Great article @Tam... I read it full-length, and felt all warm and fuzzy I'll be sharing it to many people today, including my congressmen and representatives... and forwarding a copy to the brass at the FDA!
As for hospitals and corporations outlawing/banning tobacco use... I find it to be a pile of sh*t... Your employer should have the right to fire you if you are doing something that will impair your function (drinking on the job, doing lines of coke in the bathroom, heroine on your luch-break, etc.) but studies on tobacco have NEVER proven it impairs you while using it... furthermore, Nicotine is a stimulant like caffeine, yet most employers provide coffee for FREE to employees all day, every day! All of this boils down to the CONTROL and paranoia created by the the Nanny-State, and ultimately, the ACA. Tobacco is bad, therefore Nicotine is bad, therefore Nicotine use in any form is a bad thing (because Nicotine is apparently the only substance in leaf-tobacco, right?), so you must be a smoker and you're endangering your health and the health of those around you through second-hand and third-hand smoke. You must be fired because you are a danger to yourself and others! Sounds insane and asinine, right? Well, that's the logic of our "betters"....
My employer requires us to submit to an annual physical and blood test in order to garner (up to) $1500 discounts on our health insurance. If you don't take the physical, you don't get the discounts... if you fail the blood test (find nicotine, alcohol, drugs, etc) you don't get a portion of the discount (for Nicotine use). If you test positive for drugs/alcohol then you can be fired (or forced to rehab). However if your cholesterol is 2000 (yes, you'd be dead if it were), you can still get full discounts?!? Fortunately, my doctor (when filling out my insurance forms) won't list Nicotine, even if found, on the forms if you're a former smoker and current/fomer vaper... He is a former smoker too, and knows that Nicotine is NOT the problem! Actually, my most recent physical and blood test showed Nicotine to be at the "background" level anyway... no more than if I had just eaten a baked potato and salad with tomato and eggplant in it....
At a town-hall meeting with our governor and a few state representatives a few years ago... they were discussing taxes and budget for infrastructure, etc. ... I spoke up and asked the question regarding tobacco taxes and the illogical stance of "tobacco free society". I was rebuffed and asked to leave (by security) when I posed the question... "I understand it is the goal of this administration to see tobacco use at zero, yet you continue to raise, and rely heavily on taxes from tobacco products, and I see from your budget proposals that you have earmarked several million dollars of the budget to be covered by these taxes... so I ask if your goal is to ultimately rid the state of tobacco use, why are you planning your multi-year budget to rely so heavily on tobacco taxes? Why are you taxing tobacco products at all, if you don't intend on receiving those tax dollars in the very near future?"