70% of U.S. smokers want to quit! Let's just kill this airbourne disease & outlaw smoking for good.

I find the fact that people were actually willing to choose to inhale toxic chemical compounds which consumed under large enough amounts would cause an instant death to be an absolute dissaster in human evolution.

Look at all the ingredients in those death sticks:

quitsmoking.about.com...

Smoking is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths in the United States.
More than 1 in 5 people in the U.S. are smokers.
Smokers don't find themselves to be bad people, but the numbers add up for them to be murderers:
www.cancer.org...




[edit on 28-11-2006 by realanswers]

[edit on 28-11-2006 by realanswers]

And where did you pull that statistic?

I will admit that someday I will quit, but right now - no. It's on my list, but I'm not there yet. Many smaller goals to work on before tackling that issue.

Originally posted by Diseria
And where did you pull that statistic?

It's from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2004 report(the most recent year for which numbers are available):
www.cancer.org...

The government is making a lot of money from the taxes of the death sticks.

Has this society dropped so low as to put a price(cigarette taxes) on the lives of its people?

It is a persons right to smoke if they so choose, and to make any legislation against this right is a gross abuse of power on the government's part. If I choose to smoke than thats my business, not yours.

Originally posted by realanswers Has this society dropped so low as to put a price(cigarette taxes) on the lives of its people?

In one word: YES.

Neverminding cigarettes for a moment, the fact that many people sacrifice their passions for a (supposedly better) paycheck is answer enough.

We're taxed on everything -- be it good or bad. Taxes abound. People were paying for me before I was born, and will pay for me after I die, as with each person.

'Tis what happens in a capitalist/consumer society.


Edited to add: Besides this, I cannot abide by people telling me that smoking WILL, without a single doubt, give me cancer or kill me. To conclude this, tests must be done to prove that NOTHING ELSE caused the cancer/death *but* smoking.

Not pollution, not bomb tests, not poisoned food and water, not plastic.... the list of possible cancer-causing agents goes on and on.

To point to smoking as the singular cause is illogical, and defies science.

I will not debate that it's bad -- I knew that when I started, and I feel it everytime I walk quickly, or go up flights of stairs. I'm not debating that at all.
I am debating whether it's absolutely thee cause of cancer/death -- simply because the person smoked does not automatically negate all other possibilities.

[edit on 28-11-2006 by Diseria]

Originally posted by Nihilist Fiend
It is a persons right to smoke if they so choose, and to make any legislation against this right is a gross abuse of power on the government's part. If I choose to smoke than thats my business, not yours.

You make the people around you have to breath in your cancer. If you do it away from people, it is only considered a type of long term suicide. But, if you do it around people, then it should be considered to be breaking a number of laws with the most severve being murder. We aren't even talking about the impact in human evolution and the environment.
How illogical can people get as to think that causing health problems and deaths are none of those people's business?


[edit on 28-11-2006 by realanswers]

Yea buddy, lets ban tobacco just like we did alcohol....oh wait, prohibition made tons of money for the bad guys, Just ask ol' Joe Kennedy. Perhaps we can ban it like we have illegal drugs, that way the Colombian Kingpins will have another product to be making billions off of.

Smoking is going the way of the dinosaur, all it will take is a little time.

We don't need to outlaw it because that 30% that wants to smoke and is their right to smoke. It's rather simple, it's their choice.

What is worse, cigarette smoking, or abortion?
Which one do you think will be outlawed first?

Originally posted by mrwupy
Yea buddy, lets ban tobacco just like we did alcohol....oh wait, prohibition made tons of money for the bad guys, Just ask ol' Joe Kennedy. Perhaps we can ban it like we have illegal drugs, that way the Colombian Kingpins will have another product to be making billions off of.

Smoking is going the way of the dinosaur, all it will take is a little time.

I do agree that the smokers should have enough time to quit, but they don't need to smoke indoors. There is a lot of harmful things out there that affect health, but it's the smoking that envolves one person harming another person.

Originally posted by realanswersI do agree that the smokers should have enough time to quit, but they don't need to smoke indoors. There is a lot of harmful things out there that affect health, but it's the smoking that envolves one person harming another person.

and like I said.. without proving that all other possible causes *are NOT* the causes of cancer/death, you cannot say that smoking definitely brings harm to other people. (might make 'em smell bad, or sneeze.. maybe if they've got asthma or something.. In those cases, if they are polite to me, I'm respectful.)

A nation wide ban on smoking will never happen. Let's go ahead and forget the massive tobacco lobby in this country and just concentrate on the average americans reaction when it comes to a "big brother" type directive.

Americans don't for the most part like being told what to do, we usually understand the big ones murder is bad, paying taxes is what a good citizen does, dont mix recyclables with lawn waist and so on, but the minute you start telling an american that you are making a personal decision for them it will nine out of ten times rub that american the wrong way.

You can't stop smoking with a ban all you do is drive it underground. As mentioned before prohibition made alcohol a massive black market and crooked politicians made more money off of graft during prohibition than they ever would have if it had never been declared illegal.

Education, a restructuring of the lobby industry and within in a few generations smoking, at least in america might and I say might become a thing of the past.

Worldwide the tobacco industry is just massive and they certainly have no intention of going into the pen making business.

Do you have any idea how much money big tobacco makes in countries like India and Russia? A lot.

The government cant proclaim that a citizen cannot smoke in their own home.

Do you expect neighbors to call the police when they smell cigarette smoke?

Do you really think the police want to waste time arresting people or writing tickets for smoking cigarettes in their home?

You can't solve the problem by declaring it illegal.

