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How Are Smoking Cigarettes Even Legal?

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Kastro said:
:lol yeah, real logical.

i find fat and ugly people gross lets ban them too

You've eaten fat and ugly people respectively? Do tell.
 
Malleymal said:
my man... I dont care that you want to pollute your body with the stuff... all I am saying is do it in a confined area, not around me... Im done with this conversation, its like talking to a wall with you.. enjoy your shitty breath, nasty teeth and polluted insides while dealing with your expensive addiction...

easy

Expensive? I smoke $5 worth of tobacco a month, which I roll myself into cigarettes. It's only expensive if you're too lazy to make your own.

Fat people don't cause you cancer.

Your turn.

We need to make the sun illegal stat, it causes oh so much more cancer. HURRY!
 
Number 2 said:
Just because you think its necessary to drive around in a toxin belching machine to visit your family, commute to work at a job which you could find closer to where you live, or go shopping more often than you should, does not make it so.
Merely showing the negative connotations of an activity (and suspiciously avoiding all of the good aspects) is not a valid enough argument. There are irrefutable good aspects to driving a car or mounting a plane (and I don't know how that shopping thing popped up). There are no irrefutable good aspects to smoking, so equating them doesn't hold up.

Number 2 said:
Unfortunately for gamers that is not the accepted viewpoint in America today. They also have the distinction of being non-essential unlike other computing related software.
Accepted viewpoint where? I won't even delve into how nonsensical it is to use a generalization to prove something.

Number 2 said:
Well there are studies that show video games are linked to childhood obesity. That sounds like all the proof people needed since talk about taxing video games has grown louder in the last few years. This is not even taking into account the violence aspect at all.
And there are studies that have linked gaming to other positive aspects (reflexes come to mind). Yes, it can be detrimental, like any addiction, but you can sure find something good about it. I won't even get into the "causing violence" aspect, as that is as passé as blaming Rock n' Roll for violence, goodness.

Again, 'X' is not 'Y', and using one to prove the other goes nowhere. The logic fails.

Here's another poster's opinion that is good food for thought:

Tathanen said:
People making the "if you are against smoking for health reasons you'd better not put anything else unhealthy in your body" argument need to be a little less retarded. The damage done by unhealthy foods can be mitigated by plenty of things, such as an active lifestyle, or ingestion in moderation. Even alcohol, in moderation, can be beneficial for a person. It's not the same as ingesting poison that does permanent and irreversible damage.

Now if you want to exchange years of your life for the joys of cigarettes, fine. But don't hide behind bullshit arguments that attempt to justify your choices by painting everyone else as sharing your vices.
 
I love how it has to be an addiction too.:lol

I've gone months without caring to smoke a single cigarette and then smoke a butt load the next month and then whatever. But it has to be an addiction right, not something that I enjoy doing for the sake of it. IT'S A TERRIBLE ADDICTION! AHH! Wrong, but you can all keep making sweeping generalizations like that if you want.

Not everybody who enjoys smoking tobacco is hopelessly addicted and would suck dick for it, let that craaaaaazy concept sink into your brains.:lol

And I can already see the awesome responses. "Yeah thats what an addict says, durrr" "The NICOTINE makes you say that, ADDICT!"
 
Xeke said:
I love how it has to be an addiction too.:lol

I've gone months without caring to smoke a single cigarette and then smoke a butt load the next month and then whatever. But it has to be an addiction right, not something that I enjoy doing for the sake of it. IT'S A TERRIBLE ADDICTION! AHH! Wrong, but you can all keep making sweeping generalizations like that if you want.

Not everybody who enjoys smoking tobacco is hopelessly addicted and would suck dick for it, let that craaaaaazy concept sink into your brains.:lol

And I can already see the awesome responses. "Yeah thats what an addict says, durrr" "The NICOTINE makes you say that, ADDICT!"
I'm right there with you. I hardly have spare money for cigarettes. I average one pack a month, but usually it's more like one pack every two months since I don't have much money. And in those months I don't have any, I'm completely fine. Not a single craving. Cigarettes are nice to have when I can get some, but I'm not driven in anyway to smoke them beyond as a luxury.
 
Acid08 said:
I'm right there with you. I hardly have spare money for cigarettes. I average one pack a month, but usually it's more like one pack every two months since I don't have much money. And in those months I don't have any, I'm completely fine. Not a single craving. Cigarettes are nice to have when I can get some, but I'm not driven in anyway to smoke them beyond as a luxury.

Exactly. But to most of the people here the thought that you can smoke tobacco without being addicted to it is somehow completely foreign. I smoke it when I feel like it and I can't ever remember having a "craving".
 
Xeke said:
I love how it has to be an addiction too.:lol

I've gone months without caring to smoke a single cigarette and then smoke a butt load the next month and then whatever. But it has to be an addiction right, not something that I enjoy doing for the sake of it. IT'S A TERRIBLE ADDICTION! AHH! Wrong, but you can all keep making sweeping generalizations like that if you want.

