Although I don't know the exact numbers in regards to death due to cancer, some could say that those number of deaths could be reduced significantly if people didn't smoke.
I think it would defy logic to make it illegal. Too many people have a physical dependency on smoking :/ That's not to say I don't think it would be beneficial to society, it would, but it would never happen..
Its about the money. If you spend your cash on cigs, you won't have as much money left to donate to charities and causes to cure Cancer/Aids....
You're not listening to the argument Fex ... The money we PAY for ciggies goes to the government who then spend it on healthcare etc. If I didn't smoke I would have more money to do other things with. I won't donate more to charity !
I am saying that if the government only gets a 9% tax on cigs, thats not as good for the government as people not buying cigs at all and therefor having more money that they could give to charities or causes to cure diseases like aids. Think about it... With the current statistics: the government got 10 billion euros for spending on cigs tax. With my hoping future statistics: the governement gets 100 billion euros for spending on cigs tax. Understand? More money=more cures...
I'm not quite sure that I follow. Could you try re-iterating? Personally, I don't give a damn about the money. For me, health should not have a price. Cigarettes are distinctly not healthy, and are probably partial causes for a large fraction of the problems that the government spends all that tax money curing. I don't necessarily think that people would donate money to charity once they stopped needing it for cigarettes, but if they had the money available to donate, then there's no logical way that it could be a problem. Whether people spent their extra money on research or on themselves, it's likely that they would lead a better life. No, the craving wouldn't ever go away completely, but there are ways of distracting from it.
Jesus -.- Say you have 100 dollars. And you can either spend that money on cigs or on helping kids in Africa. Say you spend all the money on cigs, only 9 dollars goes to the government from taxes. But if you donate the money to the charitable foundation (in this case a help kids in Afirca movement) then you are giving all 100 dollars to them.
Yes, but what reason would anyone have to donate to charity? And most charities have very little to do with the government - permit-holding aside - which is why I was confused. I just don't think that it's practical to expect people to stop smoking and instead donate all of their money to those in need, that's all. If I stopped eating, then I would probably go shoe shopping or to a book store or travel to visit friends, not try to fund something worthwhile with my spare cash.
Though I am honestly against smoking/smokers in all ways I would honestly have to say no. If smoking was made illegal it would cause an enormous crime rate increase. People have become used to it being legal and the government has grown used to collecting large sums of money off the sale of cigarettes. Take for instance when they made Alcohol illegal. Mobs and others snuck alcohol into the country and there was a huge blackmarket for alcohol. :/ In the end, that's why i'd say keep it legal but reserve ONLY certain places to smoke. 2nd hand smoke =
Smoking should be illegal, but it won't...if smoking became illegal everyone would still smoke because its so addicting...
But if it became illegal don't you believe that people at a young age wouldn't smoke it because they would know its addicting and illegal?
It wouldn't change a bit. More often the not, people like to go against the law whilst being a teenage, take smoking weed. It's illegal, but plenty enough smoke it nonetheless. ;/
But if we enforced laws more than we do now couldn't we make it so people fear the punishment so much that they just don't do any illegal drugs?
Like anything else, fear only works for a while. Take previous civilizations. Assyrians were a magnificent civilization but they lead on fear, and as soon as the fear became anger, the citizens revolted. This, of course, applys here simply because there are millions of smokers in the US alone, and taking the drug away will simply anger them to an extent where they fight back. :x As well as that, in the current state, there wouldn't be a way to enforce the laws more unless they took all rights away and could barge in homes whenever they'd like. D:
Fex, you seem to have completely lost the thread of this. I thought the discussion was whether smoking should be legal or not? Not "should people give money to charities?". Your argument is quite ridiculous. If that's your reason why cigarettes should be illegal then so should alcohol, computer games, chocolate, jewellery, anything and everything else that isn't entirely necessary. Don't sit preaching about the fact that smokers are selfish because they spend money on cigarettes instead of giving it charity unless the only things you are buy are things which are completely necessary for you to stay alive. In fact, why do you even have the internet? Wow, how selfish of you. You could be giving that money to charity.
I don't want to be rude to anyone, especially an authority, but... Heh. This is gonna be fun. 1. I have the internet for various reasons. Here are a few: To tell others about charities, so those charities can help more people To expand my general knowledge of current events and history To sometimes help with my homework To explain certain things I need/want to understand ect.... I'm not going to waste hours making this list.. 2. I am talking about charities in relation to cigs because cigs aren't neccisarily making you smarter or helping others as much as possable are they? The internet is helping people, and is making people smarter. I'm afraid you don't understand that. So, no, I'm actually on topic. The money that goes to a cig company can OBVIOUSLY be better spent somewhere else. 3. COMPUTER GAMES, JEWELRY AND CHOCOLATE AREN'T ADDICTING UNLESS YOU ARE A COMPLETE AND UTTER ANTI SOCIAL NERD, A PERSON WITH AN EATING CONDITION, OR A HIGH MAINTENCE RICH GIRL. CIGS EFFECT EVERYONE- NOT JUST THE PREVIOUSLY ACCOUNTED PEOPLE. 4. There is a line of selfishness. I am not going to explain it to you, for you will most likely call me selfish and disagree with me.
Even if they took away rights and were allowed to barge into homes, citizens still heavily outweigh gov't in numbers lol Maybe if they decided to nuke their own country, but that would by stupid cuz then they would have no population and no country You can't just magically find everyone who takes weed. It's easily obtainable, fairly cheap (compared to other illegal drugs) and you can just slip it into your pocket and no one would ever know you had it. Or maybe we should give all the cops x-ray glasses, although I have a feeling they'd spend more time at the beach with them then arresting smokers...