Thread: Smoking

It's been a while since I started a thread... figured this one would spark some debate that doesn't involve China and its territiories >_> ... I feel like New York State is on its way to ban smoking outright. The campaigning to stop people from doing it are more pervasive and hardcore:

http://gothamist.com/2008/04/17/health_departme_5.php
TV Commercial: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/smo...ltimedia.shtml
NY Times Article: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...dont-smoke-ad/

Like most smokers, Marie started smoking as a teenager. She developed Buerger’s disease, a condition that narrows arteries, reducing blood flow to the arms and legs. She has lost portions of most fingers, as well as a leg and a part of one foot. In the ads, Marie describes the pain she has endured and explains how her disability keeps her from doing even simple tasks. She also recounts how it affected her relationships with loved ones. “The light burned out in my kitchen and I can’t even change it,” she says. “My daughters might even have been embarrassed [by] what I was starting to look like. At one point, I wasn’t even living. I was just alive.”

... and with the ban on them in restaurants, clubs, hell basically any indoor space, followed by the ban of smoking near entrances to buildings has me thinking that the next logical step will be to outright ban their use in the city. Taxes on cigarettes make up almost a third or more of their ~$8 pricetag since the government seems to think that severely increasing the price will cause smokers to think twice about their habit. A good strategy I guess.

I guess with some recent issues I considered it which is why its on my mind, since technically it is still legal and unfortunately the age limit is 18 (19 out here in Suffolk County)... but I know my grandmothers twin sister died from smoking and her autopsy showed her lungs the color of asphalt (something that scared her sister, a smoker of almost fifty years to quit on the spot), and my neighbor here at school is a chain smoker, going out to hit two at a time at least five times a day now (he sorta quit for a couple of weeks, but now he's backsliding)

But what do you guys think. Should this be one of those things where its "live and let die by lung cancer asshole" and mind your own business or should someone be actively stopping people from doing it like in Prohibition? If they tried would it even work? What if they made cigarettes like porn and just stuck it all the way in the back of the stores behind curtians like they were something to be hidden from children? Thoughts?

It's impossible to ban smoking outright, just as it was impossible to ban alcohol during prohibition times.

Rather the problem must be attacked indirectly, i.e. by taxing the tobacco companies to death and yanking any and all subsidies from tobacco farmers. This would drive up tobacco prices which basically is the surest way to lower consumption. Naturally this would also require high tariffs on imported tobacco.

And this would also have the nice side effect of bankrupting several companies that make a profit out of the misery of others.

Prohibition would be really good.
But people are weak and it will never endure...

But it should be banned every in public, even on the streets.

Um, I think taxes make up more than a third. I pay around a $1.50 per pack. I guess it's the joy of living in a third world.

I have nothing against the banning of smoking in public areas, or stopping people from smoking around kids. That's fine. For the rest, bugger off. My grandfather died, pretty much from smoking. I also got an uncle that died. I reckon alcohol had a fair bit to do with that. It's a pretty slippery slope if you want to stop everyone from smoking. How many people die each year from alcohol related car accidents? How many people die from arteries clogged by fatty foods? How much control should the government have over what people are allowed to do?

I smoke. I like it. I also know that I am addicted. So it goes. The average age at death world wide for smokers is around 20yrs more than the average at at death for people living in South Africa. I could really care less about the health impact. I know exactly what smoking does to my health. I am not doing this in ignorance. It is a choice that I've made.

^ I perfectly agree with Stuy there.
It's a choice smokers make. Who CARES? The world has bigger problems than 'prohibiting smoking' and ' making people choose the right path' kinda thing. This should be the last on their list of concerns at the moment.

Smoking should remain legal.
And I'm not even a smoker.

^who cares? Ever hear of second hand smoke?

That's what "smokers' areas" are for.
Plus,

I have nothing against the banning of smoking in public areas, or stopping people from smoking around kids.

I said I agreed. So before making comments you should read what I agreed to.
But the gorvernment is pushing things beyond this to stop people from smoking.

And even so...they STILL have bigger problems. Forget our personal health. The whole WORLD is rotting because of pollution. And that affects all of us on a larger scale plus other species of animals etc etc..

Originally Posted by dna2playboy

^who cares? Ever hear of second hand smoke?

Well considering smoking is banned in almost all public places where I live already, I've almost forgotten what that is. Then again, I'm reminded of the fact that almost everyone in any major city in the world has to live with something far, far more threatening that second-hand smoke coming from someone on the sidewalk: car exhaust.

You can't step outside almost anywhere in the continental United States without breathing in invisible, "odorless" poison. As far as I'm concerned, there's no reason to try and ban the owning of tobacco products if we're all breathing in tons of smog in our lives.

Besides, I can't open a comic book, turn on a television, or listen to the radio without someone either telling me that tobacco companies are evil and/or advertising their new cure for smoking addiction. You can't advertise cigarettes on television. You can't advertise them in anything remotely close to child-aimed material. You can't even say "smoking" in a game, song, or movie without it being noted by someone; and that someone often puts a label on the medium warning you that tobacco is mentioned.

Yes, tobacco is a bad thing. Yes, I believe it should riggedly banned from all public institutions. In the end, though, a privately owned bar shouldn't be told that no patron may smoke anywhere within or near the building for fear of a fine - when the people inside are free to willingly drink poison to their heart's content.

Originally Posted by sakura_hana

That's what "smokers' areas" are for.
Plus,

I said I agreed. So before making comments you should read what I agreed to.
But the gorvernment is pushing things beyond this to stop people from smoking.

And even so...they STILL have bigger problems. Forget our personal health. The whole WORLD is rotting because of pollution. And that affects all of us on a larger scale plus other species of animals etc etc..

You're viewing this matter from a too narrow perspective.

If someone chooses to smoke and ruin his health it will affect everyone, because the treatment that longtime smokers will eventually need leeches good money from the entire welfare system.

So why the fuck should I stand idle and see my tax money go to lung cancer treatment for something that's essentially completely preventable? Why should I not try to reduce or eliminate smoking to free all those resources for more productive use? And this is only one of the many and varied extra costs that widespread smoking causes for society.

It is therefore obvious that reducing or eliminating smoking would be better not only for the smokers themselves, but also for society at large.

^ http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/337/15/1052

So we STILL have bigger problems than this.^__^
Like how America refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol!!
yeah....