Waging war against legal business

I’m not certain why we allow tobacco farming in the United States. While it farms beautifully, smells great at harvest, and employs many thousands of workers it seems to be harmful when used as intended. Yet we allow the product to be produced, distributed and sold. We tax it at very high levels, enact controls so that adults and not children purchase it, and then sue the manufacturers after buying and using it by choice. I can’t imagine that cycle happening with any other product but I am fearful for some.

After cotton was king, oil surely was. And unlike tobacco oil is not pretty in the fields nor does it smell that great at “harvest.” Yet like tobacco it is a legal product, controlled all along the exploration to refinement and distribution chain and taxed at multiple points.

Some even say oil is addictive. Whether or no it certainly is an integral part of our lifestyle. Yet so was tobacco. Early Hollywood movie tough guys could say more by shaking out a cigarette and lighting it in the face of danger than many of today’s “stars” can manage with million dollar scripts, animation and retakes.

Oil is blamed for wars, oil companies are “blamed” for producing a profit, and the product itself is thought by some to have the earth in a warming death spiral. It is probably high time to sue the oil companies. If smoking gives you lung cancer I am quite certain driving gives me a bigger backside, which contributes to poor heart health for which the manufacturers of the addictive oil must be liable.

But that lawsuit will have to wait. Right now we have sand to deal with. An Idaho Company, American Ecology, known for its cleanup and storage expertise has landed a contract to do exactly that - receive and expertly handle tons of radioactive sand. Rather than cheer the technology and reputation of an Idaho company for landing this contract, there are those trying to stop the train.

The Idaho Statesman has called for our state leaders to “speak up on behalf of Idahoans who don’t want their state to be known as an atomic landfill.”

Did we not know this is the type of work this company does? We granted them a business license, as we do tobacco shops and gasoline stations, fertilizer companies and feedlots. Perhaps in the future we should consider the type of work a business is seeking to do before we allow them to set up shop in Idaho. Buck Knives makes products that could cut people, Cabela’s sells guns that could shoot a wolf, we know that McDonalds’ coffee is hot and can burn if worn. Do we need to stop these companies at the border?

Waging war against companies and their legal products and services is not good economic development, in the U.S. or in Idaho.