Should Smoking Be Banned?

As there are pages of reading on this topic, I apologize in advance if someone has already stated what I am about to say. I am not here to say smoking is healthy as I believe it does cause health problems. I am however against the fact that smokers are looked upon as drug addicts and undesirable people. Why is alcohol looked upon as a better way to go. Nobody seems offended by someone who drinks, but if you smoke, you are "evil". I can't exactly argue which is internally more harmful to the body, smoking or drinking, although I guess they are both quite dangerous. My thought is this: I've never heard of anyone smoking a cigarette and then killing someone from rage. Never have I heard of two teens smoking tobacco, and accidentally getting pregnant because their minds were gone. Never heard of a domestic dispute caused by a person enraged by tobacco use. Never heard of a situation of a "tobacco" driver killing an innocent child while driving under the influence of a cigarette. The list can go on, argue if you like about second hand smoke, but nobody smokes near non smokers anymore. But drunk people can be anywhere, and they do murder, rape, kill by driving, etc. Just think about that next time, tobacco isn't mind altering, but when people get drunk, lots of innocent people die. My two cents.

On most Marine bases I've been on, there is a rule that you must be 50 ft. from any enterance/exit to a building if you're going to be smoking. I smoke like a chimney AND I also use smokeless tobbacco. Long live the tobbacco users...er, as long as the tobbacco will supposedly allow you to live...or something like that.

Smoke, or do whatever....

Who cares?

And do not judge lest ye be judged. (means don't do it, if you don't want others to do it to you) - ok, maybe you know that, but some young people may not know that because they have not been taught anything.

Why do people think it is OK to judge others? I don't think so....

reply to post by prototism


Do i have the right to go to a pub or a club without the risk of being assaulted by a drunken yob? Drinking is more of a danger to the public, do you see any anti-social behaviour due to smoking. Ban smoking and i bet more people drink more to try to make up for it. Alcohol rots your liver and causes many deaths a year and is resposible for many Accident and Emergency rooms being full when the NHS is already stretched for resources.

another thought. I hate it when ill people with cold and flu are coughing just about on me - can we get a ban in place for that? No, because it would be impossible e yet still as deadly to an OAP or people with a bad immune sysytem.

[edit on 11-1-2009 by MCoG1980]

reply to post by jfj123




OK. let's have a last smoke and.........OH THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!

You know better?

This is ridiculous, how much farther are non-smokers going to push? No smoking in a public building...ok I'll give you the whole restaurant and the whole mall and the whole plane. I'll smoke in the tiny little glass room in the airport that makes all smokers look like some kind of zoo exhibit. Fine. If you're not a smoker, I wont smoke in MY car, or MY house while you are in it.

But banning it entirely? Come on! The air is already filled with chemicals and carcinogens, and you don't complain about that just because you don't get a bunch of propaganda thrown at you every day against air. Instead you blame the smokers that got out of your way and now you want all the space outside too?

This isn't about second hand smoke, because if you don't like it you can move. This is about taking one more little freedom of choice away. Just like with the "trans fat" business and the anti-sugar movement.

Enough is enough.

reply to post by Anti - Government

Does it realy matter for the smokers? Addiction is hard to give up. But if one is determined to kick out the habit he can do it. I read here www.samrx.com... it is possible to quit the habit naturally and with the help of medicines.




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reply to post by Anti - Government


Instead of banning cigarettes, I personally feel they should just tax them to high heaven. Or make them available only through prescription or something. If you ban them, the poor saps who are addicted are just going to end up criminals. It wouldnt be fair to the people who became addicted when it was perfectly legal for them to get hooked in. Ban them in all public places, and tax the crap out of them. Make stop smoking drugs easily and cheaply available to the poor at reasonable prices or through public programs to help people quit, and let nature take its course. Make quitting smoking easier than continuing, but dont out law it.

And thats not easy to do, because smoking is one addictive habit. Been there done that.

double post.

reply to post by prototism


that reminds me i need to follow you and your family to the local park so i can smoke around you.

Explanation: Yep smoking cost society heaps! [OL is a avid smoker and knows because he's paying for it in more ways than one!]

I did note...

More than two billion fewer cigarettes were smoked and 400,000 people quit the habit since the ban was introduced a year ago, which researchers say will prevent 40,000 deaths over the next 10 years.

So its a time [10yrs] and amount thing [40,000 lives] as opposed to say preventing deaths permenantly... and its a guess anyway as, if say any of the 2012 armageddon scenerio's happen and 2/3rds of earths population is wiped out, then said researched outcome wouldn't be realized!

Personal Disclsoure: Childhood Education and the whole baby thing cost society heaps as well and I would think that since I am NEVER having kids EVER and that they too are a massive problem and don't benefit me in any way shape or form [just like smoking ] that we should have a tit for tat banning! I stop smoking... you stop having kids and compensate me for the ones you have had and I'll compensate you for your medical bills that arise from my smoking! Fair is Fair eh!

Or show me exactly how you having kids benefits me NOW..not in 5, 10 or 50 yrs time and I will then try to do the same with my smoking and how it benefits you right now etc!

Its simple if smoking is banned then literally EVERYTHING that could be harmful should also be banned. Driving, flying, sports, red meat, every "fast food" TV, movies, guns, trains, books, knives, sharp corners, combs, every drug ever made, water, swimming etc

Every single thing you do could kill you. Your question seems crazy now , doesn't it?