Interesting

http://www.cato.org/blog/grass-roots-tob...-not-quite

Quote:despite the Times reporter’s lifted eyebrow at the notion that “outside groups” are encouraging town officials to go forward with the ban, it’s worth asking how Westminster, Mass., population 7,400, came to have its very own “tobacco control officer.” Do you imagine the townspeople decided to create such a position with local tax funds? If so, read on.

For well over a decade the Massachusetts Municipal Association has run something called the Tobacco Control Technical Assistance Program, assisted by grant money from the state Department of Public Health. It does things like campaign for town-by-town hikes in the tobacco purchase age to 21, and town-by-town bans on tobacco sales in drug stores. It will surprise few that it has been in the thick of the Westminster situation.

This article, written for a friendly audience of public health advocates, frankly describes how the MMA project, with assistance from nonprofit and university groups as well as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, worked to break down the reluctance of town health boards to venture into restrictions on tobacco sales

...
In other words, an extra reason for the townspeople of Westminster to be angry is that they have been paying to lobby themselves. And it’s worth knowing exactly how the game plan works, because similar ones have been rolled out to localities in various states not only on “tobacco control” but on “food policy,” environmental bans and other topics.

The election of a Republican Governor in Massachusetts earlier this month represents -- possibly -- the first small steps on the journey to fiscal/political sanity in the Bay State. But as the attempt to criminalize the sale of tobacco products demonstrates, that journey is very treacherous and uncertain. A lot of MA taxpayers will join Scott Brown in New Hampshire (or Florida, or South Carolina, etc.) rather than wait to see how it all turns out.