What is your thoughts on smoking?

Question

I have posted a similiar question before, but I wanted to ask again. What is your take on smoking? Do you think that people should be allowed to smoke? Do you agree with the taxation on cigarettes? Do you think smoking bans are consitutional? Is all the attention on smoking really going to make people quit smoking?

I am really interested in this because I am a smoker. I do believe in smokers rights, but I understand peoples concerns about smoking becasue i am not ignorant of the health effects. I wonder though, if a personnal choice like smoking can be so heavily regualted by the government, what stops them from eventually pulling support against something else that seems socially unfit. There are many things out there that people do that are unhealthy. What is going to stop the majority from wanting to regulate these rights in the same way that they have done smoking.

What are your thoughts.

As far as second hand smoke goes, I understand peoles concerns and i agree with only smoking outside. But what is the difference from breathing in second hand smoke and big industry companies pushing out thousands of different pollutants into the air that we breath every day. Is there a statistic that compairs the two? Pollution effects everybodies health, while my cigarette only effects those who are within a twenty feet parimeter. I don't want to down play my cigarette's health problems, but it seems to me that cleaning up the air is a better way to help everyones health in general. A much better area for the government to spend its time and money in.

Answer 1

I am not a smoker, but have no problem with people smoking in designated areas in restaurants, or public places like hospitals, malls, etc. I expect people to be smoking in bars, clubs and such. I know there are people that are on oxygen, allergic to smoke, have lung problems and the smoke increases their difficulty to breath. However, everyone has the right to do what they want to as long as it does not hurt someone else. I believe their is a common ground and solution without totally banning smoking and coming down so hard on people who choose to smoke.

As for taxation, the government has that go in' on....They tax the vices they know people won't quit....gambling, Alcohol,......that's the way it goes.

Answer 2

I enjoy a nice cigar now and then.

People should be free to smoke if they want to. However, people should also be free breathe smoke-free air. Therefore, smoking should not be allowed in public places.

Smoking is a problem for people who live in apartment buildings. It is impossible to isolate and ventilate the smoke.

People should be able to do as they please in their own homes. The trouble is when your activity leaks through the walls, then what?

I do agree with taxation on cigarettes, but not at the levels we see now. Certainly the tax should be under 100%. I know many states are at 200% and climbing. This just encourages black-market dealing. A more reasonable tax rate would make bootlegging unprofitable.

I do believe people should be allowed to start a smoker's airline if they want. Since no one would be forced to work there, they could do as they please. I know a German businessman is starting one in Germany for the long-haul flights to Asia.

I believe the government is very anti-smoking because they are ending up with a lot of medical bills. I don't see why the government should pay for some health care. It should be either all or nothing.

I would prefer a government that was minding its own business (balancing its budget, killing terrorists) than minding mine.

Answer 3

This is day 34 for me. I just quit after about 19 years of smoking Camels. I think that a person should be free to choose what they want to put in their body if it doesn't affect anyone else. The government should have no right to control a persons free will and person. A total ban in places is too much. A separate smoking room is adequate. When I smoked I was a courteous smoker. I asked people around me if they minded and if they did then I moved. I didn't smoke in enclosed places with non-smokers. On Jan.1, 2007 my entire state is going to non-smoking in all public places just like California. I think that's invasive even tho I already quit. I still remember what it was like having to hunch together in the cold rain because there was nowhere else to go to have a smoke. It won't be long before they're outlawed altogether. It would have happened already but too many pockets are getting too fat with profit, including the government from all the taxes. If you really think about it, they really don't want people to stop.

Answer 4

I'm and ex-smoker and understand both sides of this issue. Many years before all this became a big debate, I didn't smoke around friends who didn't or in people's homes. I didn't let anyone, including myself smoke around my children when they were babies and as they got older in the house. My Sis & B-Law both smoke and go outside-they won't smoke in their house or anyone else's. Taxes are taxes the government will continue with those. I do think the government is stepping too far into personal choices (freedoms). If someone wants to smoke in their home, that is their business. Bars traditionally have been those kind of places. Separate rooms work. Places like comedy clubs and bowling alleys can have separate nights. If the extremes continue with this, will all other things "they" consider wrong, dangerous, etc. be outlawed by the government.

Answer 5

i don't know where your from but in Australia they have banned smoking in most pubs and clubs now so people have to go outside if they want to smoke and recently on the news I think a state in Australia has put in a new law saying that parents and others can get fined for smoking in a car that has a child in it. This may become a law also in Tasmania and other states as well and i fulyl support it because Kid's don't have the choice of being in the car when someone is smoking,they just have to deal with it wether they like it or not.

I personally think smoking is bad and it doesn't give you any thing good back apart from stained teeth, bad breath and cancer- So what do you get out of it ?I think people are stupid to keep smoking when they can see the many risks involved. Do they want thier health to suffer? Do they not care about dying? As a non smoker it's really hard for me to see the good in it!

Answer 6

i am a smoker, but i do not smoke around non smokers because it is just not polite. I do not smoke in my vehicles or house either. These days everyone seems to have forgotten that we have the right to exercise our freedoms as long as they do not infringe on others rights. I do not care for the government mandating good manners and it scares me a little when they do. It will be a matter of time before something others may like be regulated or outlawed. Be careful what you ask for, you might actually get more than you bargained for.

Answer 7

I was a smoker for 5 years and i recently quit! THANK GOD! How can you be aware of the health effects and still stand up for smokers rights? Even when i was a smoker i hated it, i just thought quiting was harder than it is. I agree with the government completely on this one. I didn't realize how much smokers think they have a right to smoke anywhere until i stopped. As much as you would like to think your only effecting yourself your harming others and setting a terrible example for kids and i don't think there is a product sold so freely in the world that is as damaging to society. Remembering junk food is non threatening in moderation.

Answer 8

I think the gov't pays lip service to the hazards of smoking while collecting millions of dollars of tax revenues on cigarettes and tobacco products. I resent the fact that there were no laws in place when I was younger to prevent me from purchasing cigarettes at the age of 14. I resent that fact that it's legal for tobacco cos. to addict millions of people to something so potentially lethal. I resent the fact that I can't just put my damned cigarettes down because I am hopelessly addicted to nicotine. If the gov't really gave a damn about its citizens, they would mandate that tobacco companies start reducing the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, so that within three years it was no longer an ingredient. The entire smoking populace would be gradually weaned off of cigarettes. As for smoking bans, at first I thought they were a horrible injustice, but really, they make sense.

Hey, there's quite a bit of tax revenue pouring into the gov't coffers from those polution belching factories, too.

Answer 9

I think that smoking should be banned since nothing good comes from it, you only get a lot of medical issues such as lung cancer from smoking, and your smoke can affect the people you care about that are around you, since secondhand smoke is just as bad as smoking a cigarette yourself. Also, I do think the law for smoking should be over the age of 21 instead of 18.

Answer 10

.smoking is a hard habit to quit, they should legalize pot, ive smoked a few joints and had to drive home and i never killed anybody like a drunk would,and i have to have respect for none smokers and there beliefs but if im at a bar and want a smoke and im in the smoking section if your your offended by the smoke dont sit in the smoking section.there is alot people in this country that havent been on both sides of the street so who are they to judge or make rules,what gives them the right.And a pack of joints at the party store would be like buying a fifth of whisky and the money from sales would lower the deficit.When will this shallow one side of the street government wake up.Drinking yourself to death or smoking yourself to death should be your constitutional right