Opinion: Tax dollars up in smoke to send public servants to Panama anti-nicotine summit

Why Panama? Martin Cullip of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance’s Consumer Center explains that the anti-tobacco gang at the WHO are very impressed with countries that erect high barriers to tobacco use, including smoking bans, high taxes, age restrictions and so on. Panama’s legislators having followed this path, Panama was rewarded with the conference. Delegates have flooded in from around the world to support hotels, restaurants and the economy at large. After a day of listening to prohibitionists preach the evils of nicotine many presumably head off to sip margaritas and pinot noirs — though alcohol, a known carcinogen, is a much greater hazard than smokeless tobacco.