Kaye Beach
Jan. 25, 2014
Feb 11, 2014 UPDATE: On Feb. 10th the TSET apparently decided to revamp their entire website and all of the informative links below were rendered dead. THANKFULLY the Internet has a very long memory and all links were restored on Feb 11th via The Wayback Machine.
An electronic cigarette or personal vaporizer (affectionately known by its fans as a ‘vape’) is a battery-operated device that heats a liquid containing nicotine (but not always) and various flavors to produce, not smoke, but vapor, thus eliminating tar and toxins associated with burning tobacco cigarettes. Thousands of Oklahomans have switched from smoking to vaping, potentially improving their health and longevity.
The good news about this safer alternative to smoking is being clouded by a potent mix of financial and political interests making conditions ripe in 2014 for potentially disastrous vaping bans and other dangerous political phenomena such as unreasonable taxation of vaping products.
Oklahomans should be advised that the political environment may turn treacherous at any moment.
At 4:59 PM CT AxXiom for Liberty’s Nanny State Prevention Service has issued a Vape Ban Warning for the following Oklahoma counties:
The previous state-wide Vape Ban Watch is now upgraded to a Vape Ban Warning for these counties.
Residents of these twenty-six Oklahoma counties are advised to expect a whirlwind of TSET funded anti-tobacco coalition agitation at the city level, accompanied by media saturation of anti-electronic cigarette propaganda, local political maelstroms, and SWAT (Students Working Against Tobacco) team activation.
Immediate city level organization is necessary to protect life and property from dangerous government overreach.
Don’t wait until the vape ban is on top of you – take your big government precautions now!
Communities of Excellence in Tobacco Control FY 13 budget: $6 million (Source: TSET Program Fact Sheet)
A Vape Ban Watch means that conditions are favorable to the formation of e-cigarettes and vaping bans. 85% of Oklahoma has been under the Vape Ban Watch since last fall when the same political influences that threaten areas in 2014 produced damaging bans in Oklahoma communities such as Shawnee, Ada and others.
Sporadic outbreaks of vaping bans and e-cigarettes prohibitions this fall prompted vigilant vapers and other Oklahomans leery of the nanny state to take action on impending bans. Oklahoman’s may feel overwhelmed by sudden storms produced by the explosive combination of cold cash and hot air but as the residents of Tahlequah demonstrate, citizen preparedness and quick action can save the day.
Be proactive. Call your city council member now and tell them that TSET bribes are not a good reason to ban vaping!
Please remain vigilant. Under normal circumstances, community health coalitions are relatively benign and even helpful entities but when fueled by tobacco settlement funds granted by the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, these entities can coalesce becoming supercells that produce twisted efforts that can devastate opportunities for Oklahomans to improve their personal health.
Right now these coalitions are primed to start firing off Vaping Bans in cities that fall under the 26 county (highlighted in green pg 31-33)Vape Ban Warning area.
Detail is as follows:
These twenty-six Oklahoma counties are part of a ‘Communities of Excellence’ coalition/consortium and are eligible for TSET Communities of Excellence in Tobacco Control funding for fiscal year 2014.
In 2014, flush with tobacco settlement cash extracted from predominately low-income smokers, the TSET has doubled the grant funds available to communities as part of the Healthy Communities Incentive Grant for Tobacco Control.
If you live within one of these twenty-six counties, chances are good that your city will be targeted by one or more TSET funded anti-tobacco groups operating in your area in over the course of this year. TSET has set aside 4.1 million dollars in 2014 just to fund the anti-tobacco coalitions that you will find agitating for the Vape Bans. (Page 3 http://www.ok.gov/tset/documents/RFPCXTC_1_Nov_25.pdf )
‘Additional grant money of $42,000 would be granted to Choate’s group as part of TSET’s Communities of Excellence in Tobacco Control.
An amount of $200,000 is received annually by her group from the tobacco settlement.
She emphasized that it is not money that motivates them to push ecig ban.’
(Reported by North West Watch http://www.northwestwatch.org/news/speculations-that-money-push-council-to-ban-ecigarettes/)
These health related coalitions work within our communities to promote public health education and policies that many of us welcome and support but the TSET and it’s partners have decided to focus in on eradicating the imaginary scourge of e-cigarettes and are funding the coalitions to be the tip of the spear in this misguided effort. Given the well established and devastating effects of smoking, redirecting health activists’ efforts away from this and other pressing health concerns can only be described as perverse.
Coalition applicants must develop work plans to address five (required) Core Indicators defined in TSET’s 2014 Request for Proposals (RFP) for Communities of Excellence in Tobacco Control funding. (Page 24 http://www.ok.gov/tset/documents/RFPCXTC_1_Nov_25.pdf)
Required “Core Indicator 1” is a city-wide tobacco-free policy which is defined to include e-cigs/vapor products.
Pg 25 http://www.ok.gov/tset/documents/RFPCXTC_1_Nov_25.pdf
Oklahomans fed up with the ever encroaching nanny-state would do well to inform themselves by spending a little time perusing the TSET’s website http://www.ok.gov/tset/ (Well, not so much now since they have removed MANY public information links!) You should get to know these coalitions that are getting their paychecks and marching orders from TSET while professing to represent ‘the community’ and thus YOU!
Each of the twenty-six counties eligible for TSET tobacco control grants in 2014 are listed below. They are linked with their respective TSET funding pages that identifies the lead coalition as well as their most recent yearly and cumulative total TSET funding to date.
AxXiom for Liberty 