Cigarettes should be illegal.

[Hazy992]

How does alcohol actually help people? It's the same argument.

O/T, and apologies if it has already been mentioned in some way: I know of a way it can indeed help you, even save your life. Ethanol is the cure for antifreeze poisoning (ethylene glycol, IIRC) and in lieu of medical-grade ethanol, vodka will do quite nicely. Or whiskey, or gin, or...

But that's indeed a specific situation, and mostly unrelated to how most people generally treat alcohol. It just amused me when a medical student told me of it. ^^

Well you learn something new every day

But even so, it's kind of a silly argument. Just because it's not helping people doesn't mean it should be banned. And people smoke to relieve anxiety and stress and things like that.

 

[Wintermoot]

and take away people freedom to do whatever the hell they want?
Overall cigarettes are harmless unless you blow the smoke in somebody's face

 

[Pifflestick]

As bad as cigarettes are for your health, its more dangerous to make them illegal then to keep them as they are, regulated. Whenever we try to make substances illegal it just creates a thriving black market that peddles the stuff; it happened with alcohol in the 1940's, and its been happening over the last however many decades with marijuana. Regulation and education is how you promote good health, not banning substances that cause harm.

 

[Yosato]

Weed is less harmful than cigarettes. At least weed help people in a way. That and it's natural unlike the thousands of chemicals in the average cigarette. And in what way does a cigarette help anybody. If you know a way please tell me. But they should just ban them without hesitation.

If you think that weed is less harmful, shouldn't you be petitioning to make that legal rather than saying cigarettes should be illegal (thus telling people how to live their lives)?

 

[DBLT4P]

What i find odd is that you attack the legality of one thing and simultaneously support another comparable thing, with what is ostensibly nothing more than a moral judgment. I dont understand why everything that is potentially harmful or "bad" needs to be banned. Its like no one trusts that anyone else has any sense of responsibility, conscience, or common sense, yes there are people and will always be people who will abuse trust and the privileges of personal freedom, but does that mean that everyone else has to be punished for it?
And why is it that people never seem to be able to compromise on subjects with a moral component, even if they agree on the other 98%? Take the abortion controversy; everyone has gotten themselves red in the face over the legality of it, and don't (or won't) understand why the other side doesn't agree with them. Couldn't we at lease agree that abortion is a painful and traumatizing experience that should be avoided whenever possible? If not also that despite this, Abortion may in some cases be the most humane option (lesser of two evils)?

 

[Yosato]

How does alcohol actually help people? It's the same argument.

O/T, and apologies if it has already been mentioned in some way: I know of a way it can indeed help you, even save your life. Ethanol is the cure for antifreeze poisoning (ethylene glycol, IIRC) and in lieu of medical-grade ethanol, vodka will do quite nicely. Or whiskey, or gin, or...

But that's indeed a specific situation, and mostly unrelated to how most people generally treat alcohol. It just amused me when a medical student told me of it. ^^

Well you learn something new every day

But even so, it's kind of a silly argument. Just because it's not helping people doesn't mean it should be banned. And people smoke to relieve anxiety and stress and things like that.

Exactly, and you can flip that argument too. They use heroin occasionally to help people who dying and make them comfortable in their last hours. Just because it has a medical use doesn't mean it should be legal.

 

[Sandytimeman]

Weed is less harmful than cigarettes. At least weed help people in a way. That and it's natural unlike the thousands of chemicals in the average cigarette. And in what way does a cigarette help anybody. If you know a way please tell me. But they should just ban them without hesitation.

No they shouldn't be. Weed shouldn't be illegal either. The government spends millions to enforce these laws. But the fact of the matter is that A) its our money and B) the bans never work.


Drug use and availability has only gone up since the "war on drugs" started. Some people like tobacco, for christ sake they can't keep them out of prisons (or drugs for that matter) because people want them and where there is someone that wants to buy a product their will be a person to step up to the market and fill that need.

Crying for more regulation is only going to fund violent criminals, further increase our jail system (which btw spends over 700 billion a year on people for weed.

To quote Penn Jellite - "When you make things that arn't really crimes illegal you create real criminals"

Edit: Just because something is bad for you doesn't mean it should be illegal. Its people asking for laws like this that is getting soda pop banned. (which btw soda is only so cheap because we spend 3 billion in corn tax subsadies to make corn so cheap that it brings the price of soda down)

 

[GamerAddict7796]

I'm very much of the opinion that all drugs should be legal, as long as they are smoked at home. Over 80% of crime is drug related (people getting money for a fix or gang crime) so legalizing it would help everybody.

