If smoking kills why are the manufacturers not up on charges?

Answer 1

Wow great question. I guess because smoking is not illegal. If we sold someone a drug like crack and that person dies the dealer gets murder charges.

Answer 2

Because life is complex and there are no simple solutions to complex issues. Here are a few reasons the government cannot/will not "criminalize" cigarette manufacturers.

1. Smoking is a voluntary act, and is a mildly stimulating drug. Outlawing it would push some users to more dangerous alternatives.

2. Tobacco farmers receive subsidies from the government to grow their crops. Lots of farmers could be forced into welfare if their crop were taken away.

3. Smokers pay a H**l of a lot of taxes on their vice, which pay for a lot of pet government projects.

4. Keeping smoking legal allows lawyers to keep suing manufacturers in civil court, where the settlement money comes to billions of dollars. Making this a criminal thing would just send people to jail and tax our resources on the other end.

5. Prohibition was tried with alcohol, and it was a complete failure. People wanted alcohol, and they got it from mobsters instead of regulated corporations. It would work the same way with tobacco.

Lots of products we use are potentially lethal. Not just guns, but cleaning fluids, cars, and a host of others I could name. Do we want to set the precedent of throwing product manufacturers in jail?

Answer 3

Although it can kill, the manufacturers are not literally forcing people to smoke. It is a person's own decision to take up this dangerous habit. For instance, the people who manufacture bleach for laundry are not charged when someone ingests bleach. It's a little thing called free will. Personally, I do not smoke, I do not suggest taking up the habit. These days people are developing lung cancer just from being around people who smoke.

Answer 4

A lot of things can kill. Alcohol certainly takes its toll. If people chose destructive behavior, it is sometimes tolerated by the state, especially if they can make money on it.

Firearms can be misused, by they are used legally much more often to protect people and prevent crime. Some people think that gun manufacturers should be held accountable for the misuse of their product. The real agenda is to undermine the civil (Constitutional) rights of the American people.

In a free country, people have a right to be stupid. We best demonstrate that trait at election time.

Answer 5

Smoking is a personal choice. the information is well documented that smoking causes cancer. How can you sue the manufacturer of a product that you choose to use, regardless of all the warnings and all the available info? You gotta be stupid, unemployed and without healthcare to try and all these suits are lost every time.

Answer 6

Because smoking is optional behavior on the part of the smoker. The same could be said of vehicle manufacturers who sell cars that can greatly exceed the speed limit. Or gun manufacturers, or alcohol sellers, or fast food sellers, etc.

Answer 7

Simply because it is the consumers choice and currently warnings are supplied on the packets of tobacco. People that have had long term health damage when they smoked a good 5/6decades, when there were no warnings have successfully sued tobacco firms due to the lack of these warnings.

Answer 8

THREE WORDS, FREEDOM OF CHOICE, those who smoke choose to do so. when ciggarette manufactures mis-sold thier products back in the forties and fifties ,eg craven 'a' was sold as being good for your throat!! thats when the elected government should have acted. LF

Answer 9

Fastfood does the same. Alcohol. Pollution. You wouldn't be able to draw a line, besides the fact that some people enjoy smoking and they choose to do so on their own will. You can't outlaw smoking.

Answer 10

You could even get killed crossing the road, everyone claims that smoking is the only source that kills people. My friend died from alcohol poisoning, he was 38, so it is not just tobacco that kills.