Should smoking become illegal? Why?
339603
Nope, last time I checked this is a free country.
518600
No...smokers are not going to quit.  What smokers may begin to do is find alternative ways to purchase cigarettes.  Smokers are already way overtaxed, and as states decide to rape them further, they will find cheaper ways to buy cigarettes (over thi internet, in the next state over, have their cousin Vinny send them UPS, etc).  \n\nI simply can't understand the obsession with trying to screw the smoker these days.  Like you said, smokers are one of the largest contributors to the state budget each year. Larger than sales tax, larger than property tax....\n\nI say, let smokers have a break....if you are going to restrict where they are allowed to smoke, you need to reduce the tax...It should be like a usage tax, the less places in a state that smokers are allowed to smoke, the less tax they have to pay!\n\nBTW 'sunny'.....STFU!  Smoking does NOT cost millions in public health care.  Do a little research and you will find that this 2nd hand smoke bunk is nothing but a myth.  The Supremem court overturned the EPA's decision about ETS (2nd Hand SMoke) and called it junk science with no foundation to stand on.
712543
Actually, I don't think they should stop to prevent people from smoking. That should be a personal choice that the person should make on their own behalf. This is a free country and people jump down tobacco product companies throats for what reason? Because the smoking population spends their own money on cigs. So personally, I am no smoker but I am not tempted to buy cigarettes no matter what the commercial says. If that's what an individual wants to do w/ their then so be it. If that's the case then we should stop making alcohol, we should shut these fast foods joints down, etc.... so really, smoking and lung cancer is a matter of choice.
1050053
Hi, I would want it to. But in reality that would be unfair. People have choice, and if they chose to harm themselves then so be it. But it shouldn't be at the expense of others- in a public place, where other people recieve the second hand smoking.
35817
Definitely should be laws against this! No child should have to breathe in second hand smoke- it's cruel. Parents with any sense wouldn't smoke around their kids.
622510
Making it illegal will make the dealers rich. We should educate the public more effectively on the adverse effects of tobacco use.
804367
It's a great idea... it's already happened in Scotland, and I found it incredibly liberating to enter bars and restaurants there and not have to walk through clouds of smelly smoke for once. It's so nice to be able to go along and spend time with my smoker friends and actually enjoy my time with them - to feel like part of the group again. And I no longer have to keep going outside on my own for some fresh air in the freezing cold. It's actually a very nice feeling. \n\nSmoking is a right, yes I agree.. but I feel it's more of a right not to be forced to breathe in others second-hand smoke. It's just nasty full stop. If people want to enjoy a smoke, I'm very happy for them to do it in the privacy of their own homes. :-)
934642
I see no reason not to be able to open casinos, since the govnerment squandered the 50 billion dollars due the Native American population since they were all put on reservations. However, in my opinion of a smoker for 50 years, all tobacco and tobacco products should be banned from this country and be called an illegal drug. Tobacco has caused the deaths of more people in this and other countries than all of the so-called illegal drugs in the world combined. More power to you on the Casino thing though, you have my vote!
1038201
weed kills you and your braincells faster than cigarettes and i agree with you that cigarettes should be illegal because to many kids around 13 think its cool to smoke or its just because their under the peer pressure of friends.
253044
Yes it should be legal. For one, I have lived in a place where it IS legal and the differences are astounding. Children/Teens are MUCH less likely to smoke pot if it is legal. It doesn't have the "mystique" that illegal items do. Also, there are fewer Driving while Under the Influence charges per capita where marijuana is legal, because it is used more responsibly. Check your crime statistics, you'll find that I'm right. Marijuana is no more dangerous than a cigarette. In fact, it is NOT as addictive. Infact, marijuana is ONLY a psychologically addictive drug, not a physiologically addictive one. Cigarettes are both. Economically speaking, if it were legal it would be MUCH cheaper to get. This would help regulate quality of the drug, making it much less likely to be laced with other, more addictive additives like PCP. The sale of it could be governmentally regulated, like alcohol and other controlled substances, and TAXED. That would generate a HUGE amount of tax revenue........
