Congressman Duncan Hunter of San Diego County wants to put the kibosh on the Navy's plan to ban tobacco sales on ships and exchanges.
According to the Military Times, Hunter sponsored an amendment attached to the $601 billion defense bill that would...
....[forbid] defense officials from enacting “any new policy that would limit, restrict, or ban the sale of any legal consumer product category” on military installations.
As Home Post reported in March, Navy officials are considering a ban on the sale of tobacco products on ships and exchanges as a way of improving the "culture of fitness" in the service. As Navy Secretary Ray Mabus wrote in a 2012 memo:
“Tobacco use is the most avoidable public health hazard in the Navy and Marine Corps."
But smoking is a pleasure for the "battle-hardened" sailor or Marine, Hunter argued to his colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee Thursday morning, and troops are adults who should be allowed to decide whether or not they want to buy a known carcinogen.
No word on whether it's a pleasure for the taxpayer who must foot the bill when said sailor or Marine gets lung, mouth, lip, nose, sinus, larynx, throat, or esophageal cancer.
Hunter's amendment passed the House Armed Services Committee 53-9. Yay?
