Why do the government allow cigarettes to be sold if people die from them?

Question

Why not stop selling them as they are so dangerous? I know it's got to do with money but could someone please elaborate.

i am a smoker. I'm not saying we should ban cars, sweets, etc. I just wanted an answer to a question. Besides people can eat sweets and not get addicted where as with smoking you get addicted and die of cancer.

Answer 1

They are making billions of dollars on the taxes. what's to elaborate?

Answer 2

Firstly the government gains a large amount of the health budget from cigarette taxes. The UK health system would collapse without these funds.
Jobs would also be at stake, from the workers in the factories, delivery services and also the shops would lose money, to the negative effect on the economy.
It would also be difficult to enforce or even implement a ban as well. People would simply buy smuggled cigarettes and tobacco, something which even now the police do little about.You only need to look to history and to America during Prohibition to see that it wouldn't work. When the US was in Phohibition, people simply set up illegal speakeasies with homebrewed and dangerous alcohol.
The crime rate would also shoot through the roof- smuggling tends to now, in modern times, be a task of organised crime. The money given to them by smokers would then fund arms and drug smuggling, bribery, corruption and even terrorist networks and explosives/bombing gangs. This already occurs with illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin. This usually forms part of the legalisation of drugs which are at the moment illegal
There is also an element of freewill to this argument. We all have the right to choose what we think to be right. Everything that we do is risky- we could fall out of bed getting up, choke on our breakfast and have an accident whilst travelling to school or work. It is an individual choice whether we accept that risk for ourselves, and is subjective also- another person yet alone a government can decide that for us.
Some religions also use tobacco for religious purposes, including some South American tribes and Native American Indians.
So banning them is easier said than done!

Answer 3

Anti smoking lobbyists created the passive smoking myth 20 years ago, and despite numerous pieces of research there has been little clinical evidence to back it up (one piece discovered reduced lung capacity in a young man who had lived in a house with parents who smoked). What concerns me more is the ease of which governments around the world have introduced a total ban on smoking (a legal activity) in public places without a proper democratic debate or referendum. Yesterdays UK newspapers reported that a couple were being investigated by the local authorities for smoking in their own house after a neighbour complained about the smell. There is a massive witch hunt against smokers at the moment as they are seen as the reason to for all the world's ills. As for banning things, keep watching: if they can stop 30% of the population having a cigarette with a drink, they can stop anything.

Answer 4

Because the people who you call Government they are making a
lots &. lots of money off cigarettes so do you think they would stoped it?. They are not as fool or stupid as the people who used
the cigarettes altho some of then the politions smoke al well so
that mean that there are stupid poliyions as well also the Doctors
they are even worst they are making thousand of $$$s off those who smoke so do you eraly think they would want to stop pepole
from smoke?? Not over there living body. Doctors are not here to
keep or to cure people they are here just to keep you alive so they
give you this tablic or a bottle of some thing & say take this and see me mext wednesday &. then they built the insurance a million
Dollars for that, so dont look for politions and Doctors to stop
Drugs.If they wanted to stop Drugs they would not running all sround holding up the little people on the street! They would go
stright to the head and like securety of state say you cut the head
off the tail will be dead. so you see what I meen go for the people who are brining in the bulk of the drugs and in a few month drugs
are history, and politions and doctors would have to go and do some thing elce!>>>>>.

Answer 5

Its a Government, not your Nanny.

When you stopped wearing Nappies you took responsibility for where and when you did No 1s and No2s. The Government did not tell you.
Cigarettes are like that.
They are avery good at relieveing stress and mental illness is a massive problem.
They reduce the lifespan of persons of pensionable age reducing the Pension spend and reducing the burden on the Taxpayer.
They provide significant revenue for the country in Tax.
They kill off people who would otherwise need replacement hips and other expensive surgery.
There is no shortage of people in this country and in any case plenty of people are queueing up to come in, so why increasing the life span and reducing the quality of life of a section of the population at a significant financial penalty to the rest of the country is seen as a good idea I cannot imagine.
I am a non smoker, and I would rather give pensioners 50 free fags per day if I wanted to improve life in this country.

Answer 6

Because the government receives so much revenue from the tax.

Smokers actually pay more in tax than it costs the NHS to treat 'smoking related illnesses', many of which are also related to poor diet and excessive alcohol, but noone from ASH has ever said how it is going to replace these revenues once everyone stops smoking.

I am an ex-smoker, but loathe the line from ASH, because it has an agenda but no answers for meeting the fiscal shortfall.

Answer 7

None of us are going to get out of here alive. We're all gonna die from something. Breathing the air in some cities is worse than a cigarette. I mean you can't guarentee you aren't going die from your next spinach salad with green onions on it. Or die from the smog you breathe in on your 5 mile run. It's tax money. They put things on the market and then later find out it's not safe. Granted....the warning on the lable was there when I started but it's my choice, and it's still not the ONLY cause of cancer. It's just a convincing "sin" to tax that gets peoples approval. They'll tire of cigarettes and find something new. They aren't concerned about my health....they just want the money.

Answer 8

True Money is a factor, but you cannot stop something that has been part of life for so long and is an addiction.
The Americans tried to stop drunkeness by prohibiting the sale and use of Alcohol one time and all they got was a lot of Gangsters making millions out of Illegal Drinking Dens and Stills.
Too bad. Would love to see Cigarettes disappear, but.......

Answer 9

Tax's, this is the only thing that I have ever agreed with Rush Limbaugh on, but as he says if everybody quit smoking it would cost the government so much money that it would probably go bankrupt. If they could figure out how to tax the pot in the back yard they would legalize weed.

Answer 10

your a Rush baby arent you?I thought it was a very good point he made,why not outlaw them all together,of course they would have to pry my cigarettes from my cold stained fingers first.I think its ironic that I'm laying my life down for healthcare through paying taxes on cigarettes,and that if I quit I will end up being a burden on the economy and healthcare of this nation for living longer,and its funny how they move the second hand smoke initiative through,knowing full well its only harmful if your locked up in a confined space for very ,very long periods of time.and that smog would kill you faster,but I guess they got to get the money from somewhere,I only hope that when smoking is completly illegal,they find money to grab elsewhere,and I know next it will be sugar,for making people fat

Answer 11

Every packet of cigarettes (as every pint in a pub) generates revenue for the Government, so they're not likely to stop you from lining their pockets. They'll only start complaining when you clutter up an NHS bed, when you get ill.