Politics of Smoking

I post this thread so that the CHUD-munity(c) will have a place to discuss smoking, both pros and cons, outside of the realm of the "Quitting Smoking" thread.


To start it off, does anyone have any opinions on our President's habit? This person seems awfully concerned with his private buisness


I'd posted about this issue before, so to catch everyone up on where I stand on this particular political pickle, here is that post:

For the life of me, I cannot figure out what gender would have to do with it


Not true, necessarily. There are health risks, but unless you get lung cancer (which is far from certain), "decades" is a gross exaggeration

This may be true, I'm not certain. I don't smoke enough for that to happen. I have a little mark on the palm of my right hand from holding my glass piece, but that goes away if I stop smoking for a few weeks. So, I don't think the "skin stains" factor should influence anyone's personal smoking decisions.

That sounds a little suspicious. If that does happen, I'd have to assume you'd be smoking quite alot before you were ever in danger of your nose changing colors. And again, I don't smoke that much so that's not really a deterrent

I've never heard of such a thing, even in the TRUTH ads

Ok, I've heard this one before and believe it to be true. However, isn't that one of the main reasons to smoke in the first place? (Making you look more mature?)

True. 100%. Then again... so does living in Los Angeles, the anti-smoking capital of the world!

Um, I think you're thinking of sharing a telepod with a fly, or maybe cancer or something. Regular smoking does not cause you to cough up any organs

I have no idea how much you'd have to smoke for that to be true, but definitely 2 PPD+

Correction: Makes you smell (like smoke). Not the worst smell in the world. Grow up.

I'm more worried about the fact we're turning into a nation of fat people, than the small fraction of the population that smokes. Oh, and unless you're really unlucky, you won't have any illness from smoking right up untill you get sick enough to die from it (if that even happens). Being fat and lazy causes a life time of expensive health issues.

It's a wonderful social tool. Some of the best times in my life were had sharing cigs with friends

It's weird. My dad was part of the greatest generaton and got free Lucky Strikes during the war. He got back home, and despite smoking from age 14, quite cold turkey. My mom was the only person to complete the stop-smoking program she took when I was born. The only time in my life I've smoked regularly, during July 2004 when I was at the Boston DNC and was buying my own packs, was a breif experience. I got home, had one craving, and then just stopped and never thought about it again (craving wise). I'll smoke if others are having one, but feel no need to have cigs. That's not to say I havn't struggled with addiction, just not from cigs. I find them almost entirely non-addictive, compared to other stuff

See... that's the thing. No matter how bad for you, no matter how many good arguments against smoking there are, the message the anti-smoking people choose to pound into kid's skulls is the one message that even a kid knows is a lie: "Smoking is not cool". I'm sorry, but smoking IS cool. It looks awesome. If it were not cool, you'd think the anti's would be slightly less hysterical in their proclamations to the contrary. Many things are true about smoking, and yes ,many of the health claims are true. What's also true though is smoking looks very very cool. I think I'd be less annoyed with the D.A.R.E people if they'd just admit "Ok kids, you know what? Smoking does look cool, we're not going to lie. However, we're of the opinion that the health trade off is not worth it and that's why we'd like to encourage you not to smoke". That would be an honest message and one I'd have no problem with

Cleo,

I agree completely about alcohol. I find it disgusting, pretty much. It's terrible for you, and leaves me feeling brittle and sick to my stomach the next day. I guess that's what my frustration with all the anti-smoking stuff stems from. I feel like Americans (perhaps Britains too?) decided to get huffy about smoking so they'd feel like they actually were on top of the whole "being healthy" thing, when in reality just about everything else in the American Lifestyle that's unhealthy goes ignored. Cancer rates have skyrocketed over the past 50 years, and that's due to all the new chemicals we encounter, not just smoking.

You know, I actually miss the public smoking. I remember being a child and going to movies at the local mall when the food court still had a smoking section. The smells/sounds/sights were intoxicating. Now I look back at that as some magical lost world, when you could eat Little Tokyo and light up indoors. My mom always made us sit in the non-smoking, but the place seemed so much larger when there was this whole mysterious section I was not allowed to sit in (I could smell the exotic scents wafting over as I ate my Roman Delite pizza though) . Now the place is seems smaller and more mundane

Also, I used to work in a movie theater in highschool that had a bar next doors. It was the only smoking bar in town and I remember being sad when they were forced to change. The whole atmosphere changed, eventually the bar was purchased by someone else, redecorated, and is now a hang out for local hipsters. I went in there a few months back to order a hamburger, and it took over 45 minutes before I got my food. Ugh.

You are kidding, right? Alcohol is a poison that destroys your liver, stomach, and brain. Used "reponsibly" or not, it's poison , not magic-happy-juice

Alcohol is doing you damage, in ANY ammount. You're bloodstream is not supposed to be delivering alcohol to your brain.

Sure, nicotine is also poisonous. I do not think necessarily that longevity is a virtue in and of itself. Everything is a trade off. I just don't want to hear cigs slammed and alcohol defended as 'healthy'

I am against taxes on cigs. I do not think it's the government's place to tax stuff they happen to think are "bad". Either it's bad enough to ban it entirely, or they should just leave it alone. With that said, I do not see how you can argue for a cigarette tax and not a soda tax or a fat tax. If the people who talk about taxing smokes "10 dollars a pack"* were also for taxing soda "ten dollars a bottle " at least they'd be consistent. If we agree it's the government's place to tax things that will raise health care costs, cigarettes shouldn't be the end of that discussion.


*Not talking about you, boomstick. Thanks for the backup.