Should Tobacco be banned?

Yes it is.

Banning almost anything that is between one or more sane, consenting adult(s) should be banned.

cpgrad08 said:

Yes it is.

Click to expand...

Yes it is what?

No. It's just bad policy. Bans don't work. They enable underground markets to demand huge profits, and trigger violence.


Also, tobacco usage is at the lowest level ever in the U.S. and falling (link). You don't have to ban something to discourage it.


Unless we want people getting shot over illegal tobacco sales, let's pretend we've already learned this lesson.

I previously would have said no but I've recently had more experience with what addiction can do to me that makes me question whether or not such a thing actually constitutes a personal "choice" to begin with.

Cant vote, I want a drastic reduction in tobacco taxes and regulations.

Who makes these polls?

Hawkeye10 said:

Cant vote, I want a drastic reduction in tobacco taxes and regulations.

Who makes these polls?

Click to expand...

I wanna spend fewer tax dollars paying medical bills for smokers :shrug:

Tobacco companies are legal drug cartels.

SCitizen said:

"Freedoms" such as smoking are very close to assisted suicide. Life has value.

Click to expand...

Do you think that your take on the value of life should be reflected in the law? Should it be against the law to do things you think people shouldn't do?

SCitizen said:

Tobacco products shorten the lives of 480,000 people a year in USA alone. On average a smoker loses 10 -- 15 years of life. About 264 billion cigarettes and 12.4 billion large cigars are sold yearly in USA.

Tobacco is illegal in Bhutan. In Russia, sale of tobacco was punished severely during the years 1550 -- 1700.

Click to expand...

We don't have enough reasons to throw people in jail as it is? We gotta make some more?

SCitizen said:

Tobacco products shorten the lives of 480,000 people a year in USA alone. On average a smoker loses 10 -- 15 years of life. About 264 billion cigarettes and 12.4 billion large cigars are sold yearly in USA.

Tobacco is illegal in Bhutan. In Russia, sale of tobacco was punished severely during the years 1550 -- 1700.

Click to expand...

A fabrication, obvious because they dont bother to attempt to nail down a number. I did some research a few years back, it appears that the real number is less than 1 year if we stop by age 40, about 4 if we smoke for life. If I liked smoking I very well might decide that is worth it, especially since I might be part of the 15-30% who will suffer not all all because of good genetics.

Fishking said:

We don't have enough reasons to throw people in jail as it is? We gotta make some more?

Click to expand...

Seriously.And it's always conservatives advocating more laws and limiting freedom. The same conservatives who declare that they want smaller government will jump at making a new law against something, anything.

You can have my cigars when you pry them from my cold, dead, stinking hands.

not unless fast food is banned

I smoked like a chimney, but when they lowered my mother into her grave without her legs, and watching the last couple of years of her life, I swore I wasn't going to end up like her, it was a battle but I gave up and never looked back, and my legs are OK.

BrewerBob said:

You can have my cigars when you pry them from my cold, dead, stinking hands.

Click to expand...

Taking my Genuine Counterfeit Cuban Cigars would be a declaration of war as far as I am concerned. Cry havoc and set loose the hounds of hell!!! Viva La Cigars!!!!!!!!:devil:

Grand Mal said:

Seriously.And it's always conservatives advocating more laws and limiting freedom. The same conservatives who declare that they want smaller government will jump at making a new law against something, anything.

Click to expand...

Its not conservatives per say or liberals per say either. Its the authoritarians or those with the authoritarian bent . Most conservatives I know want a lot less laws and regulations. Like 90% less. Similarly with liberals. Live and live it the word amongst them.

If you take all the things that reduce your life expectancy, I should have died fifty years ago.

Forty years ago our chief of police asked me to sit in with him on a meeting with two anti-smoking people. My job was to see that he didn't get carried away and agree to something he would regret. The meeting started with the two representatives making a speech, not unlike to OP, during which they said they didn't want to ban tobacco. Then they went on with what they did want which was far less obsessive than the situation now. When the meeting was wrapping up one of the men said, "Well, it's a start."

"And, the finish?" Blank stares. "You said it's a start. What is the finish?" They refused to speak.

So, we moved to Kafka's world, or LibWorld. In our city, for example, it was illegal to smoke outside within 25 feet of a window. "What is the window doesn't open?" "Doesn't matter. People don't want to see you smoking." Well, golly, yes. No smoking in a bar. "What if the owner and the customers want to smoke?" No, there might be people who work in the bar who don't like it. "They can work in a no-smoking bar." No, there might be customers who want to go to that bar and don't want smoking. "They can go somewhere else." NO! Our city ordinances had a mandatory $25 fine for smoking a joint in a bar but a mandatory $250 fine for smoking tobacco until the newspaper showed an interest.

