Casino update...
"Continued smoking in reservation bars, casinos boosts business, raises questions" October 18, 2009 Read Mr. Coleman, a bit more research would have helped this article. Two points for you: 1) Linda Lee, head of the state's Tobacco Use Prevention Project does not know what she is talking about (or is purposely being misleading). "They're getting twice as many toxins," Lee said. Bogus: Studies have been done that show that people exposed to secondhand smoke inhale the equivalent per year often of only a handful of cigs. 2) "Studies have shown that when cities adopt smoking bans, it leads to a dramatic decline in heart attacks caused over time by exposure to secondhand smoke." Bogus again: The RAND study published in March of 2009 contradicts that and beats all other studies published on this issue because it does not conveniently cherry pick one particular town or city (or rehash several of those studies and lump them together) but includes data from numerous states that have passed bans. The study finds that smoking bans have no effect one way or the other on heart attacks. I have been involved in the movement to scale back or repeal smoking bans for four years now. This year alone at least eight U.S. cities have either repealed or scaled back their bans and bans have collapsed in Germany and the Netherlands as well. We look forward to seeing Montana bans collapse too. Bans make current economic woes even worse. I have put a link to an article I wrote for the Heartland Institute about the historical failure of smoking bans and have attached the RAND study as well. Jeremy Richards, Ph.D. Sources: History Shows Smoking Bans Likely to Be Repealed - by Jeremy Richards - Budget & Tax News ReadSource for eight cities, Germany, Holland: Read
Blackfeet Nation has its own ban September 25, 2005 MIKE DENNISON Gazette State Bureau
HELENA - Montana's new indoor smoking ban does not apply on American Indian reservations, which have some of the highest rates of tobacco use in the state.
But for the Blackfeet Reservation in northcentral Montana, that omission doesn't matter: The Blackfeet Nation passed its own, stricter tobacco ban this month.
Other Montana tribes are talking about the issue, but so far, the Blackfeet Tribe is the only one to put a ban into tribal law, says Lori New Breast, tobacco-use prevention director for the Blackfeet.
"We really can't say Montana is smoke-free if you have Native American communities that are not smoke-free, that are still being exposed to the dangers of secondhand smoke," she says.
The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council approved the indoor tobacco-use ban in July 31. It took effect Sept. 1.
It bans all smoking and tobacco use in public places on the reservation. The two tribally owned bars and casinos and privately owned bars that get the majority of their income from drink sales are exempt until 2007.
The ban is stricter than Montana's state ban, which takes effect Saturday. Montana's ban applies only to smoking, not all tobacco use (except in public schools), and exempts bars until 2009.
New Breast says reaction to the ban has been mostly positive, because many restaurants on the reservation already prohibit smoking and "there is a lot of awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke."
The law says violators can be fined up to $500, at the discretion of the Tribal Court. U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs police officers will enforce the law.
Like Montana's ban, the Blackfeet tobacco ban does not apply to Indians' traditional, cultural uses of tobacco in ceremonies. Indians do not consider "commercial smoking" to be a traditional use, New Breast says.
Recent surveys have shown that as many as 60 percent of adults on the reservation use some form of tobacco, or nearly three times the rate among Montana's general population, she says.
New Breast says the Blackfeet law is gaining plenty of attention, and that she's received inquiries from tribes in many other states and even from New Zealand, from Maori natives.
"It's a great opportunity for any other Indian nation to address this public-health issue," she says. "I look forward to the day when all of Montana is smoke-free, including all of the Indian nations. But each tribe has to decide how to do it."
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