1013105
They killed my father. Small cell lung cancer.\nThe government gave them away during WWII.\nIt really promoted them and caused a generation of addicted people.\n\nHowever, you will create smugglers that are not taxed and increase the overloaded court system if you make them illegal. I think that taxation and insurance incentives may be a better way to discourage smoking. Fining smokers for smoking in public places has started and I am sure that more can be done.\n\nI think that loosing the Tax revenues and making this industry go underground would not stop it but make battling the problem more costly. I could be wrong and offer this only as another viewpoint after talking with some Dutchmen about similar issues in their country.\n\nAlso, I do not think that Police will give much priority to laws against smoking cigerettes when they are already overloaded with meth addicts, etc. and understaffed. My cousin is a NARC.
211900
The fact is that scientists have no way to duplicate the medicinal effects of marijuana. Unlike cigarettes, studies have shown that there is only one type of person that gets 'hooked' on pot... for some reason, those predisposed to alcoholism are prone to marijuana addiction, too.\n\nGovernment/Pharmaceutical Conspiracies aside, there is no reason in the world that marijuana should be any more illegal that alcohol or cigarettes. Cigarettes would be illegal now if it were not for the taxes that the government takes in. But, that is another question to ask...
120687
Well I do not think it was absolutely necessary, but because of the behavior of people and their abuse of the privelege of smoking, slowly those priveleges have become more restricted.\n\nExamples of abuses:\n\n1. leaving cigarette butts and packaging and ashes everywhere\n2. being careless with lit cigarettes and matches and causing fires \n3. lighting up without regard to nonsmokers around\n4. assumption that they could smoke anywhere any time\n5. burning furniture and floors and walls with cigarettes\n6. burning sinks and toilets with cigarettes left burning\n\nThe movement to ban smoking in public places gained momentum when it became clear that smoking not only caused cancer, heart disease, strokes, emphesemia and a number of other problems among smokers, but the evidence started to mount that it harmed the health of others as well. The realization that second hand smoke is associated with health hazards started to create a demand to restrict smoking in public spaces. \n\nThis, coupled with the dangers from fires, and other damage to property, eventually started to tip the scales in favor of restricting smoking.
1034825
I would vote to keep it legal.  Prohibition didn't work, neither would banning tobacco.
1123550
I don't think marijuana should have ever been illegal, I think it is just as dangerous as alcohol.  I think the issue was and always will be that alcohol was consumed by "white men" and marijuana was consumed by "Native Americans."  When we took control of what now is the US we shunned all Native culture, and marijuana part of that.  Currently Marlboro cigarettes already owns the rights to produce "joints" should marijuana be legalized.  I think it's about time that people changed their attitudes on this subject.
1162666
Until this country begins to have integrity in all of its laws, there is no way to have fairness on this issue. If smoking IS as hazardous as it seems, then, it should be made illegal completely. But our country is so diverse, and proud of our diversity, that we cannot come to a concensus on anything and, therefore, we have contradictory feelings on many issues. \n\nDe-legalizing tobacco/smoking would have a devastating effect on the tobacco industry, which is made up of individual farmers, factory workers, and retailers whose loss of income would substantially effect the rest of the economy. Eventually, they would be reabsorped  into the workforce in other jobs, but until then, their problems would become our problems. Do we want to support them through this time?\n\nAnd criminalizing tobacco use would create an underground industry to provide tobacco products to those who still desired to have them, just as "rum running" and moonshine appeared at the time of Prohibition. Are we prepared to pay to combat this "criminal activity"?  \n\nIMHO, we are attempting to legislate something that should be a personal moral decision. If every smoker would care more about the right of non-smokers to breathe, if every alcohol consumer would care about the other people who are on the roadways and byways, if all users of illegal drugs would see the damage they are doing to themselves and others... Unfortunately, since these people refuse to respect the rights of others, claiming only their own "rights", we must make laws that are "unfair" to some in order to protect others. That means that even though smoking is a legal activity, smokers will have to be restricted by law from smoking where an innocent bystander may be harmed.
156143
I realize this may seem non-responsive, but I would not recommend it.  The trend is away from smoking, due to well-established health risks.  I realize there are still customers out there, but the already established smoke shops are struggling to keep them, and a new shop would not do well.  And your customer base would (I hope!) continue to shrink, as people wise up to the fact that smoking is simply not good for them.\n\nInvest your money elsewhere.