How Quickly our Personal Freedoms can be taken away!

As some of you may know, I have been involved with Avva Cigars and Wine's fight with the Oregon Department of Health and Services (DHS) over whether Avva should have been allowed the "smoke shop exemption" as accorded in the statute.
I have posted before, the law and the application of the exemption. I now bring new evidence that should alarm anyone who is concerned about liberty, freedom and who are against State control.
On my radio show on Monday, from noon to two, I will be reading this evidence along with playing sound files that show a willful denying of the exemption by 4 women who work for DHS, and how that denial has been unlawfully applied and the appeal process by Avva has been intentionally delayed or strategically denied by DHS employees who have used at the least, improper strategy.
See in the photo below, in the middle, an email from Kylie Menagh of DHS in which she brags about how they can delay the process (Miss Menagh refers to herself in various emails as: Tobacco Prevention Coordinator, and in others as: MPH, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Program). You will need to click on these images to better see the emails:
In that same email photo you can see the back and forth emails where these DHS employees begin a process of making up policy and procedure “on the fly” as they did not have any policy or procedure set down to follow.

In another email, Miss Jill Thompson of DHS states that she couldn’t even find Avva Cigars until she “followed her nose” so to speak, when she was on an outing with her “BF and Son” (which by the way, the smoke she smelled was from the Cigarette smokers area at the front door of the Mall, not from Avva). You will need to click on these images to better see the emails:

Here is where the “cover up” gets interesting. On Dec. 7, 2009, the decision was made that Avva would be “indefinitely denied” as you can see from the photo of the email below. You will need to click on these images to better see the emails:

Avva was never informed of the “indefinite denial” but was told it’s application was denied on Dec. 10, 2009.

On Dec. 18, 2009, DHS employees began to attempt to conceal their activities by removing all communication regarding Avva’s application process to “telephone communication only”. Why would they do this? Well as you can see by the email below, my radio show had started quite a stir with my listeners who began calling DHS, Marion County and their representatives. One of those representative, Matt Wingard, and his assistant Dawn Phillips even went so far as to begin their own investigation into the matter and to begin to attempt to contact these employee’s own boss, Dr. Bruce Goldberg, head of DHS. Read the email. You will need to click on these images to better see the emails:

By Dec. 30, 2009, Avva requested an opportunity to submit additional material to support it's case to appeal the denial. Avva was not aware of the "indefinite denial" as these were again, internal emails. Avva did not receive a response on this additional information until April 7, 2010. The case is now before a DHS hearing, conducted by DHS. (I bet that will be “objective”?)

Tomorrow, on my radio show, I will go into further detail, the "why" DHS denied Avva's exemption, play audio from the Senate floor of the Legislature as Sen. Prozanski and Sen. Walker actually describe how a "smoke shop located in a mall setting would be exempted" and how DHS employees willfully and purposely have "bent the law" to their own agenda that was best stated by Miss Menagh when she told the owner of Avva (and the owner of Rich's Cigars in Portland): "my mission is to end ALL smoking in Oregon and will do what I can to achieve that goal".

THAT my friends, is what "state control" looks like. Not "state" as in the State of Oregon, but "state" as in "socialist state". A "state" where one's personal and business rights are trampled on by "state" employees who have the power, not voted on by the people, but power handed to them by their employer, The State of Oregon. This is how quickly freedom can be squelched!

I beg you to listen tomorrow to my show, hear the evidence and then contact DHS, Marion County Health and your local Representative and have them look into this matter. It's not about smoking or not smoking. It's about Personal Freedom!

Revisiting the Avva Cigars Saga with DHS

The process is continuing in the fight for the rights of smokers at Avva Cigars.
I have acquired the actual transcripts from the Legislature when they were discussing SB571 which became the Smoke Free Workplace Law.
Note the points made by the Senator quoted:

SB571
WORK SESSION
/ unclear / Members of the Committee -9 / unclear / exception to the smoking prohibitions for “smoke shops”
It clarifies that smokes shops may sell alcohol in a specific lounge area between the hours of 3 pm and 8 pm.
[Clerk] Okay , Senator Porzanski.
[Senator Prozanski] Move / unclear / -9 amendment to SB5771 … for consideration
[Clerk] Senator Prozanski has moved for -9 amendment to Senate Bill 571. Is there any discussion?
[Senator Prozanski] Perhaps I’ll go over the amendment since most of the people here don’t know or have not had an opportunity to hear what the -9 Amendment is about. We had a testimony that was at our first public hearing which was in Eugene at the U of O Law School. And at that time we heard from an individual that actually owns a smoke shop or tobacco shop, and after hearing testimony I was compelled to bring forward the -9 Amendment. The -9 Amendment actually would define a smoke shop as a business that’s primarily engaged in the sale of tobacco products and smoke instruments as defined in the statutes. At least 75% of their gross revenue for the business will have to come from the sale of tobacco products. It will, in fact, prohibit individuals under the age of 18 from entering the premises . It will not allow for lottery gaming or any type of betting on premise. As anybody remembers the individual that gave the testimony talked about having lottery in his establishment . I think that after speaking to most of the committee members, we did not want to see this becoming a loophole for bars to be able to somehow stay in existence as they currently are. So by eliminating – or prohibiting, I should say – any type of gaming and requiring that the primary income come from the sale of tobacco .
And the next part on that component is that it needs to be a stand-alone business meaning that it cannot be structured in an area like what we would call a mall, so the ventilation system will not be tied in to any way, shape or fashion to allow smoke to come out of there.
The testimony that we heard in Eugene … it occurred to me that when you talk about smoke shops where you have cigars or pipe tobacco being sold, it’s not uncommon for individuals who are buying those items to want to test them or sample them. And it seems only right at this stage in our laws in the state, as well as in the country, with tobacco being a legal product, that this would be an appropriate exception to the bill.
It should be noted for those that are here, as we heard in the testimony in Eugene, this individual said everyone that worked for them were smokers because, as he stated, that it’s very important for those individuals to know the tobaccos they are selling and it was just basically common. So though we are concerned about making sure individuals who work in employment situations are not directly impacted by smoke or they have no choice, it appears that you are talking about a very small segment of the population that would be seeking those type of jobs. And, as he said, all of his employees in themselves are, in fact, smokers.

So as you can see, they intended for the "smoke shop" exemption to be for even those stores IN A MALL, IF they have their own ventilation. Avva has it's own HVAC and ventilation and in fact structurally is completely detached from the mall, and Sadeeh has the documentation from the City, the mall and the engineers to prove this. The next step is to meet with DHS to present all of this new information!

The Smoke Free Workplace Law, One Year Later

Here is a fantastic article that exposes the abuse of DHS and the well intentioned law from last January.

ONE YEAR LATER: THE SMOKE FREE WORKPLACE LAW

Where there's smoke, there's overregulation!

You probably know by now that Avva Cigars and Wine in Salem was denied their "smoke shop" exemption in December. This is still being fought and will continue until the entire process has been used.
NOW I have received word through my sources that this is not the first time this has happened.
A great article in the Oregonian last week shows how the employees of the State Department of Health have taken upon themselves to define the law that the Legislature laid out for them. Not what the law says, but what they BELIEVE the law says!

Smoke Shop Exemption Hard To Get!

I understand that Rich's Cigars in Portland was denied the first time as well and then was exempted after fighting this.
Broadway Cigars is "partially" exempt.
Other shops around the state have either given up or are in violation.
This is NOT what the legislature had in mind.