Smoking (hell, sin)

[Green Gaia]

What are your thoughts on smoking and smoking bans and taxes?

[Melody]

Originally Posted by Maize

What are your thoughts on smoking and smoking bans and taxes?

I've always been a non-smoker and am thrilled that I no longer have to deal with cigarette smoke in public places. It used to drive me nuts to ask for the non-smoking section and be placed right next to a table of smokers who were in the smoking section. As for the taxes, to be honest, I don't think they're fair. If they're going to put a sin tax on cigarettes, then then why not on alcohol, red meat, fast food places and any other thing they consider "bad" for our health.

[Green Gaia]

It is my understanding (which may be wrong) that the additional taxes on tobacco would be used in education to prevent children from smoking. Again, I could be wrong.


This is a sensitive issue in my state, Kentucky. We have a lot of tobacco farmers here, several in my family in fact. The two largest cities here have both recently passed public smoking bans, (Louisville did, right TVOR?).

[Melody]

[quote=Maize]It is my understanding (which may be wrong) that the additional taxes on tobacco would be used in education to prevent children from smoking. Again, I could be wrong.[/QUOTE]

Which is, in my opinion, a waste of money. Children aren't stupid. The school DARE programs teach that cigarettes and alcohol are drugs and sort of lump them in with cocaine and crack. Then have to explain that cigarettes and alcohol are legal but the others aren't. What a screwed up message.

[Seyorni]

I think "public space" might need a little clarification. New York's Central Park and Moscow's Red Square are public spaces. I assume you're referring to enclosed, poorly ventilated public spaces?

[angellous_evangellous]

I think that we should tax the hell out of tabacco because of the public burden for cigarette-related health problems. Tabacco causes health problems, and it is the public's burden. Hopefully poor people will buy less and not give the public the burden of paying for lung treatment and inhaling second-hand smoke. If you want to destroy your body with tabacco, fine. Don't take my money or affect my health. You will pay for your destruction, both in taxation and health care.

The taxes on tabacco should be used for health care and tabacco education, and should also be a deterrent for its purchase. Unlike alcohol, tabacco is addictive and destructive even with little use.

[robtex]

I am out of the loop because Austin has been tobbaccoless in most public places for some time. Bars and restuarants being the exception and in restuarants only during set times can one smoke. I think that the 2nd hand smoke does make it a public and not just a private issue. The increaed taxes are justified if the money from them goes to wellness programs that are tangent to the tobacco industry. I do feel that smokers should fit more of the bill for tabacco research and wellness than non tobbacco users.

I would like it if people posting here would include in their post if they smoke or not as it influences their opinon. I am a non-smoker.

[almifkhar]

everybody always points the finger at tabbacco. it's crap and here is a good example. when my aunt found out she had cancer (a smoker with they think cervical cancer) she had to go to detroit to a cancer spec. the doc goes on to tell her that her county has the highest cancer rates in mich. right across the river of our homrtown sits the 3rd. largest chemical valley in the western hemphire and greenpeace can always be found in the great lakes. i have one more example to tell when i was pregnant with my first child i did not smoke but i smoked with my last two. my first one was my smallest and was born 2 weeks earily where as my other two were born 2 weeks late and were bigger by a pound than the first one. i am not going to sit here and say that smoking is great for the health, but i don't think it is a bad as they claim either. i feel that there are other environmental factors out there that we should be more concerned with things like the various poisons that they put in our water, air and food. and as far as the taxes goes, if i have to pay all these taxes i should be able to smoke where ever i damn well please. after all we smokers are the ones who make it possible for states to pay their bills.

[No*s]

I am a non-smoker.

I feel it shouldn't take place in a public place such as courtrooms and libraries. I have some ambivolance about smoking in resteratuns and things. After all, by doing so, they make me and everyone around them smoke and share the bad aspects of it...but I also don't want much government regulation. So, right now, I'm only firm on "don't do it in public buildings," and I restrict it to what is public property.

Taxes should only be raised to offset the cost tobacco incurs on health. This bit of punitive raising taxes is nonsense. Smokers, ideally, are adults. They can make up their own mind.

I do worry about what breathing someone else's smoke does to me. I know that if I'm around people who smoke a lot for an extensive period of time, I start coughing, and it takes a few days for it to go away. I do not like sharing in their smoke, and thus their problems, one bit.