On Wednesday I published an op-ed in the Oregonian opposing a proposal from the Multnomah County Commission to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco and nicotine products, including e-cigarettes. I squeezed as much as I could into my 650-word limit, but obviously had to leave a lot out. There…

The liberal case against ever-expanding smoking bans — Because I write about tobacco policy, for more than a decade I’ve followed a Google News alert for the words “smoking ban.” Periodically checking it offers a window onto the creeping progression of smoking restrictions. …

It turns out they have some good ideas — The COVID-19 pandemic had barely taken hold in the United States when principled libertarianism was reported to be among the early fatalities. “There are no libertarians in a pandemic,” Atlantic writer Derek Thompson quipped on Twitter on March 3. Thompson likely intended it as an offhand comment, but the phrase…

On the state’s lagging vaccine performance and lost doses — According to the COVID vaccine tracker maintained by Bloomberg, Oregon has administered only about a quarter of its vaccine inventory. That puts us near the very bottom of the country, ahead of only four other states. This week, the Oregonian also reported that one of Oregon’s health providers had allowed…

A lifelong Libertarian voter is driven to break for a major party in the 2020 presidential election — In the year 2000, I turned 18 and cast my first ever presidential vote for Libertarian Party nominee Harry Browne, a charismatic guru of self-help and investment advice. In 2016, I voted for the surprisingly credible Libertarian ticket comprised of two former Republican governors, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. In…

Wildfire smoke has given Oregon the world’s most hazardous air. So why are workers outside pumping gas? — Parts of Oregon this week achieved the distinction of having the worst air quality in the world. Due to the wildfires, the air quality index rating for Portland exceeded 500, which is literally off the charts. (Anything over 150 is considered “unhealthy” and anything over 300 is “hazardous.”) The Oregon…

To save smokers’ lives, America must reject its prohibitionist anti-smoking movement — “Smoking kills. Quit now.” There was no missing the blunt warnings plastered on the cartons of Marlboro cigarettes as the flight attendants half-heartedly paraded the duty-free cart down the aisle of my plane to Switzerland. In case the message wasn’t clear, graphic photographs drove it home: a blackened lung, a…

Here’s the difference between what I saw with my own two eyes and what I see online and on TV — Portland, Oregon, to hear the president tell it, is “totally out of control.” According to Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Portland “has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob.” …

What I learned about the past and future of smoking on a journey to a remote craft cigar operation — It’s 7:00 a.m. and I’ve awakened on Ærø, a tiny island in the Baltic Sea off the southern coast of Denmark. When I arrived at my bed and breakfast the previous evening, there was no sign of any other guests; my welcome was a note directing me to stairs around…