 

[Torrasque]

I'm all for having cigarettes being heavily regulated, but illegal? I don't think that'll fly.
The only buff that people get when they puff, is it calms their nerves. I'm not going to get into the placebo effect, or the psychological effect that smoking has, or addiction. I'm just saying that that is the only boon that cigarettes have.

Making cigarettes illegal would create a slippery slope that could lead to anything harmful becoming illegal, which is just wrong and bad. I am really sensitive to cigarette smoke and I think anyone that does smoke is an idiot for doing so, but I wouldn't make them illegal. Just like how I think country music is complete shit and anyone who listens to it cannot appreciate real music; that doesn't mean I would make country music illegal. Although, that would be a pretty amusing short story...

 

[Korzack]

May be less harmful, but I've seen my fair share of brain-dead stoners who look like Ferrets, it's not exactly perfectly flaw-less a substance, either.
Way I see it, may as well legalise weed, that way we swap the joys of occasionally getting a dodgy load from a dealer who cut it with cement to increase the weight + increase profit, for the joys of paying 90% tax on a substance of mild joy that makes everyone tut at you for daring to enjoy in plain sight.
Just like with Tobacco.
What fun.
(And this from a mild smoker who couldn't really give a damn what people do)

 

[Tipsy Giant]

OR just legalise everything and we can actually be treated like adults who can make conscious decisions for ourselves! Fuck me, when did we become such a bunch of pussies?

MURDER (all violent crime) & THEFT are the only real crimes we need protection from!

 

[Sandytimeman]

OR just legalise everything and we can actually be treated like adults who can make conscious decisions for ourselves! Fuck me, when did we become such a bunch of pussies?

MURDER (all violent crime) & THEFT are the only real crimes we need protection from!

I always laugh when I see someone accuse anyone of socialism in this country. Because we already live in a pretty socialist government. The government is telling us all the time what is and isn't good for us and then slowly they are removing our ability to make choices for ourselves. This is exactly the reason I became a semi-libertarian.

I would rather have freedom and the ability to fuck up then live 200 years in a completely controlled government run life.

 

[tsb247]

For some reason I am reminded of the episode of, "1000 Ways to Die," that I watched last night. Two dumb stoners were so desperate to get high that they smoked poison sumac and died of pulmonary edema shortly thereafter.

Perhaps it's the OPs attitude that, "Weed is natural," and must be better than cigarettes that leads me to remember that.

Marijuana, while beneficial for treating a limited number of medical conditions, also has a laundry list of negative side effects; most of which were mentioned on page 1 of this thread.

In the end, the human body wasn't designed in take in anything other than clean air through the lungs.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Marlboro is such a hipster brand, especially in the UK, as hardly anyone smokes them.

Lambert and Butler, Sorveign, and Mayfair are the ones to go for.

It's a shame that most retailers put their cigarettes behind white doors now, it just proves how much of a nanny state we are.

But they are allowed to show off the lighters and lighter fluid, like that isn't dangerous...

But Marlboro make the cigarettes of kings!

 

[Colour Scientist]

Oops, double post.

Mmm... lovely fags.

OP: No, they shouldn't be illegal, leave my vices alone.

 

[Sammaul]

But.... What if i prefer smoking my weed rolled with tobacco?

 

[Link55]

But.... What if i prefer smoking my weed rolled with tobacco?

There's a diffrence because the companies who made the cigarettes put thousands of chemicals in it. so it's still bad but not as bad.

 

[FamoFunk]

Lol, let's ban an addictive drug to legalise another addictive drug.

They'll never ban them, too many people depend on them and in the UK at least, the tax the government slap on them bring in way too much income for them to ban them.

 

[Smithburg]

The thing is I think alcohol and cigarettes should be banned, because they affect other people than the one using it. Secondhand smoke has caused health problems, and drunk driving has killed countless people. YOu can say what does it matter what a person chooses to do to themselves, but this is affecting other people as well. So I would agree with banning them. It'll never happen though, there are too many people hooked on it. Although I really don't understand how weed is illegal when cigs and beer aren't. It's less harmful than either of them.

 

[Nash]

Marlboro is such a hipster brand, especially in the UK, as hardly anyone smokes them.

Lambert and Butler, Sorveign, and Mayfair are the ones to go for.

It's a shame that most retailers put their cigarettes behind white doors now, it just proves how much of a nanny state we are.

But they are allowed to show off the lighters and lighter fluid, like that isn't dangerous...

But Marlboro make the cigarettes of kings!

Hardly anybody smokes Marlboro because they're too damn expensive. Why pay a quid more for Marlboro Reds when you can get just as good a hit (and IMO flavour) from a deck of Chesterfields?

That said, Bright Leaf are lush.