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2009. The Year of the Smoker's Catch-22.

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Lord Error

Insane For Sony
I am kinda amazed at how well supported and successfull the anti-tobaco campaigns are. It's the small steps, but constant steps, and it's working. The base concept of the whole thing really reminds me of alcohol prohibition that took place back then in the US - only this time it's actually working. I guess it's the baby steps approach, instead of BAM you can't do this anymore approach.
 
it's ironic that the biggest anti-tobacco bill in history is going to be signed by the first modern pres who's a smoker. i guess you gotta be poisoned to know the poison.
 

CiSTM

Banned
Lord Error said:
I am kinda amazed at how well supported and successfull the anti-tobaco campaigns are. It's the small steps, but constant steps, and it's working. The base concept of the whole thing really reminds me of alcohol prohibition that took place back then in the US - only this time it's actually working. I guess it's the baby steps approach, instead of BAM you can't do this anymore approach.

Does it really work ? Are people smoking less these days ? No candy smokes for kids and larger warning ads for poor sighted... Doesn't really have any effect on smoking.
 
CiSTM said:
Does it really work ? Are people smoking less these days ?
Overall, yes.

2wm2lpu.png

Dunno why the Dept. of Health and Human Services screwed up the legend, but it should make sense.
 

Branduil

Member
Anyone who supports this can't complain when something they enjoy is taxed or banned.

Nor can they complain about pot being banned.
 

smurfx

get some go again
SwitchBladeKneegrow said:
If they reduce the nicotine, we'll just have to smoke more...Up the nicotine!
that's the plan. make people smoke more and get more money in taxes! i think this is retarded. they should either outlaw cigarettes or just leave them alone to conduct their business.
 
BakedPigeon said:
Where are they going to recover all the tax money they make off smokers then?

I would imagine that the tax burden incurred by a ban would be far less than the burden that lifetime smokers place on the health industry.
 
I'm all for taxing tobacco. Charge $100 a pack and people will still buy them. We can wipe out the deficit in half a week with that price.

Banning certain words from cigarette boxes is stupid, though.
 

Vestal

Gold Member
To whoever said they should call Cigs Death sticks..

They could put a skull and a crossbone on the box and call them TUMORS, and people would probably line up around the corner to buy them..(Shamelessly stolen from Dennis Leary)
 
pizzaguysrevenge said:
I'm all for taxing tobacco. Charge $100 a pack and people will still buy them. We can wipe out the deficit in half a week with that price.

Banning certain words from cigarette boxes is stupid, though.

The fuck? I certainly wouldn't buy them, and this is fucking horse shit.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
BakedPigeon said:
Where are they going to recover all the tax money they make off smokers then?

Costs the government more in lost productivity and opportunity costs (lost productivity of the people sick off smoking and subsequent taxes, and the opportunity costs of the health workers servicing these sick people) alone than they make in taxes off cigarettes.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
pizzaguysrevenge said:
I'm all for taxing tobacco. Charge $100 a pack and people will still buy them. We can wipe out the deficit in half a week with that price.

Banning certain words from cigarette boxes is stupid, though.

Well... I'm pretty sure you probably don't want words like: in small ass print "Doctors can" in big ass print "NOW CURE CANCER", printed on cigarette boxes.

In a similar vein; words like Mild are relatively misleading. They do nearly as much damage as normal strength cigs, and probably more when you think of them as the 97% fat free labels (causes people to smoke more in quantitiy).

While the removal of these words aren't going to affect most people... they'll reach out and maybe help a small percentage of (stupid) people (of which they'll always be plenty around).

And really... in this sort of game, where we're talking about millions of lives every year, every single step counts; 1-2% is still tens to hundreds of thousands of people.
 

Kak.efes

Member
I wonder if they'll legislate having really pronounced, graphic warnings on the cartons like they do here in Canada. Here are a few examples.

Link

These labels take up roughly half the carton in space.
 
Kak.efes said:
I wonder if they'll legislate having really pronounced, graphic warnings on the cartons like they do here in Canada. Here are a few examples.

Link

These labels take up roughly half the carton in space.

That's just as ridiculous as the anti-abortion protesters holding up huge pictures of aborted children. They don't put those on individual packs, too, do they?
 

whalekock

Member
Smokers: Sucks to be you. No worries because as long as governments are addicted to tobacco taxes cigarettes will be readily available. Even if it is ever made illegal in the US, don't worry, there will be suppliers galore from our neighbors to the south. It will make cigarettes even more badass.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Aristotlekh said:
That's just as ridiculous as the anti-abortion protesters holding up huge pictures of aborted children. They don't put those on individual packs, too, do they?

