What is the real reason for the government crackdown on smoking?

Question

Since respiratory diseases and deaths therefrom have steadily increased since the 60's and cracking down on smoking has reduced taxes, shuttered many a bar and restaurant and people are increasingly isolated socially, the publicized motives like saving lives, taking in more revenue and reducing crime don't seem to apply. There must be something else behind the campaign, .........it has a ring like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Answer 1

It is because it is costing the Health Care Systems billions upon billions of dollars when people are getting ill from smoking related diseases and health issues.
IE: emphysema,cancer and other respiratory illnesses.
The same motive applies for them trying to crack down on obesity. Diabetes along with a slew of other health care concerns..
The costs are astronomical to the goverment who get billed for treatment when the citizens health care plans run out or do not exist.
It has nothing to do with anything other than money. This is the real reason.

Answer 2

In your question you stated that "respiratory diseases and deaths therefrom have steadily increased since the 60's". So why can't the intent for American health improvement be a reason for the crackdown? Aren't lives being saved because fewer folks smoke? It is fact that smoking causes lung cancer and is addictive.

The cost of medicare to support lung cancer patients severly outways the amount of smoking tax revenue the government could ever receive. Thus, crackdown on smoking and the government actually saves money.

You need to quote a source that claims less smoking causes more crime. I don't see the connection.

It is a conscious choice to smoke or not. While addictive, you can quit. Smokers have isolated themselves socially. Second hand smoke is proven to cause respiratory disease including lung cancer. Don't blame non-smokers for appreciating the simple right to live.

Answer 3

My understanding is that bar and restaurant revenues go up when smoking is banned, because more nonsmokers are willing to go there, and the smokers still go but resort to smoking outside.

Less smokers do reduce cigarette tax revenues, but I think this has been more than made up for by the increased taxes. Besides, the tax revenues don't even come close to the health care costs we taxpayers are forced to subsidize for smokers, so reducing smoking saves society money even without the tax revenue.

Nonsmokers have finally decided to stand up for their rights to breathe clean air. Your right to swing your fist ends where my face begins, and the same is true of smoking. There is no conspiracy. Nonsmokers simply are demanding the rights they are entitled to - to have the right not to be assaulted, harmed, and murdered by others who want to poison us with their secondhand smoke.

Besides, there is no crackdown on smoking. If you want to kill yourself by smoking, no one is trying to stop you. We are only trying to stop you from killing others.

Answer 4

I think it's a bit bizarre to connect smoking bans with the war. Smoking health problems cost the States a lot of money, not the Federal government as far as I know. However, Federal tax revenues from the smoking industry are huge, so they are walking a fine line of not killing the goose that laid the golden egg (kind of like the porno industry, which generates billions of tax dollars online and elsewhere - why else do you think "christian conservative" politicians do nothing about it???)

Answer 5

This question requires sources, as you're allegating a massive conspiracy in order to accomplish... something. Something unknown. Ok, if we say that Smoking is a leading cause of Lung Cancer, then...

"Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. There will be an estimated 160,390 deaths from lung cancer (89,510 among men and 70,880 among women) in 2007, accounting for around 29% of all cancer deaths. More people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined.

Nearly 60% of people diagnosed with either type of lung cancer die within one year of their diagnosis. Nearly 75% die within 2 years. This has not improved in 10 years." 1.

Then clearly, reducing smoking saves lives. It's sort of like not letting people drive without a seat belt. Many people will do things that are not in their best interest for fun. But, what if smoking doesn't cause lung cancer?

"Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, among both men and women. It claims more lives than colon, prostate, lymph and breast cancer combined.

Yet most of these lung cancer deaths could have been prevented. That's because smoking accounts for nearly 90 percent of lung cancer cases." 2.

So says the Mayo Clinic. I'm seeing a straight line.

Smoking = Lung Cancer = Deaths. It's hard to start on the right of that equation, so the Government is trying to start on the left. There's your conspiracy

Answer 6

I personally know of too many people who have died directly from smoking, including both of my parents, to believe that there is any value to the habit at all. The better conspiracy question, if that is your bent, is why we allow the tobacco industry to exist at all. We know that they doctor the ingredients in tobacco to make it more habit forming. That is proven fact. And we know that they continue to target market those that they think will be big future markets; young people and certain minority groups.

I could fill a decent sized graveyard with the people I knew personally that died of smoking.

Answer 7

they make enough money from air and work pollution to float their boat - so they concentrate of smoking - then they don't have to address the other problems.

plus some suits have been won on smoking - none on air pollution.

so they are trying to plug the one place that can win a suit. then some x-executives have come out against smoking on their death beds.

Answer 8

It's the little children makng a mess out there.
When they can't even afford to buy their own cigarettes.
When they were still in school and unemployed.
When they do not even know how to earn a dollar for their own cigarettes.

Answer 9

lol, typical smoker mentality...THEY ARE OUT TO GET ME

It couldnt possibly be that the reasons they gave make perfect sense but to a smoker whose mind is addled and only concerned about their next cigarette, its too complex.

You smokers annoy the hell out of me. Period.