Cigarettes are terrible, I know a guy that is 5 years younger than I am......?

Question

we went 20 years with out seeing each other. Then I saw him at a party. He looked 15 years older than me. I said "are you still smoking Don?" He said "yep, 2 packs a day of Marlboro Reds". He is about 40 and I bet he won't see 50. Should cigarettes be banned?

If not ban them at least make smoking in public a crime. Everyone knows that marijuana is much less harmful than cigarettes in fact has some positive medical benefits- yet it is illegal even at your own house. Until marijuana is made legal to posess, I say make smoking cigarettes in public a crime. I consider cigarette smoke an assault not much different than being physically attacked with a weapon. No longer smoke marijuana but believe the reason it is not legal is because of $. The tobacco companies would go out of business :(

Paul B. I do not care if people are making fools of themselves but they do not have a right to harm me. They harm me with their smoke. As far as your Bush comparison, we were given two choices- Kerry who is a compulsive liar and Bush a guy that cares but is not relly qualified. I could not pick the compulsive liar.

dailyjoy, thanks for the answer but the govt has already taken away all of our rights. At least if I am going to be controled by the govt. I would like to be healthy. What other rights could they possibly take away? When I hear "land of the free" I cannot help but shake my head. What nonsense. I think people in China have got more rights than we do.

Answer 1

Cigarettes are disgusting. They should be banned from all public places because they are so gross. If people want to kill themselves that's their own business (fast food, unprotected sex, etc... all of those things can kill!), but they shouldn't make others suffer because of it.

Answer 2

No, cigarettes should not be banned. Granted, they are a health risk. But--as we learned almost a century ago with Phrobition, and as current efforts to ban marijuana, attempting to force people to conform oto some arbitrary standard of behavior does not work.

We also have a situation in which the adverse effects of tobaccoo have been hyped and exaggerated--mostly by people who have no interest in the health issue, but rather in controlling others' behavior. If you doubt this, then look at where the opposition to efforts to develop a safer form of tobacco have come from--the anti-smoking lobbyists.

Leave people alone to make their own decisions.

Answer 3

No, This is America... Land of the free. I have the right to smoke, drink, cuss and have an abortion if I choose. But just because I can does not mean that I should. Smoking is unhealthy, I wish I was ready to quit but it's my right and the less government is in my life the better off I am am....the better of this country is. Just wait you may support banning cigarettes but mark my word maybe not today maybe not next year but one day the government you supported today will take away a right that affects you directly.

Answer 4

Cigarettes ARE bad news, but I doubt that you will ever see a ban. No doubt, they kill lots of people every year, but if they were suddenly banned, smokers would FREAK out! As an ex-smoker, I am well aware that cigarettes are an addiction. You cannot just arbitrarily take something that has been legal and readily available away from people who have developed a dependency on it. It would be nice to live in a cigarette-free world, but it will never happen.

Answer 5

No. Each time we try to ban an addictive substance, we create a "hydra" of problems. We start a new bureaucracy to enforce the laws, which means that we now have to pay all these people (union scale), and because their jobs are politically sanctioned, there is a taint of corruption. Then we have to pay other countries to poison their peasant's fields for growing it, and we also have to spend money imprisoning people.

Maybe it would be better to look under a microscope, as it were, and see if we can't come up with a medical solution to the problem. Then, extend this thinking to the so-called "War on Drugs".

Answer 6

I'd be inclined to to ban cigarettes and motorcars, but not just cigarettes. Two for the price of one banning seems a natty idea. Cars help make people super unhealthy and kill a lot more innocent victims, sometimes quickly and sometimes through some unpleasant respiratory disease.

Or was your point banning something that makes you look old? In that case I'd nestle carpet slippers in the legislation Cigarettes and slippers.

There's an upside though.
"Realising your friends haven't aged as well as you"... Priceless -for everything else there's masterca.... Have we got time to ban credit cards and their adverts too?

Answer 7

First off, I'm a smoker.....
I started about 12 years ago.....in high school. It's an addiction, and many smokers wish they hadn't started up. I agree it's an awful habit, however, it's a choice that we made. In Canada, they have banned smoking from all public places, and it's still not good enough for some people. If I choose to smoke, it's my RIGHT...

Answer 8

Easy answer? Yes, cigarettes should be banned. I wish they had never been invented in the first place. Why would someone purposely suck toxic chemicals into their body? It makes no sense. My grandpa quit smoking after 45 years, your friend could still too.

Answer 9

I'm sure he'll see 50. Cigarettes should be banned I think, because they're unhealthy and they serve no purpose at all... but unfortunately that will never happen... they make a lot of money.

Answer 10

Found out with the 'no smoking' law not too long ago the cig. companies are tired of being sued.People are dyeing-we knew that!So,maby these companies got the hint.
Cigs.age you,make you smell and cause all kinds of problems.Unfortunatly,people are hooked.