I don't see what's ridiculous about either. They both create strong easily exploitable emotional responses that in general aren't all that effective, but effective enough to warrant their usage.

Its just in anti-abortion's case, the platform that they stand on isn't the strongest one to begin with.
 
Zaptruder said:
Well... I'm pretty sure you probably don't want words like: in small ass print "Doctors can" in big ass print "NOW CURE CANCER", printed on cigarette boxes.

In a similar vein; words like Mild are relatively misleading. They do nearly as much damage as normal strength cigs, and probably more when you think of them as the 97% fat free labels (causes people to smoke more in quantitiy).
Which means more revenue for the state. :)

Zaptruder said:
While the removal of these words aren't going to affect most people... they'll reach out and maybe help a small percentage of (stupid) people (of which they'll always be plenty around).

And really... in this sort of game, where we're talking about millions of lives every year, every single step counts; 1-2% is still tens to hundreds of thousands of people.
Which means less revenue for the state. :(
 
pizzaguysrevenge said:
Which means more revenue for the state. :)
Which wouldn't cover said smokers' cumulative health care costs, so overall economic loss to society. :(

pizzaguysrevenge said:
Which means less revenue for the state. :(
And healthier ex-smokers who need less health care resources, saving money overall. :)
 

cntr

Banned
I wouldn't support the banning of cigarettes, but making it so that everyone is aware of the risk and dangers is fine, if you really need to smoke that much, you should be willing to pay for it.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
lol @ all the holier-than-thou Puritans crying about how smoking stinks. Get some fucking testicles/ovaries and grow the fuck up. Whining about shit that doesn't affect you at all... you just get off on the control of other people... you know how to live better lol.
 

gantz85

Banned
Acid08 said:
Wow fuck you. In no way am I a prick and what I choose to do with my life is none of your fucking business.

Seriously anti-smoking zealots usually turn out to be the asshole pricks.

Wait, what you choose to do with your life is none of anybody else's business right?

So, what someone else chooses to do with their life is none of your business right?

And if someone else chooses to judge you? How is that any of your business?
 

Acid08

Banned
X-Ninji said:
I wouldn't support the banning of cigarettes, but making it so that everyone is aware of the risk and dangers is fine, if you really need to smoke that much, you should be willing to pay for it.
You really think people don't already know the dangers? REALLY?

gantz85 said:
Wait, what you choose to do with your life is none of anybody else's business right?

So, what someone else chooses to do with their life is none of your business right?

And if someone else chooses to judge you? How is that any of your business?

Because they're judging ME. It's my business when it has to do with me. No I don't give a shit what anyone else chooses to do because they aren't in my face about it. When some random internet kid decides to say every smoker in the world is a prick without any base for the accusation, I can speak out against it.
 

Zeke

Member
gantz85 said:
Wait, what you choose to do with your life is none of anybody else's business right?

So, what someone else chooses to do with their life is none of your business right?

And if someone else chooses to judge you? How is that any of your business?
awesomely retarded :lol
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
I wonder how the last round of smoking price increases helped unfortunate addicts around the country to stop smoking? Hopefully this will just convince more of them that smoking isn't as cool as when they were 16. :)
 

Schrade

Member
If there was a way that smokers could smoke and not actually affect anyone else around them I would have no problem with smoking. Unfortunately that's almost never the case.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
pizzaguysrevenge said:
Which means more revenue for the state. :)


Which means less revenue for the state. :(

Revenue is meaningless without factoring in costs.

When the costs to the state per smoker are more then the revenue that they can make of the smoker, then the correct way of balancing this equation is to reduce the number of smokers.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Also how different study groups get their "smoking related death" statistics seems sketchy to me. My fathers intestinal cancer was probably "smoking related" since he used to smoke in the 50s. i was in the room when these three doctors came in and were doing like an interview.. the last question was have you ever smoked cigarettes. It seemed kind of out of place since the other questions consisted of visited any other countries recently, what was your main profession, etc. Didn't seem to matter that he quit almost 50 years prior to his getting cancer.

Edit: i mean just look at this shit:
* Every 6.5 seconds a current or former smoker dies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
No shit? Every 6.5 seconds someone who either smokes or has smoked dies? Smoking related death lol.

