How is smoking still legal?

[Mama Looigi]

Edit:
I titled it wrong, it should be more along the lines of “How is the selling of cigars/cigarettes etc. still legal?”

I mean… it causes a ton of diseases (Cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease like asthma, diabetes, COPD, and it increases risk for TB, eye disease, immune system issues, arthritis, and premature birthing, to name a few), it does literally nothing good for your health. Lots of people out there are hopelessly addicted, and some are just addicted. There’s nothing to it but downsides- there’s even healthier alternatives all over the place. So how are we at this point right now?

 

[Kioku]

I've asked this question since I was a kid. Usually I'm met with "my body, my choice" or some false parallel to alcoholism. Nicotine has a 100% chance of ruining a person. The only thing I can of is how they regulate it and how it's easy money for the big corpos, thus taxing... It's a rabbit hole I really don't want to go down.

 

[Flame]

well its in the human ecosystem for a long time still.

how many smokers want to give up?

 

[Mama Looigi]

how many smokers want to give up?

That sounds like it's mostly a problem for the newer generations because it wasn't outlawed in the past instead

 

[impeeza]

big corps, they spend more on lobbyist than ads (and they spend lots and lots on ads)

 

[appleburger]

Nicotine by itself is no more harmful than caffeine is. It's inhaling tobacco smoke + additives that make cigarettes so deadly.

Cigarettes are a vice, and enjoyed by some. Cigars moreso, in my experience, at least when is comes to casual enjoyment. Cigarette smokers seem miserable to me (sorry to any smokers here). So there's value there, even if I personally would never smoke them (other than the extremely rare occasion where I enjoy a cigar - maybe once every 5 years-ish)

Prohibiting the sale of harmful substances sounds like an easy choice, but keep in mind that doing so opens the door for prohibiting other vices, too - like alcohol, junk food, etc.

And this opens up the door for a black market to thrive, and then you see people being arrested for selling/using those substances, which opens up other issues.

So it's not as easy of a decision as it may seem at first, imo.

 

[AncientBoi]

[takes a puff, then exhales as I say] I have NO Idea.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

If you have to ask this question you would have to answer the same that would need to be asked for anything from Alcohol, Caffeine, Nutmeg (just look that up), and so much more. Unless you want to be like California and have the mere concept of standing outside be considered a form of getting cancer, its not worth banning something because of what bad things it can do to someone who willingly ingests it.

Also lets not forget that it would probably not go away by making it illegal. Did Alcohol disappear when the prohibition happened? Did Marijuana disappear when that was made illegal? Hell no. It still existed, just in black markets. People will always have access to something if they want it enough, and let me tell you, nobody is stopping them from enjoying themselves.

 

[AncientBoi]

[lights up a doobie] hehehehe mmmm, this is good .

 

[laudern]

Money/taxes/employment/economy

 

[AncientBoi]

Money/taxes/employment/economy

Not to mention, something to do after good sex.

 

[djnate27]

I've asked this question since I was a kid. Usually I'm met with "my body, my choice" or some false parallel to alcoholism. Nicotine has a 100% chance of ruining a person. The only thing I can of is how they regulate it and how it's easy money for the big corpos, thus taxing... It's a rabbit hole I really don't want to go down.

"My body, my choice" doesn't work because second hand smoke is dangerous to non-smokers and animals.
I was raised by a grandmother who smoked like a chimney. She beat me like a drum when she caught me smoking once when I was a teenager. Guess it didn't bother her though that I inhaled her death fumes on a daily basis growing up.

 

[appleburger]

"My body, my choice" doesn't work because second hand smoke is dangerous to non-smokers and animals.
I was raised by a grandmother who smoked like a chimney. She beat me like a drum when she caught me smoking once when I was a teenager. Guess it didn't bother her though that I inhaled her death fumes on a daily basis growing up.

This applies more-so to public smoking, which has been cracked down on, at least in my state. I'm not aware of any places in the US where smoking areas aren't completely separated from non-smoking areas, though. And a lot of cities no longer allow outdoor smoking at all. You have to go to a designated smoking room, or be away from a public area.

 

[Tomato123]

I think here (in the UK) it actually is illegal to just smoke anywhere except private property or designated places. The problem is that if no one is enforcing a law, is it really even a law? From what I've seen, police here rarely ever get people to stop smoking where they shouldn't be, essentially the same thing that happened in the US with prohibition.

A law passed somewhat recently that stops people smoking in cars if there's a child in it. But I've seen plenty just ignoring this one too because it's not being enforced hard enough.

I'm all for people having the choice to smoke whatever they want. Just not in public where it can negatively affect others.

 

[hippy dave]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/why-does-fda-approve-fast-food-chains.603018/post-9660246

 

[JuanMena]

The way I see it: People choose to die ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


That's enough for me.

 

[sudeki300]

Money.

 

[DinohScene]

How is anything that's bad for a human still legal...

I smoke fags when ever I want to and people who don't like it can piss off.
I already go out of my way to find a quiet spot to enjoy a cancer stick.

 

[CloudStrife1901]

Huge Tax income for the greedy governments. They won't stop the sales of cigarettes just the same with alcohol

 

[Dr_Faustus]

"My body, my choice" doesn't work because second hand smoke is dangerous to non-smokers and animals.
I was raised by a grandmother who smoked like a chimney. She beat me like a drum when she caught me smoking once when I was a teenager. Guess it didn't bother her though that I inhaled her death fumes on a daily basis growing up.

Unless you are in an unventilated enclosed small space and/or you are having smoke blown directly up in your face consistently throughout the day every day. Chances are that second hand smoke kills as much as going through any big traffic riddled city or subway and inhaling the wonders of that world. You would have a better chance of dying from the ozone layer being eaten away before any of that kills you. That or become a coal miner before the discovery of what black lung was..


Honestly people should do whatever the hell they want to themselves. In a world of constant restrictions and bullshit in what constitutes as privacy and ownership of anything anymore, the least we as humans should have the privacy of whats in our head and the right to do whatever we want with our bodies as its ours to own and to do with. Anyone telling you otherwise is just another form of control forcing their asinine will and mentality onto others.