The city of Boston has quietly banned all cigars which cost less than $2.50.
Translation: Blunts, no. Fancy Habanos, yes.
Second translation: Poor people smoking, no. Rich people smoking, yes:
The ban is effective February 1, 2012.
But for those upper class cigar aficionados, the elite few who are still allowed to smoke indoors at their pricey cigar bars, will still be able to purchase single cigars. A stipulation in the city ordinance allows tobacco shops to sell individual cigars, as long as they retail for $2.50 or more.
The city agency responsible for the ban, the Boston Public Health Commission, is composed of a seven person board. I hardly need mention, of course, that the board members all appear to have careers which have undoubtedly kept them far from poverty.
It is grimly ironic, though, that one of the board members specializes in “racial and ethnic disparities in health care.” Evidently he isn’t equally bothered by what will amount, thanks to higher levels of poverty among minorities in America, to a ban which will limit the purchasing abilities of minorities at a disproportionate rate.
Third translation: Government is not a friend to the poor.
