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I have struggled with smoking for over 3 decades. Unneccessarily. Huge amounts of energy and money have gone towards the pursiut of either the habit or the breaking of the habit. Society has made a big deal of it lately, and an even bigger deal of money is being siphoned off to the inhuman assholes who sell tobacco, and the inhuman governments who allow the continued supply of poisons to the general public for fear of loss of revenue and public backlash.

 

Somoking is not a habit, it is an addiction. We, you, everybody knows it is filth and poison, even the smokers know this. But they continue to supply us with it.

 

This is worse than the emporer having no clothes. We all know that we all know that the emporer has no clothes, and still nothing is said. A few angry groups of mothers and the odd collective of health professionals, I'm not trying to belittle these folks, it's just not enough, the scale and size of the damage and injustice being wrought upon humankind is basically ignored why print health warnings to repeat that which we already know why not STOP SELLING TOBACCO.

 

Period.

 

I'm not smoking currently. I've given up a half dozen times. Yet despite my best intentions and wishes I find myself in ungaurded moments considering smoking to be an option. This is preposterous, this stuff really is a force to be reckoned with it makes the user talk absolute crap to themselves and behave in a suicidal manner.

 

I'll wake up, chest heaving, rattling, my breathing shallow and uncomfortable, I stand and see spots, I take a deeper breath and feel the sticky fluid in my lungs pull apart, I cough gobs of yellow green phloegm into the basin, stumble back to bed, throat raw, dry, throbbing. I roll a cigarette.

 

What... The...f.?

 

STOP SELLING TOBACCO.

 

You bloody mongrels.

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To stop selling tobacco completely you would have to make it illegal, make it illegal and there would be a black market and you would be paying 20 times as much for the tobacco and still wanting to quit. A black market would mean the control and profits from tobacco would go into the hands criminals, people who smoke would be made into criminals. See the marijuana trade as an example and marijuana isn't even addictive like tobacco is. Can you imagine the nightmare of something as addictive as tobacco if you made it illegal, think heroin. Personal responsibility is the only true way but that can be impossible for some people.

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Ah but it is not about freedom, it is about slavery, and numbers. You can stand on your moral high ground it doesn't change the fact this stuff is ridiculously easy to fall for and huge numbers of people still fall for it no matter what the health warnings say.

 

My nephews, all 3, are smoking, no matter that they've grown up in this anti smoking atmosphere, all three thought they'd never get addicted and they did, again I say what the @#!*! I HATED the taste of my first cigarette, I'm sure we all do, this convinces us we'd never want more, but it's already in there.

 

My nephew says he got addicted overnight. I believe him. A girl left ciggies in his car. He got drunk and smoked some, next day he wanted more despite that they tasted like shite.

 

You guys think you're special for not smoking. It could hook you too, don't be fooled you got more balls than smokers, you just got lucky most of us like to find things out for ourselves, therein lies the trap, it's just too damn easy because you think it isn't.

 

I'm not smoking and I'm happy I'm not smoking. All because I got to here doesn't mean it's fixed. I sure hope it is, i sure do like not smoking. That's what's so mad about tobacco smokers, we're like battered wives, we keep going back to it. I really hope I've had enough of the stupidity, I know smoking is irrational, typically, I am quite rational.

 

Sometimes prohibition is the right thing to do. How long since you guys seen some heroin in front of you. For me it's 20 years. I've seen the obvious junkie or two stumbled about. I see cigarettes every day, everywhere.

 

The prohibition/heroin arguement is invalid. The reason we see weed everywhere is because prohibition of weed is about as stupid and corporate controlled as the allowing of cigarette sales. B)

 

STOP SELLING TOBACCO.

 

Why would you continue?

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Ya know I think not only should they stop selling tobacco but the government should stop funding all of the programs the Billions of tobacco related tax dollars pay for...and pass the bill back to those that should have been funding those programs from the beginning..."intelligent honest responsible people" [a great deal of sarcasm intended] like you that believe it the govts. job to protect us from having to exercise proper judgment for ourselves...As a lifelong smoker that quit cold turkey over as year ago I say that people that can't quit either don't really want to or are completey helpless and should be institutionalized immediately for their own good....I didn't want to quit but it helped my beloved to quit and she had too so it was worth it to me......