Not everybody who enjoys smoking tobacco is hopelessly addicted and would suck dick for it, let that craaaaaazy concept sink into your brains.:lol

And I can already see the awesome responses. "Yeah thats what an addict says, durrr" "The NICOTINE makes you say that, ADDICT!"
And where has anyone said it has to be an addiction? Goodness, no. If you're referring to my post, I was merely pointing out how any activity, despite having positive aspects to it, could be bad if it's an addiction. Nowhere was the sweeping generalization made that smoking has to be one.

Of course, if you were referring to someone else I didn't see, then ignore this, lulz

I don't see how you can even pretend something like this is a remotely passable argument:

Xeke said:
We need to make the sun illegal stat, it causes oh so much more cancer. HURRY!

Holy shit, no.
 
Koodo said:
And where has anyone said it has to be an addiction? Goodness, no. If you're referring to my post, I was merely pointing out how any activity, despite having positive aspects to it, could be bad if it's an addiction. Nowhere was the sweeping generalization made that smoking has to be one.

Of course, if you were referring to someone else I didn't see, then ignore this, lulz

I don't see how you can even pretend something like this is a remotely passable argument:



Holy shit, no.

I was mostly replying to this guy.

my man... I dont care that you want to pollute your body with the stuff... all I am saying is do it in a confined area, not around me... Im done with this conversation, its like talking to a wall with you.. enjoy your shitty breath, nasty teeth and polluted insides while dealing with your expensive addiction...

Telling me that I'm addicted to something that I'm not. I don't like that most arguments here break it down to smokers and non smokers. If you think that somebody who smokes an average of 4 or 5 cigarettes a week and a person who smokes a pack or two a day are the same then there is a problem.

It's a hobby, I love smoking weed so much, I like the act of smoking in general. Be it weed or tobacco or any combination of the two. Smoking things, whatever they be, is enjoyable to me. I smoke pipes, bongs, joints, blunts, hookahs, tulips, apples and even snowballs. I blow smoke rings and do tricks with the smoke. Getting to sit down after a long day and light up, mostly weed, is something that nothing else can really replace.
 
Koodo said:
Merely showing the negative connotations of an activity (and suspiciously avoiding all of the good aspects) is not a valid enough argument. There are irrefutable good aspects to driving a car or mounting a plane (and I don't know how that shopping thing popped up). There are no irrefutable good aspects to smoking, so equating them doesn't hold up.
The positive aspects i get from smoking.. its pleasurable, it calms me, it helps me deal with stressful situations. IF there were no positives to smoking nobody would smoke. If my personal desires for smoking are not enough for you..

Smoking lowers Parkinson's disease risk
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to the previously reported evidence that cigarette smoking protects against Parkinson's disease. Specifically, the new research shows a temporal relationship between smoking and reduced risk of Parkinson's disease. That is, the protective effect wanes after smokers quit.


Accepted viewpoint where? I won't even delve into how nonsensical it is to use a generalization to prove something.
i was unaware that video games were seen as a healthy choice for todays youth.

I won't even get into the "causing violence" aspect, as that is as passé as blaming Rock n' Roll for violence, goodness.
Just because you think violent video games are not a factor in violence doesnt mean that other people think and feel the same way.
 
Number 2 said:
The positive aspects i get from smoking.. its pleasurable, it calms me, it helps me deal with stressful situations. IF there were no positives to smoking nobody would smoke. If my personal desires for smoking are not enough for you..

Smoking lowers Parkinson's disease risk
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study adds to the previously reported evidence that cigarette smoking protects against Parkinson's disease. Specifically, the new research shows a temporal relationship between smoking and reduced risk of Parkinson's disease. That is, the protective effect wanes after smokers quit.



i was unaware that video games were seen as a healthy choice for todays youth.


Just because you think violent video games are not a factor in violence doesnt mean that other people think and feel the same way.

Oh yeah, I forgot about my Parkinson's protection I'm getting.
 
Everything in moderation. Its already illegal to smoke them under the age of 19 (Canada), what more do you want? The knowledge of the effects are out there for anyone interested in what comes with a serious smoking habits.
 
I don't smoke cigarettes but I respect a person's right to choose what they put in their body. Just for the love of GOD don't smoke in the car while your kids are in there. People who whinge about walking past someone smoking in the open are over-reacting sissies but in an enclosed area with kids is retarded.
 
Unfortunately, some things need to be regulated because they cause too much harm, profit too few, and return too little to society.

I don't see anyone arguing for the legalization of Heroin or Cocaine here, and yet they're not all that dissimilar from Tobacco or even Alcohol; they can both be argued to have recreational uses, not everyone becomes heinously addicted to them using them, and they don't kill everyone that uses them.
 
