If smoking is so bloody bad for you then why not just make it flippin illegal?

Question

What happened to human rights yes non smokers have the right to not inhale our second hand smoke from ciggaretts but smokers should have the same right to smoke were they like. we pay more tax than non smokers so why does the government want us to quit so bad it would be their loss.

Answer 1

i am a smoker the government dont want us to stop but thay must be seen to advise us on the danger (nanny state yet again) but i do wish that one day all of the UK stop buy smokes,petrol,etc then the government would feel the effects ie NOT TAX coming in then hope fully thay will leave us alone and let us make our own dissions for once

Answer 2

First of all, it might not be to the financial advantage of the government to ban cigarettes. A couple of years ago, there was a study on the impact of smokers in the economy. It was highly controversial and was pulled out. Basically it said that smokers were GOOD for the economy; they pay lots of taxes via tobacco taxes, and tend to die younger. Even if they are subsidised in their last days while they slowly die of say lung cancer, overall they are saving the state money because they are not dying even slower and having tons of ailments without paying the extra taxes like the rest of the world.

Secondly, tobacco generates lots of jobs and income from people in the agricultural, to packing industries, and even in advertising and marketing. If the industry disappeared, while farmers could switch to other crops (likely to be less profitable), there would be unemployment at least in the short run. To top that, the tobacco companies are heavy contributors to political parties; and that's not just in the US. So very few governments would have the courage to alienate so many and such powerful people.

Thirdly, even if tobacco were made illegal, enforcement would take huge resources. Sure you could argue that you could tranform people who lost jobs in cigarette production to cigarette police, but people are not machines that can be reprogrammed so easily. Unless there is a worldwide ban, there is bound to be smuggling (hence more controls at the customs and borders), basement tobacco production (just like for Marijuana nowadays), and given the sheer scale of a ready-made market (today's smokers), organised crime will get involved, and it will be prohibition revisited.

Answer 3

You gonna pay for everyone else when taxes go up?? The government taxes the hell out of cigarettes, and it adds up. Make them illegal, and no tax money will go to the government, and guess what? They won't just say "oh well". They will raise our income taxes!

If you wanna kill yourself, that is your choice. Fine by me. I am in agreement with you, and I don't smoke, and have asthma. What right do others have to tell someone not to do something. Non-smokers can stay away, and smokers can choose to go to places that allow smoking. It's that simple. But don't think it will become illegal anytime soon. Too much money to be had by keeping it legal.

Answer 4

Does the government REALLY want us to quit? I think not. The tobacco industry has very good lobbying. I think it's all a crock of s... But prohibition didn't work so I don't think the government forcing us to quit would work anyway. I'm a smoker and I hate it. I hate the way my clothes and hair smell. My husband is a non-smoker and hes brutal about my smoking. Never misses the chance to get on me about it.

Answer 5

Please, don't encourage them. In California it IS illegal to smoke anywhere except outside -- and even there, there are a lot of restrictions (such as within some number of feet from any bus stop in Berkeley).

It's just plain wrong for the government to illegalize things just because they are bad for a person.

The answer to the smoking problem is to educate the young early, truly not let tobacco companies advertise to them, and to try to cultivate a culture in which no one takes it up.

Although I'm a smoker, I hate to hear of new smokers joining our ranks, as it is a truly horrible addiction, but passing a law is NOT the way to deal with every problem.

You can't legislate against stupidity, and it's wrong to try.

Answer 6

There is too much money in tobacco to make it illegal. I love it when fat people ready to kill over from a heart attack complain about the hazards of smoking. They wouldn't want their buffets and McDonalds to be made illegal. People are always so quick to take away other peoples rights. I am not a smoker, but I totally believe that they have rights.

Answer 7

Everybody has the information about the risks on smoking. Non smokers are free not to buy fags and smokers are free to buy fags. The tax dues you pay are part of the cost of a packet of fags, that's part of your freedom to choose. You are not free however, to damage the health of non smokers. If I met you or anyone smoking near me or my child I'd flipping well assert my rights!!!!! Your argument therefore is with the government about taxes you pay on fags, not with the laws on public safety and the damage that smokers cause to passive individuals. The government does a balancing job on protecting the freedoms of individual choice to smoke or not to smoke, of smoking's impact on health of passive individuals, of the tobacco companies' rights to trade, and the government revenues from smoking. We could 'passively' make smoking illegal by choosing not to buy fags. Put it this way, smokers are going to be even more pissed off than they are now, when they have to pay their own health charges for the damage they have caused to themselves by smoking. Want some advice? Give up!

Answer 8

The Feds can't stop illegal immigration.
They can't stop the flow of drugs into this country.They legalized alcohol because they couldn't stop the bootleggers. The only real option for them is to raise the taxes on it.
I don't see that happening anytime soon because both party's get huge campaign contributions from the tobacco industry.
BTW: I'm a smoker too.

Answer 9

Maybe tax money is part of it, but I think that smoking is a choice people make every time they open a pack. If someone wants to waste money and destroy their body, what's the government going to get out of making it illegal besides a lot of complaining and less tax money? A lot of things are illegal, but that doesn't seem to stop many Americans from doing them.

Answer 10

Beacuse, at least here in the US, the tobacco industry is quite a lucrative industry for daddy government. It lines there pockets with millions of tax dollars. So why in the heck would they want to stop that kind of money flow?

Also, you have to realize that people have basic civil rights. What job of the government's is it to tell me I can't light up? That's oppressive and defeats the purpose of the democratic state.