What should be done with smokers?

[Solly]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
Can I have a refund of my taxes that went on your education?

Maybe in twenty years for your health care.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I plan on being a hale and hearty 51-year old. I really don't think the fact that once a month or so I go out to a pub or club and smoke 5-10 fags will change that.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
I plan on being a hale and hearty 51-year old. I really don't think the fact that once a month or so I go out to a pub or club and smoke 5-10 fags will change that.

OK, maybe when you're 71 then instead.

[Drekkus]

Originally posted by Guynemer


It's "established"? Where the hell did you hear that? Jesse Helms?

The tobacco industry told me so herself!!

Scientific research can be bend in every which way you want.

http://www.davehitt.com/facts/who.html

[Jac de Molay]

Hell Dave, I'll hit you in the pocketbook so hard that you'll never be able to afford

Please read my follow-up post. I didn't propose this method of taxation as a panacea. Only as a way to dissuade those from beginning smoking in the first place. The real nic addicts will always seek out sources for their "fix", and pay any price.

Give us a kiss, honey.

, etc.

There's a distinction between behaviors that put one at increased risk for harm and ones that directly cause disease. The environmental carcinogens of modern life no doubt put us all at risk. However, smoking is preventable and a direct cause of many, many ailments.

Pardon me, but I have to convey the illusion of being productive today. Be back in a few.

[Gatekeeper]

Everyone:

[soapbox]

Hmm ... what to do with smokers, eh? Well, I say NOTHING.

Let them think they're sexy when they light up (never minding the fact that smokers shrivel and wizen faster than normal and have less blood flow going to "essential" areas of the body during sex). Let them think they're cool when they reek like some freakish combination of a fireplace and chemical factory. Let them think they're "hip" when standing outside in all sorts of inclement weather so the addicts can have their "fix." Let them go on about their "rights" when, like clock-work, they need a "break" to nurture their addiction "X" times per hour/day.

Let them learn the hard way when they're choking with emphysema (sp). Let the tears flow down their face when the doctor tells them they have lung cancer that's mestasizing throughout their bodies. Let them learn the hard way when a loved one is sick or dying because of "sidestream" smoke from smokers' deadly and addictive products.

When they're dead and buried (or cremated), they will have all the time in the world to think long and hard about an addiction that ruled their former lives.

Hey, isn't it about time for some smokers to "step outside" to imbibe in their addiction? I mean, my "soapbox" statement has been a somewhat long and rambling one ... and I'm certain the "need" is building, right?

[/soapbox]

IMHO, the only reason smoking is legal today and defended as a "right" is because it had time to worm its way into human societies before we realized how DEADLY and ADDICTIVE it is to the addict him/herself and just plain DEADLY to anyone who has to live or associate extensively with an addict.

Can you imagine what our world might look like had marijuana, cocaine and heroin been mass produced and distributed since the 1600s, their effects on health unknown or deliberately ignored? Well, that's the story of tobacco. This insidious poison had centuries in which to become "mainstream" and "normal," and that's the ONLY reason it isn't treated legally and socially as an outcast, poisonous and addictive drug, much as marijuana, cocaine and heroin have always been treated.

In conclusion, smokers are addicts. Nothing more, nothing less. Sad, huh? Enslaved to an addiction that's legal and has corporate marketing muscle behind it. You know what's worse? The fact that not only smokers pay the price for their addiction. Non-smokers do as well.

CYBERAmazon

[Blackwidow24]

Cyberamazon

Lookie here...we may be addicted to this but that doesn't make all of us bad people..everyone is addicted to something in one shape or fashion. I don't think I am cool
OI don't think I am sexy..and i certainly don't agree with your stereotype of me. What makes you so high and mighty to down smokers???? i am courteous about it but this feels to me like an attack on my Character. I am not a child..i understand the lconsequences and health problems that come with smoking so preach what you will but don't condemn me because you aren't perfect either. And like I said in my earlier post I do not smoke in front of people who do not want me to infact I do not smoke until the SUN GOES DOWN. I GO WITHOUT ALL DAY.....

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Balls, dear boy. That's like saying that all drinkers are alcoholics.

Brace yourself for a shock, but I've been smoking for 13 years and I'm not addicted to nicotine. Why lump those who use nicotine with those who abuse it?

