🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <NNLc6.2363$lM.620562@news.uswest.net>,
	"Open FleshWound" <not@dont.email.me> writes:

> What a depressing outlook for you pathetic tobacco addicts ....
> 
> Tobacco Addiction
> Epidemiology And Natural History
> 
Here's more. I guess this is an example of the "job losses" we've
been hearing about:
-----

National Smokers Alliance to Cease Operations

Source: National Smokers Alliance, Thursday, 1/25/01

Date Released: 1/25/01

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The Board of Directors of the National Smokers Alliance 
(NSA)
has voted to dissolve the organization.

Thomas Humber, President of the NSA, issued the following statement:

"For almost eight years, the National Smokers Alliance has defended the rights
of adult smokers with an intensity that has replicated dozens of simultaneous
political campaigns.

"We began as a grassroots political organization, believing that the political
process was the answer.  However, the courts have supplanted the political
process as the ultimate arbiter of most controversial public policy issues.
While we don't like that, we are realists, and the reality is that the social
war over smoking has changed drastically since we began.  We have had more 
than
our fair share of victories politically, and in the courts, where the rule of
law supercedes the rhetoric.

"I have no doubt that the decision to discontinue operations will be
misconstrued.  The NSA is neither out of money nor are we defeated.  Yet the
long-term financial reality is quite simple:  The continuation of our
activities would require too large a professional structure and a massive
diversion of energy and resources to fundraising, making effective commitment
to our primary mission secondary.  That would serve no one, least of all the
adult smokers of America who have endured more than a decade of the
anti-smoking movement systematically taxing, regulating and banning tobacco
products wherever they can.

"The NSA has many members and friends who became politically active and
organized through our programs.  We appreciate their support, and we know that
their activism will continue long after this organization is gone.  As with
most controversial issues, this is not one that will end.  We regret that the
NSA, as an organization, must end, but that does nothing to diminish the
commitment to individual freedom that has driven the NSA.

"The effort to disenfranchise and marginalize smokers is, in reality, only one
facet of a much broader assault on individual freedoms that has begun to 
infuse
this society.  Consequently, upon dissolution, the NSA will contribute some
remaining assets to the Center for Individual Freedom, a 501(c)(4) corporation
that supports the constitutional freedoms that all individuals must enjoy."

The National Smokers Alliance was a non-profit grassroots political
organization of adults from across the country dedicated to fighting
discrimination against smokers and to supporting business owners who wished to
make their own decisions about their businesses without unnecessary government
interference. Founded in 1993, the NSA became the primary voice for adult
smokers and was comprised of over 3 million members.  Financial support over
the years came in the form of contributions from Philip Morris, Brown &
Williamson and Lorillard, from hundreds of small businesses and corporations
and dues and contributions from our members.

-- 
Bob Broughton
mailto:bob@brou8ghton.ca (remove "8" to reply)
http://broughton.ca/
Vancouver, BC, Canada