Whoa! Hold your horses on tobacco ban

We're tired of seeing Big Tobacco ride the Greeley Stampede like one of the bucking bulls we love to watch every summer. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco is digging in its spurs by threatening to pull its rodeo scoreboard if the Greeley City Council bans the free samples the organization loves to give out. It's a serious threat, a bully tactic that big businesses with lots of power and money like to use.

But a council ban would take the reins out of the Stampede officials' hands and, quite frankly, we think we should give them a chance to buck off this cowboy themselves.

That's why we're saying the Greeley City Council should hold off on banning the free samples for now. That decision is expected at tonight's meeting.

It's certainly tempting to endorse a ban, and we've done so in the past.

Tobacco is a deadly, disgusting product that hooks users quickly into buying something that can kill them even if they use it moderately. Nothing else -- not fried Twinkies, fast cars or alcohol -- kills with such moderate use.

Greeley has led the way in controlling tobacco use as one of the first cities in the state to adopt a public smoking ban. The fact that U.S. Smokeless Tobacco continues to fight to give out samples that are intended to attract young adults to use its product is a slap in the face of Greeley's values.

After all, thousands of voters, not just a few members on the city council, approved the smoking ban.

So while it's tempting to tell the council to approve a ban and just be done with it, the problem with such a hard line (as we now see it) is U.S. Smokeless Tobacco could simply pull its scoreboard and leave the Stampede in a half-million-dollar hole without any chance for its officials to work out the problem on their own.

OK, so here's your chance, Stampede officials. We're strongly encouraging you to work something out with U.S. Smokeless Tobacco. Greeley wants no part of free tobacco samples. But we also think you have more power than you think.

The opportunities for products like chewing tobacco to advertise in a well-respected venue such as the Stampede are rare these days. You won't see chewing tobacco advertised on TV. Frankly, we'd be surprised if U.S. Smokeless Tobacco pulled out of the Stampede just because it couldn't give out samples any longer. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco needs events like the Stampede and the tens of thousands of spectators it attracts every year.

Not only that, but the nationally known Stampede is Greeley's biggest event of the year, and we'd be willing to bet that other sponsors would love to have their name attached to such a visible icon and pony up for another scoreboard. It's also possible someone such as the Monfort Foundation would put up the money for a scoreboard.

We'd suggest Stampede officials explore other alternatives like those. It would give them some serious leverage in their discussions with U.S. Smokeless Tobacco.

If the Stampede does nothing, well, we've got our own hard line. If free samples are passed out at next summer's event, we'd ask the Greeley City Council to revisit the issue and come back with a ban, and if U.S. Smokeless Tobacco decides to leave as a result, we'll be the first to suggest other sponsors be found and that a community fund-raiser be started to pay for a new scoreboard.

We know that doesn't leave you with a lot of time to work something out, Stampede, but then again, bulls only get eight seconds to buck off those annoying cowboys digging in their spurs.

«What's Next:

The Greeley City Council will decide on a proposed free tobacco sampling ban when it meets at 6:30 tonight in council chambers, 919 7th St., Greeley.