Smoking is safer the Fascism

[Ladyzekke]

I quit ciggs 6 months ago, yay! They are only important to you when you are addicted, once the addiction is gone you don't give a crap about em. I'm so glad I'm not a slave to the tobacco companies anymore. They aren't cashing in on my weakness and addiction anymore! Ha! Lovin it and proud of myself, cause I have an addictive personality in some respects and it really is a true accomplishment for me. [img]smile.gif[/img] I also save $160 a month not buying ciggs, and have bought myself all kindsa fun crap cause I have the extra money now.

Had to get that out sorry! On topic, I don't agree with any law prohibiting people from smoking in their own homes or even outside. I also, like Khazadman Risen, doubt that law would ever pass. Too much money is being made and I can't see how you could really regulate that sort of thing... Even though I quit smoking, I don't mind going to the restaurants around here that still exist where there are Smoking/Non-Smoking sections. The smoking section is on the other side and it doesn't bother me, I don't smell anything from the smoking side, and trust me, I have one hell of a sense of smell now! People who douse themselves with perfume are way more offensive to me when I'm trying to eat in a restaurant.

In summary, I believe in America the Free, and when it comes to your own home (that you own!), people should be able to do whatever they want in it, hands down.

PS-If anyone wants to quit smoking and could use some help or advice or just support, PM me, I'd love to help. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[PurpleXVI]

People aren't always alone in their homes, though, there may be kids and pets who aren't capable of protecting their own health or well-being(Spouses, too, but I think we can assume most adult humans can move out if conditions are damaging to them.).

Of course, the debate over just how bad second-hand smoke is isn't one that, as far as I know, has been ultimately settled yet, but even if it's only mildly damaging, consider that a child who lives with smoker parents from age zero to eighteen is exposed to that mild damage for a long time. Many creeks make a river, as we say in Denmark.

I'd still say it would be fair to require that people with pets or kids not smoke inside their homes, couldn't be too hard to go out on the porch. Some pets are actually surprisingly endangered by smoke, cats for example, they get a double dose of carcinogens because first they inhale the smoke, then some of it sticks in their fur, which they lick.

Just because you're in your own home doesn't mean you're the only person you have to consider. Of course, if you ARE living entirely on your own and aren't smoking enough to contaminate the entire block, you should be free to EAT your damn cigarettes if that's what rocks your boat.

On the other hand, I can completely agree with having smoking/non-smoking sections in restaurants rather than banning smoking. Even more so for bars, pubs, clubs, etc. Just about anyone who goes there(Barring kids who get dragged along by their parents, and that should only be the restaurants. But the exposure in that case should be so short and, usually, so diluted by being in a relatively large room, that the damage would be next to nothing.) has the option of going elsewhere if the smoke is too much for them, or just going home and making their own food/listening to their own music/buying a sixpack and chugging it at home.

Smoking outside? Of course it should be permitted. No one smokes enough that it can be an issue in that case unless they intentionally blow it in other people's faces, which is a public nuisance, rather than a health hazard. And before anyone got started on tackling that, anyway, they should take care of cars, which hurt urban air quality far more. But that's a totally different issue.

Public transport? Not everyone can afford a private alternative, and in some cases it's the only efficient alternative. Smoking should definitely be banned to hell and back again there.

Still, I think people on both sides are exaggerating the issue. Smokers? It's only a damn drug. It doesn't even have the beneficial effects of caffeine, and withdrawal is mild compared to so many other addictions. Stop acting like the government is putting on their lederhosen and marching all the smokers off to work camps. Anti-smokers? A total ban is a complete overreaction, there are plenty of cases, as I pointed out, where it's people's own choice whether to be exposed or where exposure is short enough that it can't really hurt anyone.

Mind you, what would really get support from me would be if the government banned a lot of cigarette additives. Just some paper sticks with a filter and some PURE tobacco. No nicotine-enriched(Seriously, most cigarettes have more easily-absorbed nicotine added so you get a better "high" and get more addicted.) crap soaked in 4000 different additives. You cannot get me to believe that there's lead or arsenic in most tobacco plants from nature's side, or that they're necessary for people to get their nicotine high. That'd protect a lot of people, smokers and non both.

[Ladyzekke]

Have you ever smoked before Neb? Cause if not, you can shut it re your "withdrawal is mild compared to so many other addictions." Cause that's crap. It's just as hard to quit as heroine. I know ciggarette withdrawals very well, do you?

[PurpleXVI]

Now please, I consider that a fallacious claim. Yes, it is HARD to quit nicotine, but it's not medically dangerous. Quitting severe physiological addictions to worse drugs can actually be lethal.

Alcohol, for example. Delirium tremens. Seizures are pretty common when attempting to quit harder drugs. No one has ever had seizures when quitting cigarettes unless they were laced with something very unusual.

However, I shall turn around your argument. Do you have experience with quitting heroin? If you have, then I shall, with considerable doubt as to the veracity of your statements, bow to your knowledge, but otherwise you're in exactly the same boat as me.

[robertthebard]

While I have no personal experience with heroin, I do know people that have quit both. Sometimes literally. The one thing I have heard from them, and witnessed, is that the cigarettes were harder to walk away from. Perhaps there are other physical considerations to heroin withdrawals, things that I have personally seen, but the issue isn't physically dangerous, but how hard it is to walk away from them. It's a pain, I'll tell you. I quit several months before I got ill, and it wasn't easy to do. In fact, it was so easy to fall back into the habit right where I left off that it really makes one wonder what's up. But, I have seen the reality of people walking away from heroin, cocaine, and cigarettes, and I'll tell you, the dope is easy to leave alone, if it is hard on you physically, but the cigarettes are not. Availability has a lot to do with that too, I'd imagine.

[PurpleXVI]

Indeed, I have talked to smokers and I know several who have tried to quit, I know how difficult it can be. But I doubt there's even an inkling of comparison between the actual withdrawal symptoms.

[machinehead]

http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Henningfield_Benowitz.html

[Ladyzekke]

If you have never smoked yourself, they you do NOT know how difficult it can be. Knowing "several" people means nothing, you are still ignorant.

Visit one of the many stop smoking forums out there on the net and and read about the experiences of millions of people who are in the process of quitting. It's really the best way to educate yourself other than to start smoking yourself, smoke for years, then try to quit.

Machinehead - Good link. I've been to that site before as well when I first quit, which was cold turkey. It always amuses me how the tobacco companies say nicotine is not addictive. They also don't even mention the OTHER addictive and harmful ingredients that are in ciggarettes, which if you look them up, is quite disturbing!

[PurpleXVI]

You ignore my reply, Zekke. You tell me that I cannot compare smoking and heroin because I have never had a nicotine addiction, but if that works, how can you call my comparison invalid if you have never tried heroin?

And some of what I say is incontrovertible fact that does not need personal experience. You will NOT die from quitting nicotine, or attempting to. You will not have seizures or delirium tremens. These things are very real dangers if you screw up getting off harder drugs.

I never said quitting smoking was easy, all I said was that people should not claim it is the end of the world, or something impossible/dangerous.

[Mack_Attack]

Never have smoked so I am not going to get into a huge debate about it. Makes me sick driving down the road and seeing a van load of kids and 2 parents smoking. Yes second had smoking can kill you. Not every one dies from second had smoke. But why would you want to play out that risk with your kids in the van.

Yes I know why they do it because they have an addiction.

But I just ask parents that smoke to take it outside the home. Plain and simple.

Here in alberta you can not smoke in any public area. Including bars. Did it affect buisness. On the whole it did not. Made me go out more.