sorry ^ I forgot to say the 'no' vote got roughly 3 times as many as the 'yes' it should be illegal vote


so cmon who's for the 'defence' of the NO vote then!

I'm a 'NO'. If you could magically make something non-existent you could make that generalization. These things exist and no law is going to make it go totally away. Smoking is about as uncool as anything else I can think of. People who smoke cigarettes are generally, in this country anyways, thought of as being not well educated & more likely from the lower classes. It needs to be regulated as to where it can & cannot be smoked. It comes down to rights. You don't have the right to tell someone else what they can do until it infringes on the rights of someone else. If someone is smoking in a public place they are infringing on other peoples rights not to inhale their second or for that matter third hand smoke. Nothing more disgusting than getting a hotel room that has just been occupied by a smoker. Smells like a biker bar! (just add puke) As far as it being the Gov. 'special' drug, that's because of tax revenues. I think they should legalize marijuana & tax it too. Just do away with the standing tax code & go to a consumption tax. You do know that cannabis was not illegal in the U.S. until 1937? By the 60's was the most widely used drug in the U.S. My grandmother smoked it until the day she died. I don't think making these things illegal makes them less attractive. It does the opposite. Smoking is way down in this country, through education on just how harmful this substance is. Not just to the person smoking it, that's their choice, but to everyone exposed to it. It's my choice not to be exposed to it, the same as it's my choice not to eat myself into a range of diseases. The only difference is no ones shoving a Big Mac down my throat, but if someones smoking in my presence, I'm smoking too. That infringes on my rights. If someone gets drunk & gets behind the wheel of a car they are putting everyone else on the road in jeopardy. That doesn't mean all alcohol should be made illegal. We all know how 'Prohibition' worked out! The biggest consumers of tobacco in the world today are third world countries, not because it's more or less available, but because of a lack of education. Deb

yes but whereas, say heroin , cannot be marketed and openly shipped accross borders tobacco can

BUT it is! We don't grow poppies in the U.S. The heroin still makes it here, along with the violence that the illegality of it causes, with no real benefit to the general public! The only ones who benefit from it are the 'illegal' traffickers .

I guess your right Deb , to be honest , I am not for it being made illegal either , but I just think it's a strange state of affairs ....just wanted to get some topics going on here

I think that there would be a bumper underground crop and a tremendous loss of revenue.

Yea, the tobacco cartel! The war on drugs has been going on now for 40 years & billions of dollars later it's been a total failure. All you have to do is take a trip to the border of the U.S. & Mexico to see what a huge failure it's been.

The only "winner" in the sale of killer cancer cigarettes is CORPORATE AMERICA........

I vote YES to being illigal and also for liquor !!!!!

forgot to add that if smoking was illegal Thomas would still be here with me...passed away in 2000..lung cancer... I know it will never happen...the big guy's make to much money from the cig's...

Want to make things illegal that harm your health? Then add fast food, alcohol, automobiles, war,politics, drugs of any kind and motorized skateboards. You cannot legislate common sense or impose your value set on any one else - unless you like getting beat upon...

WTG Denny! Please add to your list promiscuity (HIV/AIDS) and all other extreme sports! LOL.

As a matter of interest, Princess Margaret, Sir Winston Churchill & Albert Einstein, to name a few, were all well educated people at the upper crust of society and were all chain smokers.

The only reason why it may appear that smoking is more prevalent in the lower classes is, in my opinion, directly linked to socio-economic factors. When poverty strips a man of his dignity and self-respect and is driven to the edge of survival and starvation, he will do anything to stave off hunger, e.g. collect the last few shreds of tobacco out of butts tossed into the gutter to roll his own smoke, sniff glue, drink home brewed booze, turn to prostitution and other criminal activities to put bread on the table for his family.

"There by the grace of God go I". For those of us who are fortunate enough to have a choice, we chose to smoke at some time in our lives and we have only ourselves to blame for our poor health today. This is my honest opinion, but beat upon me if it makes you feel any better ................. :->>

Sometimes People have to take the bull by the horns and say, "this isn't for me because it's not good for me"! NOT GOVERNMENT.

I think that is correct Denny, you have to take responsibility for your own actions, not big brother!!!!!

How much does it cost us to fight Illegal drugs, and other things?

Because something isn't good for our health do we need a nanny state to tell us? Do we need this type of control?

I for one never smoke! Hardly took a drink it wasn't what I believe, it was seeing family being hurt!!!!! I decided to try things once but then didn't do it again. I decided I didn't want to end up like my family member. So for me it was self control.
For me I still got ill with copd. How weird it still got me one way or another even doing what I do is right.

So I can't blame anything but my gene's or where I live or what I did for a living. I am an oximon.

Thanks for the subject I still have family that smoke, drink, and do drugs. they made it thru and some are ok still. I have no idea why? But I believe in God and I be he has a plan. So I must be a bigger plan. That is all I can say.

Bee

Yeah, too true Bee. We humans are set above the rest of the animal kingdom by the gift of logic and reason. Yet all too often people tend to seek someone or something to blame for their poor choices instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.

Bee, I can relate to your COPD - my neighbour who has never smoked in his life (and neither have any of his family members), was diagnosed with emphysema a couple of months ago! Why, Lord alone knows! Could be due to toxic fumes he may have encountered during his working career as an electrician. Cigarette smoking isn't the only oxygen vampire on the loose!

There are more ways to skin a cat, so whether cigarettes are legalised or not, there'll always be another scurge to take it's place. And while there is abject poverty driving men to challenge the rights of the more fortunate, the problem will persist.

Politics, the statute books and fiscal policies aside, cigarette smoking, the illicit drug trade, prostitution, alcoholism, domestic violence, gangsterism and related criminal activities are global problems and not exclusively 3rd world phenomenon.

In my humble opinion, I believe that far too much emphasis is placed on cigarettes instead of focussing on social welfare and the plight of the indigent. "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach him how to fish and he feeds himself."

I also know that my cup is half full and I intend to fill it to the brim the best way I know how while my feet walk this planet. Taken one day at a time, I'm gonna give it my best shot.

Bless you and take care of yourself.
Huff

We all knew that cigarettes were harmful to our health when we smoked them so that is on us.

But as DennyGene said, if we want to make things illegal that harm our health, We may need to go back to the cave. But I would want to take my Jalapeno Cheetos.