Double standard Smoking and Drinking?

Question

Why is it that cigarettes are advertised in magazines and things, yet alcohol is advertised basically every where. Both are addictive drugs, what makes alcohol so much better that it can be advertised anywhere and everywhere, while cigarettes can't. Isn't that sort of a double standard on products? What's your opinion on this?

Answer 1

yes it is a double standard. Alcohol isn't exactly like cigarettes though the nature of cigarette use is much more cunning when it comes to addiction. Most adults have a few drinks and stop. Unless they are allergic to alcohol and there bodies don't process alcohol in the same way, they are alcoholics and should not drink at all. Most people don't have this problem and can drink safely for the most part. But think about the way people smoke. Its a hand to mouth action. Like biting the nails.this is a habit in itself. WE get up and have a cigarette we drive and smoke, we smoke all the time, if I told my boos im going to go out and have a slug on my bottle of jack he would fire me. But if I have a smoke break nothing is said. along with the fact that it is one of the most addictive drugs.It is allot harder to break. Both addictions are ugly.Alcoholism takes away everything and everyone from a alcoholics life.Unless he gets help. However no one can safely smoke without it becoming a addiction. There are many who can safely drink if they are not allergic to alcohol and are adults. Why teenagers should not drink is a whole other question and the answer is that there brains are not done forming yet, Pouring booze on your brain before your fully baked makes a person half baked.

Answer 2

Standards will be different with different products. While both alcohol and tobacco are potentially addictive products, they are different in their chemical make-up, mode of transport (into the body), and affects on the body.

Ultimately, though, alcohol does have SOME redeeming value. It can be used to make medicines, and depending on what form it comes in, can be good for the body in small quantities.

Tobacco is completely worthless! It is ultimately a poison no matter WHAT form it comes in. Gardening books used to reccommend Tobacco's use as an insecticide, until it was discovered that the toxins in tobacco would seep into the very vegetables we were trying to protect from aphids! Tobacco has no positive affects on the human body at all, yet is very addictive.

Add to this, that a person having a glass of wine at a restaurant MIGHT get into a drunk-driving accident on the way home. Maybe. It is not assured. The person one table over, who lights up a cigarrette or cigar, DOES expose himself, his table-mates, and the people at surrounding tables to cancer-causing chemicals. THAT is assured!

To qualify as a double-standard, the two products would have to be equal in comparison in nearly all points. Alcohol and tobacco simply aren't that similiar.

I neither smoke nor drink.

Answer 3

Good question, I don't want to sound like an advocate for alcohol but it is probably the lessor of the two evils. Using alcohol doesn't imperil those around you like second hand cigarette smoke. Also it has been shown that one glass of wine a day may actually be beneficial. On the other hand how many thousands of people a year are killed by drunk drivers. This versus people dying from cigarette induced cancer. Hmmmm... good question.

Answer 4

Yes I think it is a double standard too. The same person that is screaming about smoking will drive home drunk and endanger everyone. Alcohol should not be allowed to advertise either.

Answer 5

basically,, Cigarettes cause cancer,, and no one thinks Alcohol doesn't. It doesn't matter that alcohol causes other health problems and drunk driving accidents ect ect ect.

Plus right now the PC thing is to be anti smoking,, but can you imagine a President not sipping brandy over some huge meeting with the Leader of some other country?

Answer 6

Well there is a lot of tax revenue from both so I would think the truth will be found if you follow the money.

I think it is a shame that the government makes all this money off of selling regulated addictive substances and then turns around and makes a ton of tough laws that generate even more revenue. Its embarrassing to even think about. I have been set free from both of them and that had to be the best gift I ever got.

God Bless ya.

Answer 7

It's a hypocrisy sure enough. It is a by-product of an attempt at a imperfect answer to the problem they pose in our society,
In a totally free society, any product would be able to be advertised at the marketers discretion.
In a totally sensible society, the marketing of alcohol and tobacco would be a waste as no one would use them.
So society tries to strike a balance, and you get these inconsistencies.

Answer 8

You are right, if cigerettes are so bad for you, im not saying they are good, then why does the media portray tobacco in such a negative light, when people need to go to rehab for alcoholism yet it is promoted everywhere?
How bout this question, why are there so many commercials against marijuana when its use has never killed anybody? OH NO! don't smoke pot! it can make you lazy!

Hypocrites, its all for the money

Answer 9

Alcohol isn't addictive. But the biggest drug of all that causes huge mental illnesses like blind faith and gross ilogicalness is advertised everywhere and actively encouraged. This is religion. Say no to jesus

Answer 10

The major double standard is the "non smoking" adds put out by the cigarette companies! The "drink responsibly" add-ons too.