Chicago passes smokeless-tobacco ban for city ballparks
Chicago recently became the fourth city to ban smokeless tobacco at ballparks, and is home to the nation’s highest tobacco tax.
The city of Chicago’s latest effort to “save the children” – by banning smokeless tobacco in ballparks – is drawing ire from across the spectrum, including professional athletes such as former MLB pitcher C.J. Nitkowski and the Chicago Cubs’ Manager Joe Maddon.
“It’s a legal product. It’s legal for (players) to buy it. It’s legal for them to use it, as much as it is an awful habit to have,” Nitkowski, now a Fox Sports analyst, said on “Illinois Rising” March 27, adding that he does not use or endorse the product. “I just hate the idea of cities stepping in and trying to infringe on players’ rights to use smokeless tobacco.”
Chicago became the fourth city to ban smokeless tobacco at ballparks in early March, following Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. New York City quickly followed suit as the fifth city after Chicago. The Chicago ban means violators – which include fans and players alike – will be charged between $100 to $250 each time they are cited.
Aldermen Ed Burke and Patrick Daley Thompson proposed the ban, which U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin supported, to “finally knock tobacco out of the ballpark.” Their main argument was to shield children from being tempted to imitate their favorite players by using the product.
Maddon, the 2015 National League manager of the year, quickly disagreed with the approach.
“I’m into personal freedoms, and I don’t understand the point with (banning smokeless tobacco),” Maddon said. “Just ban tobacco period if you’re going to go with that route. I’m into education and letting everyone make their own decisions.”
Nitkowski echoed Maddon’s stance.
“Whose responsibility is it?” Nitkowski asked, “… if I bring my sons to the clubhouse or we’re watching a game and their favorite player is chewing tobacco, there is that opportunity for me to have that conversation with them and say ‘you know what, that guy is a great player and is great at what he does, but that part of his life [is] a mistake that he’s making there and here’s why.’”
But the problem with Maddon and Nitkowski’s position for the Chicago City Council is that neither education nor personal freedom and responsibility are profitable.
Using the excuse of protecting children can be.
The smokeless tobacco fines fall right in line with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s February tobacco-tax hike, which established a 15-cent tax per “little cigar,” a 90-cent tax on larger cigars, a $1.80 tax per ounce on smokeless tobacco and a $6.60-per-ounce tax on roll-your-own tobacco. Even before Emanuel’s proposal, Chicago had the highest tobacco tax in the nation.
South and West Side aldermen spoke out against that February proposal, citing how high cigarette taxes lead to a black market in cigarette sales and increased violence because of it. The sale of loose cigarettes, or “loosies,” for years has affected low-income neighborhoods in Chicago plagued by high crime, and other areas nationally.
In 2008, an elderly couple in New York was killed in a car crash as a suspected cigarette smuggler fled police. In 2010, a Virginia man admitted guilt in a murder-for-hire plot involving smuggled cigarettes. And infamously, in 2014, New York City police killed Eric Garner as they detained him for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes.
Despite the negative, and sometimes tragic, unintended outcomes these regressive policies have had, the Chicago City Council and Emanuel are still intent on pushing high taxes and fees under the guise of protecting children, but in reality enriching a city ailing from decades of financial mismanagement.
“(The policy) feels so fake,” Nitkowski said. “It’s about gaining political favor and saying ‘I care about your kids.’”