Cigarettes should be illegal.

[WolfThomas]

Ugh, even though I agree that cannabis is largely comparable to alcohol and tobacco in terms of risk, I can't abide that myth that cannabis is magically safer than tobacco.

http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/31/2/280.full

 

[Vrach]

Weed is a narcotic. Cigarettes are just harmful to the person smoking them (don't give me the second hand smoking bullshit, you get more poison in you in the air from car exhausts and the like just being out in the streets - besides, there are so many places you can't smoke anymore, it's easy to avoid it for the most part).

It's not about protecting people themselves, it's about protecting people from other people who use shit. Alcohol is not illegal because you can drink it and not get drunk - even drunk there are various levels and people can control themselves unless they're completely trashed from alcohol (despite the fact we use it as an excuse in a lot of situations). There's plenty of things that are illegal when you're drinking, hell, where I live, we've had a series of laws implemented making it illegal to get onto a public transport or even walk home if you're pissed and a cabbie can legally refuse to drive you home - so if you're out drinking, you better have a chauffeur with you.

Weed can get people on bad trips. A lot of people will get paranoid from smoking it and can do a host of things under the influence. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not demonizing weed here, I honestly think it'd be fine to make it legal and control it the same way alcohol is, maybe a bit more sternly, but comparing weed to smoking is just nothing short of stupid.

 

[somonels]

There are people who don't do weed and don't want it to be legal - not yet - and there are people who do weed anyway and are druggies so nobody should take them very seriously.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I really don't care. I'm not often forced to be in the same space as smokers, and in public I can deal with it. Passive smoking has not been shown either to be a serious issue or to lead to active smoking, and while occasionally very irritating, there are plenty of other behaviours that are equally irritating and which are not banned, such as coughing and sneezing. However I do believe that smokers should not have breaks during work specifically for it. It should be treated like any other product. I only agree with the restriction to certain areas because you are unlikely to come across a restaurant full of people coughing and sneezing profusely, and would be right to complain if you did.

 

[Bertylicious]

We should ban fatty food as well. Also, if we could somehow destroy the human orgasm we would end teenage pregnancy overnight and significantly reduce the spread of HIV.

Non-proffesional sport also should be banned as it costs industry billions in lost days from workers injuring themselves in sporting accident.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I smoke a pipe... I find it relaxing, and due to the time it takes, when socially smoking it on a night out it stops me drinking too much and saves me from hangovers... also it tastes good... Should that be banned too?

The issue here isn't harm to the user, it is harm to others... If a smoker wants to put harmful chemicals in their lungs, despite warnings, then so be it... it doesn't harm anyone else, (especially with modern day smoking laws in most countries) and it doesn't effect the person's short term abilities.


On the other hand Weed alters the state of mind. It puts people in a slightly elevated state, and effects reaction speeds and spatial awareness... like alcohol. This now puts others in danger, especially when in charge of cars, or other dangerous items that could cause harm to others! You could limit it like alcohol, but unlike alcohol it is harder to tell on the spot if someone has used it. Imagine someone killing a pedestrian in a car crash, under the influence of weed, and the police turning up... how do they tell if that guy is breaking the law, or if the smell of weed is from another time?

Also, alcohol and smoking have been part of culture and society for hundreds of years. It has it's roots buried deep in our ethics. Weed on the other hand is reletively new, and is frowned upon in society. This means that a misplaced, misinformed rant on a gaming website, that has a blatent air of lack of care and attention unfortunately is rendered even more obselete...

 

[Korolev]

Prohibition doesn't work. It just doesn't. I support legalizing marijuana, and I don't want cigarettes banned. Or alcohol.

Now, let me be clear - I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't use recreational drugs. I know exactly how harmful all of those drugs are, and none of them are harmless. While Marijuana is NOT as deadly or horrible as the government would have you believe, it is NOT entirely harmless. Less harmful that cigarettes? Perhaps. Less harmful that alcohol? I think so. That's why I don't use any of those three drugs or smoking devices.

I think the world would be a better place without alcohol or cigarettes or drugs - but, I don't think we should or could effectively ban them. They've tried it. Remember the 1920's and the 1930's? Well, okay, sure, none of us remember the 1930's, because 99.999999% of people using this form weren't around then, but the 20's and the 30's taught us a lesson - you can't ban alcohol. They tried. They tried really hard. It didn't work.

Prohibition isn't working on drugs either. They've fought Marijuana for decades upon decades. It hasn't worked - we have celebrities who nearly openly use the drug. We've got presidents from both sides of the US political system admitting to using marijuana in their youth. Marijuana use is here to stay, as surely as is whiskey drinking or beer drinking or wine drinking.

I don't think it's a good idea to use these drugs. While I don't think they are nearly as harmful as the Government would have you believe, I don't think they are nearly as harmless as the hippie crowd would have you believe. Both sides distort the facts to either demonize Marijuana or elevate it to some wonder drug that will free our minds and cure cancer. It isn't either of those things, and if you actually read the research papers (I recommend using PubMed or the Cochrane library, both of which are online) you'd realize that Marijuana is mostly but not totally harmless for most people. There are a few people who will develop mental problems and mental illness from even light marijuana use, but that's a genetic thing and the risk isn't the same across the board.

Now, should Cigarettes be illegal? I certainly think they've claimed more lives than marijuana use ever did or could. I've done the research - those cigarettes are BAD for you. Really bad for you. It raises the risk of lung cancer, emphysema, asthma exacerbation, high blood pressure (contrary to popular belief, cigarettes do not actually relax you or lower your risk of cardiovascular disease), atherosclerosis, stroke, the list goes on and on. It's a bad thing for you to do.

