much. He thinks Memorial Hospital’s policy is discriminatory.

“The same rationale that would support not hiring smokers would also support not hiring people who are obese or people who have young children or people who don’t eat nutritious food or people who don’t exercise,” he says.

“What it’s basically saying is the private behavior of people in their own homes is somehow relevant to their qualifications to work in a workplace.”

Right, brother. That could be taken a lot further of course. We are a diverse nation of many cultures and nationalities.

It is unlawful to discriminate based on color of skin, sex, creed, religion, etc. But this sort of social engineering on the part of a hospital in Chattanooga, which we must assume had the backing of the hospital board and thereby the Sisters of Charity, and the larger church, is mixing in politics, political correctness and policy. That is a dangerous step.

Tobacco is under assault from many assailants. Many are well meaning, but the vast majority is working other agendas.

Today it is the evil of tobacco. Tomorrow it will be another perceived evil.

Will there come a day when we report our neighbors to the authorities for some minor infraction, say wearing bathing suits while mowing the grass in the front yard?

Those who do not speak up now will not be able to complain with any credibility later when our Constitutional rights are completely abrogated.

This country has a long history of being against tobacco, without knowing or even caring about the scientific facts.

*Anti-smoking leagues go back to the turn of the last century, and even before.

Know this: we are in a fight for not only our right to smoke our beloved pipes and cigars, and yes, cigarettes, but also our basic rights of “the pursuit of happiness.”

You and I fail to recognize this at our peril.

*–For more reading on this subject, see “Velvet Glove, Iron Fist,” by Christopher Snowden.