John Henry

I just saw an item on the news about medical journal 'The Lancet' urging the government to ban smoking. I could not stop laughing (well I did eventually, but..) We're not talking here about a New York style ban on smoking in public places, but an all out criminalisation of tobacco. I am not a smoker, but to me this seems ludicrously impractical. Due to the extortionately high tax on cigarettes, Britain already has a well established tobacco smuggling industry. Banning tobacco outright would just put the rest of this industry into these peoples hands with the same disastrous effects we always see when people of a criminal mindset are given access to vast quantities of disposable wealth through an easy activity like drug dealing. As a friend of mine put it 'Every city centre in Britain would be a no go zone'. Also, the thought of 10 million indignant smokers rioting after being deprived of tobacco for a couple of weeks doesn't bear thinking about. I realise I am being a bit alarmist, especially as the government is not showing any signs of taking this seriously, but I just wondered what anyone else might think.

essendoubleop

Well marijuana is "banned" and that hasn't really ebbed anything...

james t kirk

Britain has universal health coverage i believe.

Smokers cost that system a hell of a lot more money than they ever contribute in taxes i am sure.

I am not for making smoking illegal, but i do firmly believe that it should be illegal with stiff fines in all public places, including restaurants and bars. If you want to smoke, go outside round back.

Mael

well, we banned alcohol in the 20's, and see how well that worked out? seriously, banning tobacco wouldn't do anything positive, although there are health benefits. the impact of the illegal importing and trafficing that would result i think would far out outweigh the reduced health spending.

sixate

*Dreams that smoking will get banned*
*Smacks self in head to return to reality*

In the real world there a milions of people with weak addictive personalities. Smoking, among other things, will never get banned because of those people.

Evil Milkman

I strongly believe the government would ban tobacco if it weren't taxed so high (obviously). Can you possibly imagine if the States banned smoking outright? If marijuana wasn't so easy to grow, the U.S. would probably allow it and tax the shit out of it.

j8ear

Any negative effects of second hand smoke are a myth. Pure and simply insignificant. Smoking is a choice you make, and as of 100 years ago, any one who smoked KNEW and experienced the risks smoking presents to the smoker. Including it's addictive properties.

It is the first and primary source recently exploited by most government bodies to reduce budget short falls created by unrealistic speding allocations made possible by fraudulent income predictions.

Criminalized. Absolutely immpossible. Drain on society. Yes. This is another issue, as it is only a drain, because somehow society agreed to be financially responsible for it.

I am one hundred percent in favor of decriminalization of all victimless crimes, especially drugs.

Government solutions to most problems fail miserably, especially crimilization.

-bear

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Dwarf020

there's no real reason to bother banning cig's anyway. the smoking rates go down each year. in the long run, you wont have to ban cig's, the companies'll stop selling them when they aren't profitable anymore.

BigGov

And magically when cigarettes finally become unprofitable (not in our lifetime) marijuana will become legalized and guess which companies will have large areas of land and an established delivery system they can use for the new industry.

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One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

John Henry

Hey that'd be wickedcool! Surely they'd have too much competition from the third world, though.

Dwarf020

actually, my hope is not that one day cig's are banned in public places, but that it'll be rare enough that it will be very un-cool to smoke in public. hopefully smokers can be shamed into leaving my air clean.

irateplatypus

i'm willing to endure getting some secondhand smoke every now and again if it'll keep the government from making a single more decision for me.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Sledge

I want the government to stop telling me how to take care of myself. I'm tired of being baby-sat.

Jesus Pimp

Yeah I don't think banning smoking will solve the smoking problem. I think someone needs to invent smoking chambers for people who smoke. No Longer will non-smokers have to deal with smokers and smokers can continue to smoke. Problem solved!

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Never date anyone who doesn't make your dick hard.