Smoking, Liberty and Health Fascism

1. Books by Pierre Lemieux
2. Articles in English by Pierre Lemieux
3. Articles in French by Pierre Lemieux
4. Articles in Italian by Pierre Lemieux
5. Articles by other authors and other stuff

Books

• Pierre Lemieux, Tabac et liberté. L'État comme problème de santé publique
  (Montréal: Éditions Varia, 1997). Buy this book at Amazon.com.
  
• English translation: Smoking and Liberty: Government as a Public Health Problem
  (Montréal: Varia Press, 1997). Buy this book at Amazon.com.

Articles in English

• Looting the Tobacco Companies (Financial Post, August 6, 2008). Black markets always develop when the state tries to ban or severely restrict something consumers want.
• Outlawing Preferences (Western Standard, May 2, 2005). There is not much difference between standard assaults on private property and the anti-smoking jihad—or, for that matter, other attacks on minorities, like gun owners.
• Turning Bhutanese (Western Standard, February 14, 2005). Which Canadian province will become the Kafiristan of the North?
• Antismoking Types Are Waging a Holy War (Western Standard, June 28, 2004). Tobacco should be classified under the fifth precept of Buddhism, "Suramerayamajjahpamatthana."
• The Public Health State (MD Canada, May-June 2004). From the caring state to social engineering and tyranny, the slope is steep and slippery.
• Warning: The Public-Health State Can Kill You (National Post, January 9, 2004). ThePublic-Health State wants to help some individuals to get healthier at the expense of other individuals' health, this much we know.
• Review of Kip W. Viscusi, Smoke-Filled Rooms: A Postmortem on the Tobacco Deal (The Independent Review, Winter 2004). Kip Viscusi’s book will remain a monumental testament to the massive fraud that antismoking crusaders and their puppet states have perpetrated against the citizenry.
• Warning: The Public-Health State Can Kill You (National Post, January 9, 2004). ThePublic-Health State wants to help some individuals to get healthier at the expense of other individuals' health, this much we know.
• Taxpayers' Money up in Smoke (Financial Post, April 3, 2003). Taxpayers' money has been diverted from breast cancer diagnosis to the anti-smoking Jihad.
• Research Paper Up In Smoke (Financial Post, January 31, 2003). There is something rotten in Tobacco Kontrol.
• End the Smoking Apartheid (Financial Post, January 29, 2003). The apartheid against smokers is turning nominally private spaces and businesses into de facto state property.
• Tobacco Kontrol (Laissez-Faire Electronic Times, October 14, 2002). There is no Cunningham paper on anti-tobacco expenditures published by the Canadian Cancer Society, notwithstanding the citation in Tobacco Control.
• Why Do People Smoke? (Laissez-Faire Electronic Times, April 8, 2002). The short answer is, because they like it. The long answer is that it is rational for them to do so, given their preferences, including their rates of time preference, and given their own circumstances in life.
• It's the Fat Police (Financial Post, April 6, 2002). The Canadian Fat Minister wants to social-engineer the people into the land of the thin and the obedient.
• How to Make Tobacco Crawl (Ottawa Citizen, March 9, 2002). The more the tobacco pariahs seem to crawl, the more they are trampled down by the statists.
• SALSSO Bars in Ottawa (Exclusive to this site, January 12, 2001). Bars for Smokers And Lovers of Secondhand Smoke Only are forbidden under penalty of violence in Ottawa. Rebels are fighting tobacco whiteshirts.
• The World Bank's Tobacco Economics (Regulation, Fall 2001 - pdf file, 206 k). Creative analysts want us to believe that perfect states can replace imperfect parents.
• Hussein's and Rock's Blood (Exclusive to this site, August 24, 2001). Allan Rock is at least as willing to sacrifice himself for his people as the Saddam Hussein is.
• Label Ban a Smokescreen for Government Agenda (Financial Post, August 17, 2001). Politicians and bureaucrats have more incentives to lie than private businesses. From a historical point of view, lying is the health of the state.