Schrade said:
If there was a way that smokers could smoke and not actually affect anyone else around them I would have no problem with smoking. Unfortunately that's almost never the case.
Just the other day there was another DUI where the nicotine impaired driver survived and the other cars victims were killed.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Number 2 said:
Also how different study groups get their "smoking related death" statistics seems sketchy to me. My fathers intestinal cancer was probably "smoking related" since he used to smoke in the 50s. i was in the room when these three doctors came in and were doing like an interview.. the last question was have you ever smoked cigarettes. It seemed kind of out of place since the other questions consisted of visited any other countries recently, what was your main profession, etc. Didn't seem to matter that he quit almost 50 years prior to his getting cancer.

This is the best you can come up with? Individual anecdotal evidence that probably points more towards your lack of understanding on statistical surveys, is supposed to discredit decades of research and a high positive correlation garnered from hundreds of millions of samples?

Smoking defenders are the dredges of the scum barrel.

If you're gonna keep smoking, just accept the status quo; it's a terrible vice, it stinks you up, and if you do it irresponsibly, puts others at risk (through second hand smoke), and you guys deserve all the ribbing that you get from non-smokers, to help stave future generations from even going down that path in the first place.
 

theultimo

Member
I am thinking when we start banning anything "harmful," we have hit a police state. I am waiting to see how bad this bill is gonna make smokers bend over though.
 
Number 2 said:
Also how different study groups get their "smoking related death" statistics seems sketchy to me. My fathers intestinal cancer was probably "smoking related" since he used to smoke in the 50s. i was in the room when these three doctors came in and were doing like an interview.. the last question was have you ever smoked cigarettes. It seemed kind of out of place since the other questions consisted of visited any other countries recently, what was your main profession, etc. Didn't seem to matter that he quit almost 50 years prior to his getting cancer.
A smoking history is never out of place in any medical interview. Never. Colon cancer is a slow-growing tumor, so quitting 50 years ago makes little difference to malignancy potential if those cells were already present. Quitting smoking 50 years ago prevented him from worse heart and lung disease, though.

Number 2 said:
No shit? Every 6.5 seconds someone who either smokes or has smoked dies? Smoking related death lol.
Well, lung cancer deaths in the U.S. are greater than #2, #3, and #4 causes of cancers deaths combined.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Zaptruder said:
Smoking defenders are the dredges of the scum barrel.
Yep thats me.. total subhuman scum.

If you're gonna keep smoking, just accept the status quo; it's a terrible vice, it stinks you up, and if you do it irresponsibly, puts others at risk (through second hand smoke), and you guys deserve all the ribbing that you get from non-smokers, to help stave future generations from even going down that path in the first place.
Oh pretty much every facet of my life most people don't agree with.. im used to taking shit from control freaks such as yourself. If its not what i smoke, its what i drink/eat or who i fuck or what i do for fun etc etc etc. Same old tired stuff.
 

Acid08

Banned
Zaptruder said:
This is the best you can come up with? Individual anecdotal evidence that probably points more towards your lack of understanding on statistical surveys, is supposed to discredit decades of research and a high positive correlation garnered from hundreds of millions of samples?

Smoking defenders are the dredges of the scum barrel.

If you're gonna keep smoking, just accept the status quo; it's a terrible vice, it stinks you up, and if you do it irresponsibly, puts others at risk (through second hand smoke), and you guys deserve all the ribbing that you get from non-smokers, to help stave future generations from even going down that path in the first place.
Wow you must be the pinnacle of human existence.
 
Zeke said:
camdy cigs wtf I started with menthol cools moved to camel then to reds and switched between reds and cloves then back to full on reds and now I go between reds and lucky strike. I hate these retarded laws thank god I can still smoke in a bar here.

If you wanna smoke, thats fine by me, but shit man, switching between Reds and Lucky Strikes? My uncle is in terrible shape from smoking Reds for a while now, and your choices have the potential to put you in that spot or worse. Hopefully it doesn't, of course, but I'm just saying.

While I'm here, someone explain the appeal of Newports to me. I think they're gross. BUT THATS MY OPINION. I don't mind hearing why other people like them. Just please keep the "they're delicious, you prick, STFU" out of it. I'm not trying to offend. Just personal opinion.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Acid08 said:
Wow you must be the pinnacle of human existence.