The means of avoiding addiction is very simple. Allow breaks between smoking sessions- ideally of over a week. No physical addiction will occur. I am proof of that. I feel no withdrawal at all when in the weeks (and I mean "weeks") when I'm not smoking. The trouble is that the health witches refuse to promote responsible approaches to smoking, preferring to treat it as if one were fellating the cancerous phallus of Satan rather than indulging in a mild diversion.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by CYBERAmazon
Can you imagine what our world might look like had marijuana, cocaine and heroin been mass produced and distributed since the 1600s, their effects on health unknown or deliberately ignored?

Actually they were. 100 years ago it's estimated that over 7% of Britain's population was addicted to opiates, usually in the form of laudanum. What's more, as it was cheap and fairly pure, the proportion of drug deaths compared to today were far lower.

Even Queen Victoria smoked dope. S'true.

[Blackwidow24]

RIGHT ON BFB

[Gatekeeper]

Re: Cyberamazon

Originally posted by Blackwidow24
Lookie here...we may be addicted to this but that doesn't make all of us bad people..everyone is addicted to something in one shape or fashion. I don't think I am cool
OI don't think I am sexy..and i certainly don't agree with your stereotype of me. What makes you so high and mighty to down smokers???? i am courteous about it but this feels to me like an attack on my Character. I am not a child..i understand the lconsequences and health problems that come with smoking so preach what you will but don't condemn me because you aren't perfect either. And like I said in my earlier post I do not smoke in front of people who do not want me to infact I do not smoke until the SUN GOES DOWN. I GO WITHOUT ALL DAY.....

I never said smokers were bad people. I said they were addicts. There is a difference between the two words, ma'am. I am also quite sure you're not a "child" and that you're nice IRL. Most people are.

Secondly, I am not perfect, nor have I made any claim as such. My anti-smoking stance comes from family experience — both my parents smoke on and off and my grandparents were smokers as well, but have since "kicked" the addiction at great personal suffering. Other members of my family continue to be hooked (an uncle and who knows how many grandchildren), and they're nice folks (I attest to that personally), But they're also cigarette addicts.

CYBERAmazon

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
Balls, dear boy. That's like saying that all drinkers are alcoholics.

Brace yourself for a shock, but I've been smoking for 13 years and I'm not addicted to nicotine. Why lump those who use nicotine with those who abuse it?

The means of avoiding addiction is very simple. Allow breaks between smoking sessions- ideally of over a week. No physical addiction will occur. I am proof of that. I feel no withdrawal at all when in the weeks (and I mean "weeks") when I'm not smoking. The trouble is that the health witches refuse to promote responsible approaches to smoking, preferring to treat it as if one were fellating the cancerous phallus of Satan rather than indulging in a mild diversion.

Perhaps you should market your particular approach to smoking. You might be able to make a bundle from other "non-addicted" smokers or, more likely, from those who are addicted. Kind of like those "gradual step-down" approaches that are on the market nowadays.

CYBERAmazon

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
Actually they were. 100 years ago it's estimated that over 7% of Britain's population was addicted to opiates, usually in the form of laudanum. What's more, as it was cheap and fairly pure, the proportion of drug deaths compared to today were far lower.

Imagine if the tobacco companies marketing power of today were present back then. Makes you wonder how many more people might have ended up becoming hooked on opiates.

Even Queen Victoria smoked dope. S'true.

Yes, that is true. It's one of the things I learned from books and The History Channel. Quite fascinating, in its own way, I guess. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was quite the smoker, too.

CYBERAmazon

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Drekkus


The tobacco industry told me so herself!!

Scientific research can be bend in every which way you want.

http://www.davehitt.com/facts/who.html

Look, I'm not saying that second-hand smoke is a vicious killer that must be eliminated. But saying that it's as harmful as a cookie, that's just BS. Thousands upon thousands of cases of childhood asthma have been attributed to second-hand smoke.

Should smoking be illegal? Of course not. But smokers should realize that they ARE jeopardizing the health of those around them.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Are these thousands of childhood asthma sufferers kept in protective bubbles when they go outside to keep them away from diesel fumes?

Or, for that matter, all those other lovely airborne pollutants that come out of the US....?