• The Philip Morris Czech Study (Financial Post, August 17, 2001). After attacking smokers as a financial burden to non-smokers, anti-smoking advocates now claim that it is immoral to consider the contrary empirical evidence.
• WHO's Social Agenda (Financial Post, August 2, 2001). The government of Canada contributes about US$40-million to WHO's biennial budget (or US$20-million per year), making it the ninth largest contributor.
• WHO's Whiteshirts (Laissez-Faire City Times, June 4, 2001). Suppose that there are some individuals who cannot reach a near "complete mental and social well-being" while they are ruled by the whiteshirts.
• Parent Licensing (Laissez-Faire City Times, May 7, 2001). The project of licensing parents is symptomatic of the rise of the Sanitary State.
• Perfume of Prometheus (Laissez-Faire City Times, April 23, 2001). Suppose that the law allowed special flights advertised for "Smokers and Lovers of Secondhand Smoke Only" (call them "SALSSO flights" for short).
• The Dangers of Tobacco Prohibition (Financial Post, March 19, 2001). “What has always made the state a hell on earth,” wrote German poet Friedrich Hoëlderlin, “has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven.” With David Kessler’s new book, all heaven is breaking loose.
• The Diminishing Returns to Tobacco Legislation (Laissez Faire City Times, March 19, 2001). The increasing size and aggressiveness of government warnings on tobacco products point to decreasing returns to regulation.
• Did God Quit Smoking? (Liberty Free Press, February 7, 2001). The World Health Organization is drafting God in the global Jihad against smoking.
• Liberals Have Minority Rule (Ottawa Citizen, November 30, 2000). Why is it that a party who gets the electoral support of 20% of the population can dictate how we live our lives, while another (slightly larger) minority is victim of legalized apartheid?
• Tobacco Companies Must Fight Back (Financial Post, July 18, 2000). Canadian governments also tend to import the craziest American fashions – just as, in Evelyn Waugh’s novels, African despots plagiarize the worst European ways.
• The Economics of Smoking (Liberty Fund's Library of Economics and Liberty, June 26, 2000). Why most economists arrive at conclusions opposite to those of the Public Health doctrine.
• Government Packaging: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (Liberty Free Press, February 15, 2000). As my humble contribution to the Holy War of Public Purity, here are a few examples of the warnings and vivid graphics that should occupy 50% of government packaging, ads and forms included.
• Economics of the Smoking Debate (Exclusive to this site, January 21, 2000).On the occasion of the Non-Something Week, a little reflection is in order on the smoking debate.
• Response to Robert Proctor's Reply (National Post, October 7, 1999).
• Heil Health (The Independent Review, Fall 1999; reproduced in the Financial Post, October 2, 1999, under the title "Fascism and the Campaign to End Smoking"). The Nazis were our forerunners in health fascism, but we still have to learn the lesson.
• We Would Rather Have Simply Extortion (Exclusive to this site, September 24, 1999). It is less frightening to think that the American suit against tobacco companies is simply extortion.
• Social Costs of Tobacco: All Smoke, No Fire (National Post, January 20, 1999). Virtually all economic studies over the past 20 years show that there is no net social cost of smoking.
• Review of Jacob Sullum's For Your Own Good: The Anti-smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health (The Independent Review, Winter 1998). "I hereby solemnly promise to abstain from the use of all Intoxicating Liquors as a beverage; I also promise to abstain from the use of Tobacco in all forms, and all Profane Language."
• Canada's Taxing Pols Outwitted by Underground Economy (Wall Street Journal, April 8, 1994). What happens when government prohibits innocent vices.

