Category Archives: English

In this category you will find contributions in English.++++ In dieser Kategorie finden sie Beiträge in englischer Sprache.++++Dans cette catégorie, vous trouverez des contributions en anglais.++++

#MeToo And Tobacco Control: The State of Fear

smokingbandits Posted on by

Congratulations, ladies’ kisses, flowers, hints at my duty to give a champagne party: that was the reaction to my newly-won title of Russia’s Sexist of the Year 2018. The awards are being distributed by a tiny, but vocal feminist grouping known to nobody. But then, they are all tiny and unknown here, however hard they try. We are a happy nation; nobody here cares even to know what’s sexism, but in any case the extreme forms of feminism have repelled virtually all the public, so anyone proclaimed the enemy of neo-feminists is getting his 15 minutes of fame and respect. … Continue reading →

If smoking had been invented only today…

smokingbandits Posted on by

The anti-tobacco industry tell us that if smoking had been invented today, it would immediately be banned outright. With the health, safety, food and drug laws we have in place, coupled with what we now know about smoking, there is no way any Government would allow smoking, or the sale of tobacco to be legal. “If smoking was unknown to us and someone invented it today, it would never be allowed”. That’s what they tell us, but I dispute it. Imagine a world where smoking had not been invented, where tobacco was simply a plant that nobody paid much attention … Continue reading →

Where are the proud smokers?

smokingbandits Posted on by

June is pride month and all over the world, many localities will explode with rainbow flags and parades of scantily-dressed people celebrating the struggles of the LGBTQ community. It commemorates the Stonewall Rebellion of June 1969, when members of the gay community fought back and demanded their right to be who they were and enjoy themselves publicly as they saw fit. And it started at a drinking establishment: the Stonewall Tavern in New York. At the time, gay bars couldn’t legally exist, so those that did were secret, illegal affairs, controlled by organized crime. Bribes were paid to the police … Continue reading →

Smokers of all countries, unite!

smokingbandits Posted on by

Prof. Dr. Günter Ropohl (1939-2017) was a Professor Emeritus of General Technology at the University of Frankfurt on Main, Germany. He was an active member of Netzwerk Rauchen. Tomorrow would have been his 80th birthday. We honor his commitment against discrimation of smokers and the passive smoking fraud by publishing a text of his from the past decade. On a worldwide scale hundreds of millions of our people are being deprived of fundamental rights. They are being refused the right to enjoy tobacco in public buildings, on public transport, and places like restaurants, pubs, and bars. So their basic right … Continue reading →

Wounded Nation: Smoking Bans in Malaysia

smokingbandits Posted on by

They are murdering the country I love: that was my reaction to the recent, and rather scary, story of the future (starting from June 1) smoking bans in the place where I spend at least a couple of months every year, and where I have a home, many friends and lots of fun. That’s when I really felt the pain described regularly by esteemed Mr. Frank Davis in his tireless blog. I saw communities and friendships immediately shattered, businesses lost (downcast, so far), society showing dangerous cracks, animosity coming to the open. It’s like being in a world war, when … Continue reading →

Gian Turci died 10 years ago

smokingbandits Posted on by

On March 10, 2009, a leading figure of the international antiprohibitionist movement, passed away. The Italian Gian Turci, died after a severe brain hemorrhage. Gian was Director of the International Coalition against Prohibition (TICAP), President of Forces Italy, International Coordinator of Freedom2Choose (UK) and CEO of Forces International. Especially in the latter office he grew to be the powerful voice, the sharp intellect and the organizational nerve center of the global fight against the discrimination of lifestyles and health fascism. After obtaining a degree in engineering in Italy, he moved to Canada where he spent the next  25 years of … Continue reading →

Slippery Slope

smokingbandits Posted on by

Christoph has been after me for some time now to write something for smokingbandits and I, true to form, have been procrastinating. I guess I’d rather expend my ever more limited energies on attacking and subduing antismoking rhetoric than preaching to the converted… There are bones I could pick with some in the smokers’ rights fold, but let’s save that for another day. A better start would be my own evolution as an advocate for our delightful “filthy” habit. I started smoking at 13 (unless you count the puffs Dad used to give me off his Marlboros to see the … Continue reading →

Throwback Thursday: Forbidden Conference

smokingbandits Posted on by

Ten years ago, on January 27 – 28, 2009, the first (of two) big conferences of TICAP (The International Coalition Against Prohibition) took place. This organization, founded the year prior as an umbrella organization especially against Tobacco Control, was in its budding phase.(The then) active groups, such as FORCES international, its Italian and Dutch divisions, Netzwerk Rauchen from Germany, Freedom2Choose from Britain, various Canadian and Danish associations as well as other smaller associations united and prepared to hold the first international conference of independent opponents to tobacco prohibition on European soil. And why not to hold this conference in the … Continue reading →

New alternatives in Austria

smokingbandits Posted on by

An acquaintance from Germany asked me to provide a comment concerning the Austrian anti-smoker’s petition. We first met online in the noughties, when we both were somehow surprised, flabbergasted, as well as horrified about the strictly choreographed wave of hatred and  destructiveness towards smokers, that had come over from the USA to us in Europe. Mostly in agreement, we were sure that the aggressiveness against smokers would cause a fragmentation of society and the destruction of the coexistence we had been used to, and that this would become a longer lasting development. We should be proved right. Indeed, a lot … Continue reading →