Boston thinks drug stores should only sell stuff that's good for you
By adamg - Thu, 09/04/2008 - 9:51am.
New regulation would also shut cigar bars, ban smoking at outdoor patios.
What's next? Prevent pharmacies from selling candy bars? And isn't a bit hypocritical to be going after cigarettes but not, oh, the Burger King Triple Whopper with Cheese (1,250 calories, 84 grams of fat)?
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What about the blunt wraps?
Seriously, you go into any 7-11 or bodega and they're all selling these blunt wraps, which are hollowed out tubes of tobacco. They make no pretense of being for anything legal and they're in plain view. I've never understood why someone doesnt call them out on these things, why not sell bongs and one-hitters?
Thank God they want to shut the cigar bars
I can't take my kids out for a nice evening at a cigar bar, because of all the cigar smoke in our faces!
what do you expect if you're
what do you expect if you're going to a cigar bar?
the expectation is in the name
what about the staff and second hand smoke exposure?
seems that's the reason...not because parents will accidentally bring their little angels into the...joint.
First of all
...my first post was meant to be sarcasm of the basest and most obvious kind. Oh well. I sometimes forget that this is the Internet.
Second, who the hell would go into, let alone apply for a job at, a cigar bar without knowing what goes on in there?
Do we need a joke tag?
Because, I dunno, something tells me Michael was not reaching for a 10 on the Serious-o-meter. Damn InterWebs with their lack of hand gestures and crinkly eyes!
history repeats itself
There are already joke tags in use on the Internet. They are called emoticons and involve the much maligned sideways smiley faces. This discussion is precisely why a fellow named Scott Fahlman proposed the idea of tagging messages with smiles, winks, or frowns almost 30 years ago. ;-)
whoosh
whoosh
two reasons
And isn't a bit hypocritical to be going after cigarettes but not, oh, the Burger King Triple Whopper with Cheese (1,250 calories, 84 grams of fat)?
Triple Whoppers with Cheese aren't chemically modified with addictive drugs and toxic chemicals...and someone eating a Triple Whopper with Cheese doesn't injure people around them through second-hand calorie/cholesterol overload :-)
I think they do have
I think they do have additives & chemicals, from the bread to the veggies to the cheese. Cheese isn't naturally bright orange.
An arguement could be mad that people who eat too much, and who eat bad food do injre others, in health care premiums and obesity related illnesses.
nm
EDIT: Anti-fatty rant removed due to mood improvement since time of writing
OH SHI...
PC Police Officer Eeka reply in 5...4...
Obesity Epidemic
= statistical construction far more than actual phenomenon. It "suddenly happened" after a downward revision of what constitutes "fat" based on a very few studies with a very white and geographically isolated group. In otherwords, they decided that more people were obese and, suddenly, that was an epidemic!
BMI is pretty worthless as a predictor of individual fatness level - particularly in children of in the preteen/young teen age groups where there is "much alarm" over "obesity" as determined by somewhat arbitrary and entirely statistical cut points. I find it hard to believe in any epidemic measured by a metric that only accurately predicts what it is supposed to represent about 15% of the time.
As an epidemiologist, I can honestly say that "obesity" looks more like a confounder than a cause in most cases. Blood pressure levels, blood lipid profiles, exercise level, etc. appear to be causal factors for heart disease. These are associated with obesity, but the cause and effect situation is not clear and weight loss alone doesn't seem to reduce risk (save for people who are pre-diabetic). Too much shaky conclusions from associative research IMPO.
Still though, there's a ton
Still though, there's a ton of little fat kids at my neighborhood pool, I'd say half. I'm only 31, but I know that of my elementary school classmates far less were so fat. Not statistically significant sample, I know, but you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. No matter how you define "fat", people are just much fatter these days.
I'm glad they are
I'm glad they are implementing the rules for patios, but I don't see the harm in having a few cigarette-based private commercial enterprises, such as cigar bars.
As for regulating the selllers and their products, the state should just stop dictating who can sell what where. It's not logical, and people should be able to purchase their legal items from a legally established store wherever. It does not "protect" people, and fundamentally, the state should not be trying to "protect" people from their own decisions.
If they want to really be logical about substances in the public, they should ban smoking from all public spaces and legalize drinking in all public spaces. When I'm out on the street, a passerby smoking does more harm than a passerby drinking. At least in private places, such as cigar bars, this harm to the public and passersby can be mitigated with contained airspace and ventilation.
Yes!
Daiquiri stands and go cups - can beads and other throws be far behind??????
whether you ban cigs or not,
whether you ban cigs or not, drinking in public should be allowed. Is there another first-world, non muslim country (besides Diet America up north) where it is banned?