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Articles in French

• Économie du mouchardage (Le Québécois libre, 19 janvier 2002). Espions, délateurs à seize ans, quelle vie perverse cela annonce! Et ceux qui les enrégimentent, qui les dressent, qui corrompent ce jeune âge!
• Le mystère de l'OMS (Exclusif à ce site, 29 septembre 2001, et Le Québécois libre, 24 novembre 2001). Comment l'OMS peut-elle donner aux individus, qui ont des préférences différentes et souvent divergentes, un état complet de bien-être social?
• La Banque Mondiale et la guerre du tabac (Le Figaro-Économie, 9 mars 2001). On est en présence d’une sorte d’apartheid légal qui empêche la concurrence du marché d’offrir aux consommateur – mêmes minoritaires ou statistiquement plus pauvres, comme les fumeurs – les services qu’ils sont prêts à payer.
• L'avenir du tabac (Futuribles, no 261 [février 2001]). L’avenir du tabac sera étroitement lié aux grandes tendances sociales et politiques dans le monde. Deux scénarios délimitent le domaine des possibles.
• Prévisions pour le 21e siècle (Le Québécois libre, 9 décembre 2000). Les flics porteront la blouse blanche. Il y aura des flambées de violence, mais elles seront sans objet, l'oeuvre de déséquilibrés. On se demandera pourquoi les enfants sont si violents.
• Du permis de conduire au permis pour avoir des enfants (Le Figaro-Économie, 8 décembre 2000). Puisque l’on accepte de soumettre à autorisation administrative des activités moins risquées, on doit admettre que les pouvoirs publics contrôlent la compétence des parents avant de les laisser faire et élever des enfants.
• Le coût social du tabac (Le Figaro-Économie, 18 février 2000). L'important rapport publié par la Banque mondiale en 1999, croit que les « policy-makers » sont plus compétents que les simples individus pour déterminer ce qui est bon pour eux-mêmes. Cette approche n'est pas de l'économie, mais de l'autoritarisme politique.
• Une dérive qui donne froid dans le dos (Le Devoir, 27 janvier 2000). Une réplique au porte-parole de la NSRA qui a répondu à mon article du 2 janvier, "La loi québécoise sur le tabac: une première historique?"
• La Banque mondiale et le coût social du tabac (Communication présentée au séminaire Choix individuels et liberté, Université du Québec à Hull, 14 janvier 2000; en format PDF). Une analyse un peu technique de l'argumentation de la Banque mondiale et des théories économiques sous-jacentes.
• La loi québécoise sur le tabac: une première historique? (Le Devoir, 2 janvier 2000). Quand vous rencontrerez un inspecteur du tabac, une chemise brune subventionnée ou quelque autre nazillon, au lieu de lui faire un bras d'honneur, il serait plus poli et plus historiquement correct de le saluer avec respect: "Heil Hitler!".
• Fascistes de la santé d'hier et d'aujourd'hui [Chronique française et iconoclaste, 25 mars 1999]
• Les fascistes de la santé (4 juillet 1998). Le slogan "santé publique" et la guerre sainte contre le tabac représentent-ils une nouvelle forme de fascisme? Une excursion dans les bas fonds de la pureté publique.
• Mémoire sur le projet de loi numéro 71 - loi sur le tabac (présenté au Comité de la Santé de la Chambre des Communes du Canada, le 9 décembre 1996). Le nouveau projet de loi sur le tabac démontre-t-il encore que l'État est le meilleur ami de l'homme? Le message transmis au députés: fichez-nous la paix -- leave us alone !
• Tabac: réplique aux prohibitionnistes [Chronique française et iconoclaste, 27 septembre 1996]
• Sommes-nous moralement tenus d'obéir aux lois? (Le Figaro-Économie, 12 septembre 1996). Ce qui est passé à peu près inaperçu jusqu'à tout récemment, c'est la montée de théories qui remettent radicalement en cause la légitimité de l'État. Un ouvrage récent de Jan Narveson et John Sanders sonde la nouvelle vague qui déferle sur la philosophie politique.
• La prohibition du tabac favoriserait-elle l'interdiction du droit de posséder des armes? [Chronique française et iconoclaste, 10 septembre 1996]
• Après la cigarette, ce sera au tour du café (La Presse, 3 septembre 1996). Les Allemandes et les Torontoises ne fument pas. Et l'État que nous connaissons en cette fin du 20e siècle représente, bien davantage que le tabac, un problème criant de santé publique.
• Liberté: le même combat dans tous les domaines [Chronique française et iconoclaste, 9 juillet 1996]
• Lettre au ministre de la Santé [Chronique française et iconoclaste, 15 mars 1996]

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Articles in Italian by Pierre Lemieux

• Ma Dio ha smesso di fumare? (February 7, 2001)
• Il fascismo e la campagna contro il fumo (Fall 1999)
• Sarebbe prefereribile la semplice estorsione (September 29, 1999)
• I costi sociali del tabacco: tutto fumo, niente arrosto (January 20, 1999)

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Articles by other authors

• An Interview with Pierre Lemieux by Carlo Stagnaro (Laissez Faire City Times, February 26, 2001). our public policies in this respect are strangely similar to Nazi Germany's.
• Pierre Lemieux et Jean-Luc Migué (avec la collaboration de Filip Palda), Évaluation économique de l'Étude d'impact sur le projet de loi sur le tabac proposé par le Ministre de la santé et des Services sociaux du Québec, Montréal, 26 mai 1998.
• Robert N. Proctor, Reply to Pierre Lemieux, National Post, October 7, 1999.