Massachusetts Proposal Would Ban All Sodas From Restaurants

While much of the country has ridiculed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his ban on large sugary drinks, Cambridge officials have proposed going one step further and banning all sodas from restaurants. People will of course be able to buy shots of alcohol and fried food items. However, the request for a coke would be turned down as a matter of public health.

The city council resolution states that “the City Manager be and hereby is requested to refer the matter of a ban on soda and sugar-sweetened beverages in restaurants to the Cambridge Public Health Department for a recommendation.”

I have previously expressed why I view such measures as the start down a slippery slope of government regulation of the lifestyle choices of adults. I do believe that people have a right to make bad choices and drinking soda is fairly low on the list of vices in my view.

Mayor Henrietta Davis fulfilled the stereotype of a liberal nanny state, observing that “It seems like the way we have to go . . . look at the temptations that are out there for people. See if that can be easier on all of us by not having bottomless pits of soda.” Is that now the function of a mayor in Cambridge? To look at the temptations out there for citizens? Under that approach, Cambridge will be busy banning fried foods, large servings, alcohol, and other temptations before moving on to pornography, reckless Internet dating, and bungee jumping.

John Adams must be spinning in his grave.

Source: CBS