Figure out how to tackle the tobacco industry...and that brings us back to the lobbying industry it's a vicious cycle.

And if you really want to talk harmful things, I can't think of anything more dangerous than a big group of smokers going cold turkey.

God I need a cigarette...that's better.

Spiderj

Edit to add: In this past midterm election here in california there was an initiative on the ballot to increase the tax on cigarettes that was somewhere around three to four dollars that, depending on where you live, would raise the price of a pack to anywhere between eight and twelve dollars...it didnt pass in fact it didn't pass by a very large margin and this is california.



[edit on 11/28/2006 by Spiderj]

As has been said a person has a right to smoke, if you don't want
to be aorund it, go somewhere else, as it stands right now nearly
every bar, restaurant and building has a smoking and non-smoking
section, it's your choice if you go into the smoking section.

What I, or anyone else does to their own body is there business,
not the governments, and certainly not yours.

If you do it away from people, it is only considered a type of long term suicide. But, if you do it around people, then it should be considered to be breaking a number of laws with the most severve being murder. We aren't even talking about the impact in human evolution and the environment.
How illogical can people get as to think that causing health problems and deaths are none of those people's business?

It's not long term suicide, suicide is defined as actively taking your
own life, that is wanting to die.

As I said, if you don't want to be around cigarette smoke, move
away from it.

Screw evolution, the individual is what is important, not the group.
Aslo, smoking does not real damage to the environment, true it
releases some greenhouse gasses, but the amount of cigarette
smoke produce annualy planet wide is incredibly small when it
comes to the environment.

What's illogical is the person who does'nt want to be around
cigarette smoke going somewhere where there is smoking
going on.

Originally posted by thexsword
We don't need to outlaw it because that 30% that wants to smoke and is their right to smoke. It's rather simple, it's their choice.

What is worse, cigarette smoking, or abortion?
Which one do you think will be outlawed first?

It makes absolutely no sense to force your body to go through that and put a manmade limit on your age. Specially, when we are living in a time of increased knowledge, great scientific breakthroughs in anti-aging, and body enhancements.

We shouldn't have to make so many smoking bans. Smokers should be considerate to others and only smoke in private places. And that doesn't mean smoking at entrances of public places where people have to pass through!

Smokers should be considerate to others and only smoke in private places. And that doesn't mean smoking at entrances of public places where people have to pass through!

Quite frankly its usually the whining of the anti-smokers that make us want to smoke in front of them.

You can't tell an american that they aren't allowed to smoke on the street no one would ever vote for that.

It's a slippery slope, what else is the government going to decide is bad for me.

No more casual (but oh so responsible) sex because it may or may not be bad for me?

Can't eat that burrito there's cheese and sour cream in there it may kill you...eventually.

What about books that may or may not put thoughts in my head the government considers detremental to my mental and physical well being.

How about mandatory morning excercises and to make sure every citizen does them the government can install cameras and monitors in every home just to make sure that we care about ourselves as much as the government does.

Do the words double-plus good mean anything to you?

ANd of course we all know how well that whole ban on marijuana is going. Thank god it's illegal or americans might actually smoke that stuff.

Spiderj

Indeed, increased knowledge... increased supressed knowledge...


Let us increase our knowledge:

url=http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/therap.htm]BENEFITS of smoking![/url]

Smoking itself, will always be legal. The government makes too much money off of this to ban it and allow someone else to turn a profit.

What we may see in the not too distant future is smoking banned in any public area. I believe that, in the future, smokers are going to be forced to light up in their own home, and nowhere else.

I'm going to start walking around with bags of extra steamy, stinky manuer which I will suppliment with heaps of sulfer...adds flavor to the scent. I'm going to stand next to people in puplic, by doorways, in hallways and other places of human congestion. If anybody starts to complaine about my stench well then screw them they're aholes. It's my right to be rude, and thoughtless to others and damn it thats what I'm going to do. Theirs no law against it.

I'm also going to walk down the street in nothing but old krusty underware. It's legal, no law against it. If people don't like looking at my sweaty blob of a torso and my streachmarks well then their fasicsts and aholes.

The point is that even though you live in society with everybody else their are things concidered improprietus. AND if it's not other peoples buisness what we do, even though it directly effects them unfairly, then well, it's a slippery slope isn't it.

Originally posted by Spiderj

And if you really want to talk harmful things, I can't think of anything more dangerous than a big group of smokers going cold turkey.


[edit on 11/28/2006 by Spiderj]

I rather see the smokers' true criminal character come to life to show how they don't care about human life to the generations to come.
The 30% of willing to not quit-stubborn gas passers is only about 1.4 million people.
Sorry, the 1.4 million air breathingly challenged can't hold up to the 298 million other people in the U.S. in votes or in a fight.

It makes absolutely no sense to force your body to go through that and put a manmade limit on your age. Specially, when we are living in a time of increased knowledge, great scientific breakthroughs in anti-aging, and body enhancements.

I like the idea of body enhancements I especialy like looking at those enhancements on women. But back to the point. Smoking is a horrible habbit. It is as tough to quit smoking as it is to get off of heroin. I am a smoker I wish that I didnt smoke. I try every once and a while to quit and boy howdy am I a jack ass when I do.

Smoking is every persons right. I believe that if you want to poison yourself thats fine and I do see your point too non smokers shouldent have to deal with second hand smoke. That is why most restaraunts in this country have gotten rid of the smoking section of their restaraunts.

The point of my post is that smoking will eventualy die out. people are quitting every day and its becoming harder and harder to light up anywhere in the us anymore. Eventualy us smokers will give up the cold and come inside with a patch on and a sack of hard candy.

But it won't be because the government told them it will be their choice.