Socialsmokers.org

A Message from our Executive Director

The New York Coalition of Social Smokers was founded to protect our
rights as smokers. We are not seeking to promote smoking but to
preserve one’s right to smoke. Our mission is to provide a forum for
those interested in smokers' rights, including those whose businesses
have suffered an economic blow from the smoking ban. It is our hope
that we as a group can have an impact on those people creating the
laws.

This is the last thing I thought I would be doing. Having suffered through
the ban and outright hostility against smokers, I thought I would just
adapt and get used to the new rules. All that changed upon hearing a
lost recording of my great grandfather. Similar to many ancestral stories
my great grandfather came to this country penniless as a young man
and motivated by the freedoms that a new life in America offered. We
are witnessing a threat to those very same freedoms we hold so dear.

The anti-smoker movement is growing stronger everyday, yet people
are living longer than ever before. Health care costs are still rising in
spite of the fact that less people smoke. Propaganda is now moving
past smoking to Alcohol, Obesity, Sugar, Trans Fats and even Salt. All
these claims supported by "Statistical Studies" done by special interest
groups who will benefit financially by a change in American lifestyle and
habits.

The propaganda alone would not be enough to motivate great change.
But it has gone well past propaganda and risen to a new level with
punitive laws to try to punish those who would dare to maintain their
individuality in the face of politically correct mandates.

Over 3 million New Yorkers and 60 million Americans are daily smokers
millions more are occasional smokers. Our goals are simple and in line
with the American Ideal, freedom of expression and freedom to choose
your own personal lifestyle.

We hope you will choose to join us.

Yours truly,

Jonathan Pinard, Executive Director