The pleasure police are going after big tobacco again, but this time it's over secondhand smoke. The civil suit accuses tobacco companies of racketeering, and claims that they are marketing a deadly product while insisting that secondhand smoke doesn't cause cancer. Apparently the whole of the case will hinge on the government's claim that secondhand smoke does cause cancer, something scientists have been unable to prove.

The CDC, where everything from smoking to gun rights is considered a disease, the premise isn't even open to discussion. Terry Pechacek, the associate director for science at the Centers for Disease Control's Office of Smoking and Health says: "The simple fact is that this is no longer an issue of debate within the scientific community."

Of course, not everyone agrees. The World Health Organization study tried and failed to show a link between secondhand smoke and cancer. Initially the WHO tried to bury the results. But after being pressed, the WHO came out with a childish press release that basically said that secondhand smoke does so cause cancer they just couldn't prove it because of small sample size. Just last year, the British Medical Journal said that the numbers just aren't there to link passive smoke and cancer deaths.

Keep in mind that these studies were out to prove that secondhand smoke causes cancer. They started with a forgone conclusion and then set out to prove it to be true. So, when the numbers didn't add up they just ignored them.

Back to the government's case, which hinges on the "fact" that secondhand smoke causes cancer. Even the plaintiff (the government) is estimating that secondhand smoke only causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in nonsmokers. Considering the sheer number of non-smokers, this is incredibly small. Compare this to the nearly 700,000 annual deaths due to heart disease, or the nearly 20,000 deaths* because of excessive consumption of alcohol. (* Alcohol-induced causes exclude accidents, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use.)

But the point of all this is to drive us toward complete prohibition of tobacco. These are the same people who brought us the Miracle of Helena. Smoking was banned in Helena for 6 months back in 2002. Proponents of the ban claimed that hospital admissions during that period showed a sharp decline in heart attacks.

Like I said before:

It won't be long before cigarettes and tobacco are banned outright, in some cities and states. A national ban won't be far behind, and soon tobacco will be treated as an illicit drug.

When that happens, everyone will just stop smoking, right? Wrong. Cigarettes and tobacco products will go underground. As enforcement increases, prices will skyrocket and trafficking will be a lucrative business. It will also lead to more serious crimes, like murder, and money laundering. In general, crime will increase, and rather than profiting with tax revenue, governments will be spending millions to try to keep our streets tobacco free. Ironically, instead of being less accessible, cigarettes and tobacco will be more accessible than ever; especially to young children.