Smoking Ban in Fort Wayne and Allen County

I don’t live in Fort Wayne but I work there, shop there, conduct official business there and support their public school system. Unfortunately I can’t vote there. Seems like a lot of smokers there didn’t, even though they could. How could a bunch of elected officials who are supposed to represent smokers as well as non-smokers come up with a law that prohibits the citizens from gathering to do a legal thing? If only one guy on the city council favored such a tyrannical approach could such a law have been passed? How long can it be before they try to make it illegal to smoke altogether? Are you going to let them do that too?

I am always looking for conspiracies but the blame for this one seems to rest mostly on Dr. John Crawford, the mastermind and head tyrant behind this clean air boondoggle. Sure he had some help from a Surgeon General with an axe to grind in 2006. The Surgeon General relied on papers from doctors who work for an outfit called the Institute for Global Tobacco Control. Fiction writers can’t make up ominous sounding names better than that. Their conclusions and I suppose John’s also are summarized on the internet. This more direct condemnation of second hand smoke gave John a position that basically says it is better to drink mercury or breath nerve gas than to be exposed to second hand smoke and that there is no safe level of second hand smoke exposure. Obviously, the fact that anyone at all survived the period following WWII and continued to increase their life spans indicates that this is not altogether true. Here is an example of one of their major points and the evidence they cite to prove it.

Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not suggesting tobacco or any other kind of smoke is particularly healthy; first hand, second hand or laying as a film wherever it has been. However, I don’t see any citing here of diseases or deaths that were directly related to second hand smoke in the “evidence”. Apparently we have to be educated as to the meaning of carcinogen which must be a really big doctorly type word while everybody just instinctively knows what toxic means. Cancer is a lot scarier though than carcinogenic. Isn’t it?

Once the good doctor had properly scared everybody and properly exposed smokers as the vile evildoers they really are, murderers even, he and his followers in the city council had the political cover they needed to smugly ignore the smokers in their districts and pass their ordnance. The ad campaign celebrating a smoke free Allen County and Fort Wayne on television should raise the neck hairs on any freedom loving American left living in Fort Wayne. America must have been in the grip of this same mentality when a prohibition on alcohol took effect in 1920 only to be gone by 1933. What a waste of time and energy. Like so many other issues in America most of these councilmen were not elected on this issue. Probably wouldn’t even have brought it up, but now they are voting on it.

As with prohibition and the fifty-five mile per hour speed limit, this law too can be undone. It should be undone. This is an attempt by a few to put restrictions on others engaged in a lawful activity. Most of the people involved in the passage or promotion of this ordinance are not patrons of the establishments it most affects, are not smokers and should not be allowed to prevail. I suppose they view themselves as the saviors of society but I see them as petty tyrants. Get rid of them before they get rid of you. Vote them out. Harass them wherever they go (ask them in public how they voted). As for you citizens that let them do this to smokers. It’s only a matter of time until they come after something you do. Don’t forget the mayor, he let this happen too. He’s not running again but there are candidates who will, get their answer. It can be undone.

Out here in the county some guy named Dick and an organization called Tobacco Free Allen County put up the money for the county’s smoking ban enforcer. Seems like there’s something wrong when a private institution funds enforcement of public laws they helped to create. Sort of like me dreaming up a law and then paying my public officials to enforce it. I’d like to know if the county commissioners knew about or were promised the grant before they voted on it. They’re always short on money. TFAC also made the little self indulgent, back patting video you have seen on TV. Doesn’t it make you feel as good as it does them. They were probably also most impressed by the coverage they got on www.tobacco.org. I can see a county wide ordnance like Fort Wayne’s in the wind, can’t you? Well the county commissioners are right there on the ballot too. Next time you’re pushing the buttons, think about what they might take away from you.

I sent this enquiry to the Indiana Attorney General and a similarly worded letter to the editor at the Journal Gazette.

I got this back for a response.

Failing to find a “county attorney” I sent a similarly worded e-mail to the county prosecutors office. We’ll see what happens.

On another front I am pursuing the financial backers of TFAC so that possibly we can bring some economic pressure to bear on them. I figure they don’t deserve a free ride. There are several of them. Maybe they’re not all hospitals and doctors. It is absurd to think of a handful of people (30 or so) passing laws that affect the rest of us. So far, Indiana’s Secretary of State’s office has given me a phone number to a department that may be able to help. I’ll keep you posted.

Well, the Secretary of State wasn’t much help yet. I did find this out.

To go on to the next level of information they wanted a credit card number so I guess I’ll try the telephone number first to find out if they really have anything we can use. No word from the county prosecutor yet.

I sent the e-mail to the county prosecutor again and was disappointed when they sent this reply.

Since I was interested in getting an opinion on the legality of TFAC’s offer to fund the enforcement officer and what I consider “hijacking” of the county council you can see my dismay. I think they got mad and didn’t read it very well. Maybe someone down there hadn’t had enough nicotine that day. The County Commissioners Office sent this right back to me.

The Allen County smoking ordinance enacted by the Allen County Commissioners is enforced by the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health. A grant was received to cover the cost of one full-time person for one year because it is anticipated that a considerable amount of this person’s time will be spent educating businesses and the public about the requirements of the ordinance as well as complaint follow-up.  At the end of that one-year period, that full-time position will disappear and enforcement duties will be absorbed into the Health Department’s existing enforcement division. The smoking ordinance is posted on the Allen County Web Site – www.allencounty.us. From the home page, click on the Commissioners tab, then click on Smoking Ordinance in the list on the left side of the page.

So I guess the sheriff won’t be enforcing this thing and I guess nobody is going to look into the legality of how it was done either. Seems like kind of an end run on tobacco. Legal to own, illegal to smoke. Kind of like fireworks. I guess only these guys know how the Health Department can serve us best. In the end, they do all work for us. Right?