 

In short take responsibility for your own stupidity and get over it.

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I thanked you for proving my point which is people that think it the govt. exists to protect us from ourselves are....well you quoted me so you know exactly what I think they are.

 

My only "grudge" as you call it are the "intelligent responsible people"[much sarcasm intended] of American society which think everything need be childproof, idiotproof etc.etc....It ticks me off that honest to goodness hot coffee can't be had anywhere anymore thanks to an idiot that felt she should be compensated for her own stupidity....I hate it that my lawnmower has a sticker to discourage some intelligent responsible [more sarcasm intended] person from placing his hands or feet into the blade...I hate it that the same mower must be restarted everytime I have to stop and retrieve debris I'd rather not mow over because some inrelligent responsible person [yes even more sarcasm intended] ignored the sticker and tried to unclog the chute while his mower was running...etc.etc. Stupid People Annoy Me [Nope can't do it I'm feeling rather ill already...a line must be drawn somewhere]

 

And yes the whole tobacco issue as you clearly put it in your first post places you squarely in the group of persons all freedom loving people should despise and wish great harm upon just as your kind wishes to deprive us of our right to exercise common sense and the freedom to decide our own fates.

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I have to agree with the OP.

 

There is no sense in banning marijuana, heroin and cocaine, and keep on selling cigarettes and booze, the latter killing way more people per year than the former.

 

Don't do coke! Coke will scramble your brains! But it's perfectly all right to consume alcohol which breaks up families, causes drunk driving casualties, liver sclerosis, etc.

 

Be consistent and either ban ALL of them, or allow ALL of them.

 

But here's the rub:

 

Alcohol and tobacco sales is a major source of tax income for government. And THAT is what it all is about.

 

Yet, you have to question the morality of any company that sells a product that is a known killer, that product producing nothing more than a quick feeling of satisfaction. Nothing productive, nothing else, just a quick fix of happiness before you keel over from cancer.

 

Bastards, all. The manufacturers as well as the government who's coining it on your bad habits.

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But Mr Boerseun alcohol is good for you in moderation.

 

Secondly all should

be legal. But that would result in the expectation that people think before they choose to act.

 

In all honesty if everything that was remotely bad for you were illegal there would be nothing to do but wait to die....which would also be illegal because waiting to die which will eventually end in your death is bad for you as well.....and that said it would be also illegal to grow old and die as both are not conducive to good health or prolonged life.

 

Besides making things illegal increases crime rates and makes certain types only want it more...For example here it has been illegal for persons under 18 to posess tobacco products care to guess where the largest age group for smokers falls here...how bout the largest numbers of dopers, potheads, and abusers of medications (which are all illegal acts)?

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The marketing of tobacco is sad, unlike most addictive drugs tobacco is used in films and not many years ago was actually touted as good for by doctors. As it is tobacco use is shown to be cool over and over in bars and films everywhere. Cigarettes are used as an ice breaker as well "let me borrow smoke" to start a conversation

 

Only relatively recent years has the use of tobacco been shown to even be close to it's reality. I used to see people smoke cigarettes and talk about how horrible it was the pot was so easy to get and how getting high was bad for you, then of course they would take a deep drag off their fag and sigh and say how good a cigarette was to calm the nerves, lol.

 

Heroin comes from halfway around the planet, it has to be smuggled across many international borders and yet there is still a market for it in the US. Just saying it's been a long time since you saw heroin come across your line of sigh doesn't mean it's not still there or that new people aren't still trying it.

 

If tobacco was made illegal people would be secretly growing it and selling just like pot and probably getting more for it due to the tobacco being so addictive. One of my sons smokes, i never smoked, nor did his mom, we didn't allow it in our house and consistently told him how bad it was and how hard it was to quit but he smokes just as his grandpa does and as his movie heroes did. I hate that he smokes but no one held him down and made him smoke, no lies were told to get him to try it, He chose to smoke and ultimately he has to take responsibility for it.

