It’s the policy that drew comparisons to over-bearing parenting and prohibition: Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s large soda ban.
It was scheduled to go into effect beginning today, but before it could, New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling struck it down yesterday afternoon.
The ban would have prohibited the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces at stores, restaurants, and food carts regulated by the city. Violating the policy would have resulted in a $200 fine.
Now that it’s been struck down, some New Yorkers are rejoicing, and others are wondering why it received so much opposition in the first place.
Ronald Bayer is a professor at the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University. He thinks the judge made a mistake in striking down the soda ban.
But Georgianna Donadio thinks the ban would not have worked. She’s a behavioral health researcher and educator and the author of “Changing Behavior.”