Overreaching
I don't see how the city can just shut down legal existing businesses (the cigar bars).
phhhbt
That didn't stop them from threatening to shut down the pedicabs which threatened their precious taxi medallion racket, or from successfully blocking the rent-a-dog businesses that have been popular and successful in places like Japan and NYC, where pet ownership is tough.
In the latter case, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks the animal shelters and rescue organizations felt threatened by the concept of giving people an alternative to pet ownership. After all, if people have a compromise for pet ownership available, they're less likely to try and bring a pet into a bad situation where ultimately they'll have to give up said pet. That means less pets turned into shelters...which means there's less demand for shelters. Nevermind that taking pets turned into shelters and putting them into these rent-a-pet scenarios seems a lot better than killing them.
We'll put our kids in daycare, or hire nannies, or hand them over to babysitters...but if we allow a business to keep a bunch of dogs and let people pay to play with them or take them out for fun stuff to do, society will CRUMBLE!
And don't forget about the
And don't forget about the eight person bikes that boston outlawed and put out of business...
Those conference bikes are now in Somerville
and belong to the Dutch Bicycle Company. I helped pedal one of them in Somerville's Memorial Day parade this year.
So they aren't out of
So they aren't out of business, but I'm sure they were doing much better when they could pedal around Boston (speculation).
They'll be loopholes in the regulations
and some smart enterprising individuals will find them.
For example, cigar bars will become private clubs, and you'll be able to buy a "membership" for the day.
Those that can afford it will enjoy it, those that can't - well, the politicians are interested in you anyway ...
Fat grams
I agree, food kills.
The only new regulation I would like would be the smoking out of doors. It seems illogical to have no smoking inside but smoking outside. I realize there's "air" outside, but it's still a pretty-confined space.
I see no problem with "cigar bars". If you outlaw cigars, sure, but having a place where you can do it, in public, seems like a reasonable solution.
If we don't allow pets inside restaurants, maybe we shouldn't allow them on outdoor patios, either?
And of course all cigar bar employees will now be out
of a job (not that I think there are that many of them- but still). I guess this is a case of "hurting you to help you." Menino: "You'll thank me for this when you're older."
Yep just like all the
Yep just like all the waitstaff, barbacks, bartenders who lost their jobs when the current workplace regulation was implemented.
The humanity!
Loss of competitive advantage
The purpose of a cigar bar is to smoke cigars and down a few cocktails. Take that away, and it just becomes a bar that sells cigars. It loses whatever advantage it may have had over any other tobacconist and any other bar. There isn't any reason for me to go to Cigar Masters when I can go to my regular bars since I can't smoke there either.
Good, the bad, and the very bad
Candy bars and fatty foods are not inherently unhealthy. They only become so when not used with moderation. The same can't be said for tobacco products.
Should the state regulate products that are know to have minimal benefits, but terrible side effects? Do we have the right to knowingly poison ourselves without the paternal hand of the state smacking us silly?
I don't have answers to these questions, but I will say that all attempts to ban addictive products have failed to curtail their use and have created financially lucrative black markets that provide financial havens for criminals, thieves, and sociopaths.
WTF is it with Boston?
Smoking cigarettes at the (few) outdoor patios is one of my favorite parts of going out in Boston.
I swear, someday bars will be open till 4am here, and the T will work correctly 24 hours a day... but no time soon.
MassSmoke
I don't even smoke, and I'd definitely be willing to protest this.
Unlikely
Oh, please, "... I would definitely protest this."
The day a commenter in a blog actually does something is the day the Earth stops rotating.
Those that can, do. Those that can't, blog.
Those that can't blog,
Those that can't blog, comment in blogs.
Way to change the meaning of things
Firstly, I said I'd "definitely be willing" which changes the meaning of the statement.
I have a blog I don't write on, so I don't think that really makes me a blogger.
I don't even smoke either!
I don't even smoke either! Well, only if I'm drinking.
Which pharmacies sell Burger
Which pharmacies sell Burger King Triple Whoppers with Cheese?
Triple threat in Roslindale
Get yourself one of those bad boys at the Burger King on Washington Street, walk next door to the Rite-Aid for a carton of cancer sticks, then stroll over to the Dunkin' Donuts for some transfatty lard pucks. Oh, and if you get thirsty, pick up a case of tall boys at Nick's Liquors (hmm, so that's a quadruple threat).
You Forgot ...
the part where you pick up the Adult Classified section of the Phoenix at a street box. Or the Naked People Pool Party covered Weekly Dig.
Nah
Those aren't available there. For that smut, you need to drive/take the bus all the way down to Rozzie Square.