Can you imagine the reaction from cops upon getting THIS assignment detail?

Smoking kills 480,000 Americans each year,

And it skews downscale - lots more smoking among the welfare class than the working class.

So, why is it that we want to stop them smoking again?

(I'm in a "Malthusian Solution" mode today.)

Chyeah -- I'd like to see this ban being enforced on poor desperate people with absolutely NOTHING to lose.

Can you imagine the reaction from cops upon getting THIS assignment detail?

I may be wrong,but I THINK Philly has special "housing police" who patrol nothing but the projects.

I suspect they get shot at enough as it is,and what will happen is they will just pretend it isn't happening,and the politicians won't care and announce it has been a huge success.

You just KNOW there the National Association for the Protection of Communist Pawns are drolling at the thought of the cash payout they can get for filing a suit the first time some "fambly" gets the boot for smoking tobacco.

And it skews downscale - lots more smoking among the welfare class than the working class.

So, why is it that we want to stop them smoking again?

Other than the fact that we,the taxpayer provide free (to them) medical coverage for any disease or illness that strikes them,I can't think of any.

AFATG,I suspect we pay to bury most of them,too.

Can you imagine the reaction from cops upon getting THIS assignment detail?

Ain’t nothing I’d want to waste my patrol time on... but some of the rookies will get a chubby over the smoking SWAT patrol.

I’d only charge for it if I was sent to a domestic, and the occupants were being less than civil AND I had PC to believe the law was violated. Not sure it will stand the constitutional test, once challenged.

there have been a number of fires in housing units due to cigarettes

They're covering up for the Crack, and Meth lab fires!

They pushing tobacco smokers to switch to the high priced stuff, for "safety".

Other than the fact that we,the taxpayer provide free (to them) medical coverage for any disease or illness that strikes them,I can't think of any.

But smokers die years sooner than others. So yes, we have to pay to keep their suffering down during their final year or two, but we have to do that for everybody anyway - Medicare is also welfare, gussied up to pretend it's not - every death of everybody over age 65 is accompanied by a big welfare layout, all of those final illness Medicare payments.

Accepting as a given that we're going to be paying to ease the transition from life to death of all poor people and everybody over 65, the issue then reduces to a matter of how long they live on welfare (recognizing, too, that Social Security is also welfare, just in a gussied up package to not call it that).

Smokers live 5 to 7 years less than non-smokers. So, that's 5 to 7 years fewer welfare payments to smokers versus non-smokers - and we end up paying for the death illnesses of both anyway.

Net net, smoking is good for the budget, because it brings in a lot of tax revenue and reduces welfare payments (particularly Social Security) by a half-decade or more.

I suspect we pay to bury most of them,too.

I know what are you thinking - cheaper would be to let crows and dogs to clean poor suckers away. Very picturesque idea.

Or perhaps you would utilize them in hot dogs? Utilitarians would approve.

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: