New York lights fire under city’s smokers
NEW YORK — New York’s smokers are puffing nervously in the face of new measures that leave them wondering how to afford their habit — and even where to light up. A tax increase earlier this month sent prices, already the highest in the United States, shooting to anything between $11 and $15 a pack, or as much as 75 cents a smoke. Then this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a passionate anti-smoking former smoker, for the first time gave public backing to an idea aired by health officials to outlaw smoking in parks and on beaches. Smokers — already banished from bars, restaurants, office buildings and other interior public spaces — are gasping with rage. “We’re under assault from all sides,” said film maker Tom Hruby, 50, as he pulled at a Pall Mall while chatting with a friend by Central Park. “Try to regulate the airspace of a park and you’re one step from a fascist state.” “It’s crazy,” his friend and fellow smoker Arron Williams, 52, echoed. “Where are we going to smoke?” Source: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100712com5.html |
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