I didn't answer the poll because the current situation involves a lot of restrictions. In some places you can't smoke in a car if there are kids in the car. All the windows open? Doesn't matter. In some places you can't smoke on the beach, in a car, on a sidewalk downtown.

I don't smoke but I'm not a liberal who gets a woody banning things. If I were, I'd ban liberals. They're bad not only for your health--consider Detroit and Chicago--but a pox on happiness.

I was surprised to OP cited Russia in the sixteenth century. Russia, the USSR, was much more popular with the nanny state as it was in 1957.

SCitizen said:

Before 1960s, many people in USA who had harmful habits were involuntarily committed to institutions.

Click to expand...

Ah, yes, the good old days for liberals. Different vices, same mindset.

There was the time where people guilty of adultery had to wear a scarlet A on their clothing. There was a time in American when witches were tortured and killed. Smoking is banned in bars but there were a time when blacks were banned from some bars and women were banned from all bars.

Imagine a man frozen before death to be brought back when a cure for what ails him has been found. It was 160 years later when he woke up, cured. He thanked the doctors, hugged the nurses, and said, "I'm starving. I want a steak."

"Oh, dear, no. Meat been outlawed for 120 years."
"No steaks?" "No, not even hamburgers." "Well, I'll go see my family." "Sorry. They're gone. They were all euthanized. The government determined they weren't really happy so we cured them of their depression. Some of the poor people went to the hospital screaming that they were happy."

"No family. No one. It's hard to believe." "Don't feel bad. Most people don't have family." "They don't have children?" "Oh, no, not without permission from the government. They aren't even allowed to have sex with prior written approval from the state. Once the state grants approval the Department of Romance arranges a spontaneous sexual encounter for the lucky couple and provides legal witnesses to insure that neither party changes their mind at the last moment." "I can't believe their luck."

"I beginning to wish I hadn't been kept alive." "Oh, you are lucky. You don't seem happy. We can cure that."

"No, no, I'm happy. I was just joking." "Sorry, jokes aren't allowed. Someone might sometime somewhere be offended so jokes have been outlawed."

"What a great idea. Can I go now?"
"After cuirfew? Are you joking again?"

SCitizen said:

Tobacco products shorten the lives of 480,000 people a year in USA alone. On average a smoker loses 10 -- 15 years of life. About 264 billion cigarettes and 12.4 billion large cigars are sold yearly in USA.

Tobacco is illegal in Bhutan. In Russia, sale of tobacco was punished severely during the years 1550 -- 1700.

Click to expand...

How the hell can you label yourself as a conservative yet want to "ban" all kinds of crap????

:roll:

Good lord man....you're borderline fascist.

Grand Mal said:

Seriously.And it's always conservatives advocating more laws and limiting freedom. The same conservatives who declare that they want smaller government will jump at making a new law against something, anything.

Click to expand...

This is satire, right?

countryboy said:

This is satire, right?

Click to expand...

It's not even satire. It's just LibSpeak. You know, "Shut up. We have free speech but you're offending someone." Don't you remember the conservative governor of New York State who said there was no place in New York State for conservatives? Don't you remember the conservatives banning Happy Meals in a city in California and another conservative banning Big Gulps in New York. And, the ever popular banning it out of existence. High taxes of soda, cigarettes, and alcohol and taxpayer funded abortions.

When Colorado was considering a $2 a pack tax on cigarettes I was smoking. I bought a carton of cigarettes at the neighborhood grocery and the clerk said, "What are you going to do when we get our tobacco tax?"
"I'll probably buy my cigarettes in Wyoming. That's where I buy my gas now. But, what are you going to do when we get our fat tax?"
"What?"
"Our fat tax. Fat people cost us a lot of money, reduce their life expectancy, take up too much room on airline seats, and just look terrible. I'd say you're toting an extra $460 a month in fat there."

All of a suddenly he lost interest in her sin taxes.

countryboy said:

This is satire, right?

Click to expand...

Not a bit.
Every time liberals fight for rights and freedoms, it's conservatives they fight against. Recently it was gay marriage. A dent is being made in drug laws. The next big one might be assisted suicide.
Face it. Every right you enjoy was fought for by liberals, against conservatives.

Grand Mal said:

Not a bit.
Every time liberals fight for rights and freedoms, it's conservatives they fight against. Recently it was gay marriage. A dent is being made in drug laws. The next big one might be assisted suicide.
Face it. Every right you enjoy was fought for by liberals, against conservatives.

Click to expand...

Gimme a freaking break.