What an asinine sarcastic quip. Is that the best you have? Speechless at the truth of it all? Or just killed too many braincells through the stroke you suffered while smoking to not come up with better?
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I can understand those already addicted continuing to do so, but when I see kids smoking it just blows my mind.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Lost Fragment said:
Cut him some slack, guys. He was raped by a pack of cigarettes when he was a kid.

If you're talking to me; no, I just enjoying the platform of legitimacy that society has provided in regards to giving shit to smokers.

If you're talking to Number2: I suppose been 'raped' (i.e. been a victim of) cigarettes while you're a kid, would make you subject to a sort of stockholm syndrome as applied to inanimate objects. Can't help but defend them despite the obvious harm they're inflicting on you, even start rationalizing how people trying to help you out are actually your enemy, not just the enemy of your 'captor'.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Zaptruder said:
If you're talking to Number2: I suppose been 'raped' (i.e. been a victim of) cigarettes while you're a kid, would make you subject to a sort of stockholm syndrome as applied to inanimate objects. Can't help but defend them despite the obvious harm they're inflicting on you, even start rationalizing how people trying to help you out are actually your enemy, not just the enemy of your 'captor'.
:lol Calling people scum is just your way of "helping"?
 
Number 2 said:
lol @ all the holier-than-thou Puritans crying about how smoking stinks. Get some fucking testicles/ovaries and grow the fuck up. Whining about shit that doesn't affect you at all... you just get off on the control of other people... you know how to live better lol.

lol @ all the dumber-than-thou smokers who believe that poisoning themselves is purely self-contained and that they are an island in and of themselves.

I wonder if you'd change your tune once your emphyzemic ass is clamoring for Medicare or bankrupting your family because of your idiotic decision. Even still, I wonder if you would sing that tune when you realize that your use of company-offered benefits to cover self-inflicted diseases will contribute to the decreased offering of said benefits going forward. There are any number of ways that your foolish habit can negatively effect those around you even if they aren't in your immediate vicinity.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Number 2 said:
:lol Calling people scum is just your way of "helping"?

Maybe not you, but by creating a sense of enmity towards people that willingly take up the (now overpriced) cancer sticks, you create less social justification towards picking it up in the first place.

I.e. we're trying to shift the perception of smoking from cool, to retarded, and calling smokers, scum suckers is one way to do that.

Most people I know that smoke are regretful and reticient about picking it up in the first place, despite been unable to stop now, and generally understand this attitude; they don't really want to spread smoking onto their own kids.
 

Acid08

Banned
Zaptruder said:
What an asinine sarcastic quip. Is that the best you have? Speechless at the truth of it all? Or just killed too many braincells through the stroke you suffered while smoking to not come up with better?
Wow.
 
Acid08 said:
You really think people don't already know the dangers? REALLY?



Because they're judging ME. It's my business when it has to do with me. No I don't give a shit what anyone else chooses to do because they aren't in my face about it. When some random internet kid decides to say every smoker in the world is a prick without any base for the accusation, I can speak out against it.

Man, that gantz kid is trying to prove you wrong. Except he's terrible at it :lol lmfao
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
WickedAngel said:
lol @ all the dumber-than-thou smokers who believe that poisoning themselves is purely self-contained and that they are an island in and of themselves.
HI! :D i can see i was totally incorrect about the holier-than-thou statement.

I wonder if you'd change your tune once your emphyzemic ass is clamoring for Medicare or bankrupting your family because of your idiotic decision. Even still, I wonder if you would sing that tune when you realize that your use of company-offered benefits to cover self-inflicted diseases will contribute to the decreased offering of said benefits going forward.
Personally i wouldnt care tbh. Maybe youll get some affliction and we'll keep each other company in line for our Medicare check but we both know that won't happen because non-smokers never get diseases or ailments of any kind.

There are any number of ways that your foolish habit can negatively effect those around you even if they aren't in your immediate vicinity.
Every person ive ever met has their vices. i try not to be judgemental of them, but thats just dumber-than-thou me.

Zaptruder said:
I.e. we're trying to shift the perception of smoking from cool, to retarded, and calling smokers, scum suckers is one way to do that.
i don't know about other people but things like this tend not to have an effect on me. Especially when its hostile. BTW, do you apply this kind of "help" to other things? Reminds me of these people that used to beat me and tell me im going to hell. Maybe you should form a group to go around and beat the smoker out of people.
 
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