impressions

[ozgur]

quiet annoyed with the recent increase in tax - enough to see if something like this exists or how to put together a lobby group.

this place turned up on top of the search list so is a good place to start. that search placing is also a responsibility for whoever you are! i'll try to provide more feedback and suggestions over the weekend (if they're welcome) and could possibly help out with a few things - I'm an IT professional and used to be a political activist during my uni years. Here are some quick impressions for now:

- the anonymous thing isn't helping, a big list of names and people to come forward would be the better way to go. bunch of people afraid to be associated with their views sends the wrong message.

- ditto with the secret plans. you're not going to beat powerful and very rich lobby groups with secret plans; need to find legal angles to battle with. A good example of this is many greens movements; the successful ones find illegalities in what is being done and take corporations to court, the ones distributing fliers and chaining themselves to trees just get locked up and achieve nothing other than personal gratification.

- focus on the topic! covering everything from drinking to junk food just confuses and weakens the main point which is smoker's rights. even when narrowing down to that, need to focus on winnable battles; there is no way trying to reintroduce smoking indoors is ever going to work but it should be possible to win against over-taxation and banning of smoking in outdoor areas. and of course the most important battle; preventing the banning of smoking all together, which is a fight that is sure to come.

- one image fits all! this follows on from the previous point; the image of the site/group/lobby should be generic other than the shared interest in smokers' rights. the image i'm getting from a quick look at the site is that of: old anglo guys from the pub that don't want the government to tell them what to do! that's not going to get as much support as: people of all ages (18+) from all walks of life who don't want to be discriminated or put into financial hardship because of a legal lifestyle choice they make

btw, did you make any approaches to tobacco companies? they might have their hands tied with laws but would most likely be able and willing to provide marketing and image building advice and maybe even make some useful introductions.

anyway, let me know if you're open to input and are in this to win and we'll chat more

[Donjohntos1]

Hello Ozgur
Being from Denmark and member of 2 smokerassociations and quite angry, not just with the smokingban but also the high tax rate in our country among other things which you describe in your post here.
I wrote a small but hopefully understandable article about the resistance against the smokingban.
Here it is.

Resistance against the smokingban

Is the resistance growing ?
The answer is : YES

Let me give you an example.

FEB. the 13th 2010 at 06.15 AM. Were at a gasstation in my localarea buying some tobbaco.
Was greeted by the clerk, a smoker, found out about this as the clerk told me that.
Well ....
The clerk exspressed anger on the increaseingly controlling totalitarian/facist society that we live in.
The clerk said, "It´s becoming too bloody much with all that control, one is almost no longer allowed to fart anymore".
Couldn´t agree more about that, as it is the opinion of my own as well.
I then asked "Do you about the Danish Smokerassociation ?".
The reply was "No".
I then informed about our work, told that I´m member my self.
And that it isn´t the only association in our country, that we have another by the name The Yellow Nail, consisting of :
Kim Larsen, Klaus Kjellerup, Johnny Madsen and Thomas Helmig.
Told the clerk to take a look at http://www.dary.dk, and that the price of membership is just 100 Dkk. a year.
The clerk replied "That´s not much".
There are several artist´s within, not just the music but also within other areas who are against the smokingban.
They should not hide from fear and anxiety of the system and their foolish need to punish everybody who doesn´t comply to their rules.
They have to come forward and together with the rest of us to secure our rights and freedom. So that we can remain free.
That also applies to all of those who says "Well, we can´t do anything".
Yes we can, all it takes is that we stand together and says :
"NO, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, NO MORE FOOLISH REGULATIONS AND PROHIBITIONS, LEAVE US ALONE"

Theres room enough for you to join our association, as it is about securing EVERYBODYS freedom and right to be here.!!
So if they who think that only prohibations and alike is the right way, then they are dead wrong.
WE ARE HERE AND WE ARE FIGHTING !!!!!.

J.C
Denmark