But life is about making mistakes. We learned this in Medical ethics - freedom means the freedom to stuff up your life. People grow from mistakes, and they should be allowed the freedom to make mistakes. Cigarette smoking is, to anyone with even a lick of medical training or scientific education, a big mistake. But it's a mistake that people should be allowed to make.

 

[slippereend]

With alchohol you only hurt yourself physically (if you don't start to bash people's heads in). With sigarettes, you always hurt the other people around you that breathe in your smoke.

Alcohol can help people loosen up a bit and can, when regulated, even be good for you.

I don't drink or smoke myself, both of my parents smoke and I've always hated it, and another family member is a an alcoholic. Seeing what alcohol can do to you makes me stay away from it.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

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.

Aside from the synthetic weed that causing people to strip naked and eat people yeah your right.

I would say though that alcohol is the worse evil. With cigarettes you never really lose control (unless you count the crankiness when you haven't had a cigarette) but alcohol you lose control. Its damn near guaranteed.

I just think we are concentrating on the wrong drug in this world right now. Yeah cigarettes cause cancer, but it almost always causes cancer in the person who is smoking. Alcohol kills thousands of innocent people a year in drunk fights and car accidents.

So if cigarettes is worse than weed, and alcohol is worse than cigarettes yes I can see that part being correct in your argument... however.

Now I believe your intended argument is why do we ban weed when cigarettes are so much worse. Look weed causes short term memory loss and impaired function. It also has more tar than cigarettes. Yes it doesn't contain rat poison, but its no where near harmless. So your argument comes off as childish. To take a quote from cracked.com:

"When they hear rebuttals like this, they're picturing a six year old kid stomping his foot and screaming at his mother, "Why can't I play that game? Jimmy's mom lets him play GTA, and that's way worse!" The end result is still that you're arguing for the right to make things worse than they were before."

Read more: 5 Pro-Marijuana Arguments That Aren't Helping | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-pro-marijuana-arguments-that-arent-helping_p2/#ixzz1yVn24QVS

Now don't get me wrong, I've smoked, I've enjoyed it, I understand why it pisses you off that its not legal when other things are. Still, don't use the "weed isn't as worse as..." argument. It pissed me off when I was in college and it still does now.

 

[Yopaz]

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.

Saying something is "natural" is a ridiculous arguement. Plenty of natural things are harmful. Nobody here's going to dispute the harm cigarettes can do, but I also suspect cannabis is not nearly as harmless as you seem to think. For example, some claim cannabis can cause fear, anxiety, distrust, increased heart rate, lower blood pressure, co-ordination issues, memory issues and perception distortion. Now, all of these are contested issues, as are the health benefits, so an outright replacing of cigarettes with cannabis is probably a bad idea as of yet.

Second, people can smoke cigarettes for stress relief, the social aspect, for the taste or maybe even as a way of focusing oneself or concentrating. None of these are physically helpful, and of course will, in the long run, lead to damage, but they're still ways in which people can be helped by smoking.

Finally, as much as I'm favour of some form of controlled legalisation of cannabis, it's unlikely to be all as peachy-perfect as you make it out to be. Certainly the wrong answer would be to ban cigarettes, especially if your answer to that is to then all but replace them with cannabis. Controls on smoking in public places, especially indoors are sensible and for the benefit of the public, but above and beyond that it's no-one's business but their, your or my own when, where, if or how many they, you or I smoke.

Hey man, don't knock natural products. The earth wouldn't want to hurt us...

http://listverse.com/2011/07/02/top-10-plants-that-will-kill-you/

I hate that "natural=good" argument.

*edit* also read the post above me, it has a lot of good points ^

Don't forget botulinum, the deadliest poison currently known. Commit genocide with just a tea spoon of it.

Also banning cigarettes is stupid. People like it and it works to relax people without giving them a feeling of being high. Nicotine (which is also natural along with tar) is a mild drug which causes enhanced concentration while it reduces irritation. It's harmful, it increases risk of cancer, but that's a choice that smokers should be free to take. As long as they don't smoke inside of public buildings or my house I am willing to let them smoke all they want.
Oxygen is bad for you too, but I don't see anyone wanting to ban that.

 

[nuba km]

I agree as smoking has no upside except stopping the downsides of not smoking in a while after you have started smoking, getting drunk can at least be fun.

 

[Rastien]

I dislike cigarettes as much as anyone, but who am I to tell people how to live their lives?

I do not wish to live in a nanny state, and neither should you.

Also, weed has potential harmful side effects in the same way drunkenness has potential harmful side effects.

People do stupid things when drunk, so I can't imagine the number of 'heavy machinery' accidents caused by people who are high all the time.

Just because its legal doesn't mean people going to be gettign stoned at work, although your always going to have someone who will, but its the same with alchoal thats legal people just don't drink at work ^^

Also i smoke and oddly enough i agree, but only if we get weed as a trade off or ban alchoal that wouldn't bother me i don't drink ^^

 

[Headsprouter]

I think i heard once that they reduce alzheimers....

But they'll never be banned outright as long as the human race has greedy people.

 

[Rastien]

I dislike cigarettes as much as anyone, but who am I to tell people how to live their lives?

I do not wish to live in a nanny state, and neither should you.

Also, weed has potential harmful side effects in the same way drunkenness has potential harmful side effects.

People do stupid things when drunk, so I can't imagine the number of 'heavy machinery' accidents caused by people who are high all the time.

Just because its legal doesn't mean people going to be gettign stoned at work, although your always going to have someone who will, but its the same with alchoal thats legal people just don't drink at work ^^

Also i smoke and oddly enough i agree, but only if we get weed as a trade off or ban alchoal that wouldn't bother me i don't drink ^^

Yes, but two guys driving drunk is a horror movie, while two guys driving stoned is a buddy comedy.

This is true the perception of stoned drivign compared to drunk driving is indeed appauling and i can't dispute that