Is smoking the greatest evil?

Question

As a smoker I accept that it may cause me harm, and possibly to others around me. Therefore I accept the fascist anti-smoking legislation we now have.

My question really is why only smoking?

How many people have been killed or injured by someone driving under the influence of tobacco?

Or been beaten up or worse because someone had one too many cigarettes and became violent?

Do we not need rather more control over drinking habits, and not just smoking?

Answer 1

I'm right with you on this.
I have helped keep the tax coffers full in the past. And now i'm pilloried for doing something i enjoy.
I don't drink. But am constantly fed up with the sight of drunken youths creating mayhem on our streets.
But i have to have a cigarette away from everyone else.
...And be castigated for it...!!!!

Answer 2

Question # 1. Smoking is not the greatest evil - power is.
Question #2. Its only smoking because all smokers have not stood up for their rights as they should have-they accept it.
Question #3. none
Question #4. (this could happen if someone ran out and then got in an argument if they were of a rather more physical type of personality)
Question #5. We really can't get much more control over drinking habits than the gov't already has.

See the problem is that the government makes money on every beer or mixed drink that anyone in the US drinks. They control the alcohol distribution. With cigarettes they havent figured out a way of making money on it except for adding more and more taxes on each purchase.

Answer 3

I'm a smoker also, but I don't think it's the greatest evil. I would put it in the top 10, but I think alcohol & street drugs are more dangerous because they impair your thinking, judgement and your reaction. I definitely think alcohol & drugs should be controled a lot more than tobacco. things are getting a little out of hand when it comes to smoking. you can't smoke in public places, in an outside stadium, on the grounds of hospitals ( I can see that inside a hospital is not good, but outside? now they are trying to pass a law where you won't be able to smoke in your own car! GIVE ME A BREAK !! that's really getting out of hand. next they will try to pass a law that will make it illeagle to buy cigaretts.

Answer 4

Hi,i am also a smoker & do not drive this proposed new law is yet another way of clobbering smokers.They keep harping on about how bad it is.Then why are tobacco comapanies allowed to make cigerettes.One big reason they make billions & so do the Government.They want us to pack in then ban the tobacco companies from making them.That way we will have no choice.Only thats too simple has they would lose too much money also they need to make up the money for the people who have stopped smoking.

Answer 5

To answer the question in a simple way, NO.
To elaborate, what is evil is the way that smokers have been discriminated against. Even as a non smoker, I feel that smokers have rights too.
Now we all have to suffer the smoke, the smell, and the mess that WAS confined to pubs, clubs etc. It seems to me that the cleaner atmosphere inside has resulted in an explosion of filth outside. Have you seen the smokers all standing outside? How many wall mounted ashtrays have you seen? How many butts are there piled in the street? How much does it cost the local council to clean it up? Why don't the pubs/clubs do it??

Answer 6

Dont worry, they've already started on drink. What they will do is crank up the tax, using public health as the reason. They won't ban it though, they can't afford to. It's a bit like taxing air travel using the green issue as an excuse. If they really wanted to save the planet, they'd limit the number of flights, not just tax them. How does that sve the planet? It doesn't it just gives them a convenient excuse to raise more taxes.

Answer 7

I'm a smoker myself, and I wish they would ban cigarettes. I would get over it. The greatest evil here is a government preying on it's people's addictions. People have put them in power and should remember that. By taxing them they are not punishing them, as they would have us believe, they are condoning it because there is something in it for them. Tax is not a punishment, it's a neccessity, however using it as a tool to exploit people's flaws is not exactly wholesome grain goodness.

Answer 8

In an ideal world education would be enough, until you can educate people better then legislation is probably the only way. They start on smoking so you can live longer to pay the tax they are slapping on alcohol.

Answer 9

Everyone agrees with you, the government tried to ban alcohol completely and failed.
The government spends a fortune to keep the jails full of people using other drugs.
Smoking isn't the greatest evil, just one I don't want to be exposed to.
I support the smokers right to do in his own home whatever he wishes

Answer 10

The government have come down on smoking so heavily because it is costing the NHS too much with people being ill from smokimg related problems. i.e. cancer etc.
It was the goverment that promoted it so much years ago before it was found to cause so many helth problems, because of all the tax they got from it.
Late night or round the clock drinking was also promoted by the goverment, because of the tax earned from alcohol,now we have the problems coming from it, they will have to crack down on that.
A mad world we live in I think, where people seem to want to do all the things that harm them, drugs smoking alcohol abuse, why cant human beings do these things in moderation.