 

Making it illegal would not take it off the market, it might decrease the number of people smoking it but from the look i see going across the faces of people who smoke as they draw in the smoke I doubt making it illegal would keep them from smoking it. One really bad thing is that the US government uses it's influence to make sure US tobacco products are sold all over the developing world where the warnings against smoking are no where near as well advertised as they are in the US.

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Nobody said you have to be on the customer side of the deal:

 

Tobacco Industry Profile: Industry Center - Yahoo! Finance

 

Top Top 10 Global Cigarette and Cigar Manufacturers by Revenue

1. Philip Morris USA Inc.

2. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc.

3. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation

4. Carolina Group (CG)

5. Altria Group, Inc. (MO)

6. British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BTI)

7. Japan Tobacco Inc.

8. Gallaher Group Plc

9. Altadis, S.A.

10. Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (ITY)

11. Swedish Match AB (SWMAY.PK)

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Nobody said you have to be on the customer side of the deal:

 

Tobacco Industry Profile: Industry Center - Yahoo! Finance

 

Top Top 10 Global Cigarette and Cigar Manufacturers by Revenue

1. Philip Morris USA Inc.

2. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc.

3. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation

4. Carolina Group (CG)

5. Altria Group, Inc. (MO)

6. British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BTI)

7. Japan Tobacco Inc.

8. Gallaher Group Plc

9. Altadis, S.A.

10. Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (ITY)

11. Swedish Match AB (SWMAY.PK)

The biggest problem I have with this is I wonder If they are using all revenues taken in by tobacco firms or strictly those revenues from tobacco....For example Philp morris manufactures many products that have nothing to do with tobacco....also when are we going to see the numbers for all of the tax revenue earned from tobacco...and where this money goes?

 

BTW thank Mr Moon man so good to hear a voice of reason.

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The biggest problem I have with this is I wonder If they are using all revenues taken in by tobacco firms or strictly those revenues from tobacco....For example Philp morris manufactures many products that have nothing to do with tobacco....also when are we going to see the numbers for all of the tax revenue earned from tobacco...and where this money goes?..

 

Companies publish that for stockholders: Philip Morris International - Investor Relations - Investor overview

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I'm a big fan of personal liberties and as such am sympathetic to views that discourage making tobacco illegal. Yet, as John Stuart Mills believed, personal liberties end when they start to affect another person's personal liberties. So, gov't bans on smoking in public places is warranted, imho. Though, when these laws extend to private businesses, they miss the mark. Private businesses should be allowed to choose if their establishment will be smoking, non-smoking, or a mix. If the people do not approve of their choice, then market forces will put them out of business, if they don't change. Of course, smokeless tobacco products are usually exempt from encroaching on other people's liberties.

 

So, I don't think tobacco should be made illegal. Besides the points already raised, it's important to note that black-market tobacco would be subject to the same dangers as other unregulated black market drugs. Because they are unregulated, there is no telling how good the product is, how much (and what type) of pesticides were applied, added adulterants, etc.

 

People are going to smoke it if they want, whether it is illegal or not. Even laws that excise heavy taxes have not been effective to help curb smoking (for me at least). It just meant that I had less money for other things. Or worse, I would buy a pouch of loose tobacco and roll my own (much cheaper, but much more harmful as they were filterless). So, for me, such laws seem more like a punishment than a discouragement.

 

I know tobacco is evil and it sucks that it is so easy to get hooked. I smoked for 10+ years and have quit (fifth time) since January now. But, in all honesty, if tobacco was illegal, and I wanted to smoke, I would get it somehow. I think there are better ways to discourage tobacco use.

 

It seems most anti-tobacco ads these days focus on the dangers of smoking. Fear is a powerful motivator, but it might not be the best approach. Perhaps ads that showed the comparative health benefits of not smoking would be more effective. ;)

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Homeopathic Educational Services - Tobacco: A Medicine and a Poison - Insights From Homeopathy

 

Slavery is evil. Genocide is evil. Murder and theft are evil.

 

Tobacco is a plant.

 

You know, I almost erased that before posting, wary that someone might call attention to it. It was laziness that I didn't change it and you are right to call me out. ;)

 

Let me rephrase. The addictive properties of tobacco are very strong and result (indirectly) in harming many people.

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