INFORUM

The story and interviews went very well until the team interviewed Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo. He didn’t feel that a $2 tax on cigarettes would work at all to encourage people to quit smoking or discourage young people from starting the path to addiction and seemed to be pretty much opposed to it. Of course he is wrong, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents, but I digress.

Being opposed to the tax increase is fine. But then the announcer stated that Kasper had said that “recent studies refute the dangers of secondhand smoke.” Now, that caught my ear.

More than 40 years of science and research shows, and repeated newer studies continue to show, that there is no safe level of secondhand smoke and that secondhand smoke kills people. I was very relieved to have Kasper tell me that this was no longer a concern. I breathed a big sigh of relief!

I think we should all go several steps further and reintroduce smoking in places such as schools and churches, doctors’ offices and hospital rooms, all restaurants and, of course, bars. Thanks to Kasper, all of those warnings just evaporated into thin air.

Oh, by the way, before we begin the celebration of death, I’d sure like to hear from Kasper and have him tell us all where he learned this marvelous news. I’d sure like to be sure that this new study wasn’t provided by anyone affiliated with the big tobacco companies. You remember them, recently convicted en masse of charges including fraud and racketeering.

I await Kasper’s response with bated breath. But, being a respiratory therapist I’ve learned that holding my breath too long is not necessarily a good thing.

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