Poll: Should smoking be made illegal?

[QuantumT]

Except that you know, it eases stress.

The easing stress is only initially. After you've been smoking for a little while, your stress levels go back to what they were beforehand, and if you don't smoke, you get more stressed.

 

[Kris015]

Actually here in Denmark it's already illegal to smoke in restaurants and public places like that.

Should be more expensive though, I think that would make a lot of people quit it.

 

[Blunderman]

Ok answer my question, how exactly are you helping people who want to smoke despite them knowing the risks?

You're just making people's lives more miserable and imposing your will onto everyone else (the idea that health should come before everything is not held by everyone nor should it be something they are forced to abide by).

For the same reason I'd want to help those who are eating themselves into morbid obesity, doing heavy drugs, being awful parents or hating people over the colour of their skin (not to claim that all of these are of equal severity).

My point has never been that health comes above everything, please don't put words in my mouth. What I've said is that smoking should be phased out and replaced with healthier habits. I don't think either one of us is under the impression that some people simply can't be happy without smoking, and if that was true, then isn't that a problem in itself?

My only desire is to promote a positive change in society. If you were to aptly demonstrate that the phasing out of cigarette smoking would not be a positive step, then I would change my mind.

You seem to think that I want to go 1984 on the world and dictate the thoughts and actions of everyone. I ask you to not punish me for your assumptions. Give me some credit, I don't believe I've given anyone enough reason to think that I'm somehow a draconian emperor.

 

[QuantumT]

Smoking(always bad)
S&M (although I heard most of them don't do stuff that would be permanently damaging or require a hospital visit)(encourages exercise)

So how exactly does being tied up and whipped by your partner encourage exercise (and I'm talking about the one being whipped)?

Umm... having sex is good exercise?

 

[Folksoul]

other.

I'd go for a combo of banned in public and heavier taxes.

 

[Blunderman]

A typo or a grammar error doesn't help your case. The fact that you think it does shows quite a low level of intelligence IMO.

Speaking of which
http://www.cracked.com/funny-3809-internet-argument-techniques/

Read number 4. The one about Super Tunnel Vision.

Oh, noes! Make me cry, why don't you.

Now you're just trolling. But hey, don't get distracted, man, just keep your eye on the prize!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Right.

Next time you see someone smoking, do you think it would be a good idea to go up to them, take the lit cigarette out of their mouth and then pat them down for other cigarettes?

Yeah. After which they simply let them go, no fine, no fuss.

I'm going to give you the benefit of being young here, but can I suggest you go around your local town on Friday and see how many people are ready to kick off if you even look at them funny?

Next, do you want to check how many places say that it's illegal to smoke within X metres of here, when that's actually not illegal.

Thirdly, do you want to check how many Nicorette products there are on the market? Your local chemist should carry at least a shelf full. If these worked, there wouldn't be the market demand for so damn many of them.

So - Angry People, Lied to, Can't get cured - You're going to approach them as if you were searching for white powder (Classifying it as a Class A drug now) and search them on the street?

As a white skinned policeman, would you dare to do the same in Brixton/Harlem?
Or a brown skinned policeman in any rural area.

They can't do that for illegal drugs without suspicion.

If the cops actually saw someone snorting white powder, that isn't suspicion enough for them to investigate?[/quote]

Investigate, probably. Apprehend/Search, nope.

Keep in mind here that you're asking our overworked police force - that has fewer "beat" bobbies, to stop and search people probably in a hurry, who are doing something that is legal.

This is something they can't do, or refuse to do with legal sedative drugs. Rememeber that Heroin addicts will be coming out of the chemists with their free Methadone.

Are you also asking all the homeless not to smoke cigarettes as well?

Not to dismiss the draconian nature of your ideas, but did you know that the Leicestershire Anti-Smoking Team, who were brought in to stop people smoking inside pubs, consisted of 10 people?

A total of 832 square miles.

How many constables would YOU put towards enforcing this scheme? And where would you take them from?

(Obviously they're going to be paid, put into dangerous situations, possibly shot/stabbed, and still need sensitivity training so when they're taking cigarettes from the homeless, physically disabled and expectant fathers, they can do it with grace.)

 

[Blunderman]

It's forced help that I think is wrong, if people want to smoke on their own I don't think it's your business. I think if you want to phase it out you get people to choose to stop.

For starters trying to force people to stop doing drugs doesn't work.

I never advocated forced help, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I would be firmly against a sudden ban.

My personal opinion of smoking and smokers hasn't got anything to do with what I'm saying here. I genuinely think that phasing out cigarette smoking from society would benefit primarily the smokers themselves, and everyone else second. I'd never claim that smoking doesn't have anything to offer, instead I respond to such an argument that other things can offer what cigarette smoking does, and better at that.

Certainly, a life is better led if you're just as happy as you were when you were smoking but without the continuous stream of harmful chemicals into your lungs? That's what I want to accomplish.

 

[Neonic-Ink]

I think that if smoking pot is illegal, smoking cigarettes should be illegal as well.

 

[Blunderman]

snip

Your entire post is irrelevant. I've never advocated a sudden ban, nor have I claimed that the phasing out of smoking should be accomplished through direct police intervention in the form of a national raid.

You asked me how the police would react to seeing someone smoke if it were illegal. I gave you an answer.

This is getting rather tiring. I won't be responding to any more straw men in this thread.

 

[silasbufu]

I thought it already is banned in public places, in some countries.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I've realised why I stay away from these threads.

The hypocricy of alcohol being fine, but smoking making you a pariah is fucking insane.

 

[CLEVERSLEAZOID]

I'm disgusted by the small minded ticks going 'HURPDURP LETS TAX IT MOAR! THAT'LL STOP PEOPLE SMOKING LOLZ'

Fucking moronic!

Yes, you like eating junk food, its considered unhealthy, and is supposidly destroying the future health of our generation. I KNOW! LETS TAX IT HURPDURPHURPDURP.

I stopped going to social drinking places when they brought in the smoking ban here in the UK. It took me a half a year to return to my local pub. I don't think we should get shoved outside to smoke just because of a % who have to moan about every little thing.

Plus, instead of smelling of generic smoke after a night clubbing, I now smell like Fat + Sweaty Person Who Kept Flicking His Hair Sweat All Over The People Near Him after a night out.

I know which smell I prefer.

 

[SmokingMirrors]

I've realised why I stay away from these threads.

The hypocricy of alcohol being fine, but smoking making you a pariah is fucking insane.

I'd have gone on a rant if it weren't for that comment right there. Thank you.

But seriously people, smoking isn't as lethal as they make it out to be. Both my parents smoke; My father since he was thirteen, and my mother since she was eighteen, neither having developed ANY negative side effects from doing so in more then fourty years.

In fact, its helped them keep their cool in fairly dire situations.

I'm not saying smokings a good thing to be doing, not at all, but it isn't the worst either.