Tathanen said:
Now if you want to exchange years of your life for the joys of cigarettes, fine. But don't hide behind bullshit arguments that attempt to justify your choices by painting everyone else as sharing your vices.
Its only bullshit arguments because its come to this point. The people in the no smoking crusade dont seem to be content with smokers enjoying a legal substance. So now smokers cannot smoke in public buildings, bars, restaurants, schools.. and in 24 states ALL enclosed public places. Now the push is to stop smoking inside your own home http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/us/27belmont.html?_r=2. You tell me whats bullshit. If you want to make it illegal, do it already. Dont hide behind the "health" bs. Its about control and money.. it always has been.

The problem with this Carrie Nation v2.0 is that the people involved were pretty short sighted. Tax revenues from smoking are down. All those people willing to pay a vice tax to enjoy a legal product were forced out due to tax hikes. The people that have kept smoking are turning to places where the cigarettes are not taxed (reservations, smugglers, etc) which leads to further drop in expected revenue. All over the world (US, Canada, UK) its been estimated that 1/3 to 1/2 of all cigarette sales are now circumventing taxes.
 
Zaptruder said:
I don't see anyone arguing for the legalization of Heroin or Cocaine here, and yet they're not all that dissimilar from Tobacco or even Alcohol

That's because this isn't a thread about the legalization of heroin or cocaine :P
 
Zaptruder said:
Unfortunately, some things need to be regulated because they cause too much harm, profit too few, and return too little to society.

I don't see anyone arguing for the legalization of Heroin or Cocaine here, and yet they're not all that dissimilar from Tobacco or even Alcohol
; they can both be argued to have recreational uses, not everyone becomes heinously addicted to them using them, and they don't kill everyone that uses them.

Do you drink occasionally? Have you ever?

Just interested.
 
Xeke said:
It's a hobby, I love smoking weed so much, I like the act of smoking in general. Be it weed or tobacco or any combination of the two. Smoking things, whatever they be, is enjoyable to me. I smoke pipes, bongs, joints, blunts, hookahs, tulips, apples and even snowballs. I blow smoke rings and do tricks with the smoke. Getting to sit down after a long day and light up, mostly weed, is something that nothing else can really replace.
Yeah, doesn't sound like you're addicted at all.:lol
 
How in God’s name are cigarettes even legal, can anybody tell me that? They are a deadly concoction of carcinogens that damage every single organ in your body. Why do we not ban them? Because it’s a free country, because freedom of choice is an American ideal worth somebody dying every six seconds?

Someone dies in a car crash every 6 1/2 minutes in the U.S. Ban cars next.
 
bill0527 said:
Someone dies in a car crash every 6 1/2 minutes in the U.S. Ban cars next.

One contributes something to society. Another doesn't.

I didn't realize that smoking damaged brains as well but some of these equivocations are making me think otherwise.
 
Nocebo said:
Yeah, doesn't sound like you're addicted at all.:lol

You don't have a hobby? Guess not. Look you're the clown breaking something complex down into either "you're addicted" or "you're smokeless" and you somehow can't conceive the idea in your brain that you can smoke tobacco without ever feeling like you NEED to smoke it.

I don't see anyone arguing for the legalization of Heroin or Cocaine here, and yet they're not all that dissimilar from Tobacco or even Alcohol; they can both be argued to have recreational uses, not everyone becomes heinously addicted to them using them, and they don't kill everyone that uses them.

Yes both cocaine and heroin should be legal.

Because we all know that smoking provides as much benefits as driving a car.

Benefit is subjective. I don't see cigarettes being largely responsible for climate change and global warming, or the lazification of society, the loss of the walking city and traffic deaths. Society would probably be happier and better off without the car but we want it because of what it gives us. I'd like to see a strong argument that shows that the car has done more good than bad.
 
I don't understand these people who hate tobacco so much. I'm fucking allergic and don't even really care. I move away if it bothers me too much. Come on people. Not everything has got to be the way you like it.
 
Number 2 said:

Psychological benefits. If they outweigh the risk of cancer for you, then that's totally fine. Personally, anything that confers a psychological benefit is interchangeable, as there is something else that could probably grant the same results. As such, if an interchangeable activity was causing me harm, I'd see no sense in continuing it.

That is, of course, completely unlike something that has a physical benefit. Mounting a plane, for example, is not interchangeable (unless you fancy swimming thousands of kilometers).

Granted, some people won't find a substitute to smoking that will confer the same benefits, so I understand why people do it. But that doesn't mean it's right (to me, anyway).

p.s. If I'm correct, the parkinson protection is far outweighed by the carcinogenic content being pumped into the lungs. So while the risk of acquiring one disease is being reduced, the risk of acquiring another is being augmented even more. You can see how this balances out.


Number 2 said:
i was unaware that video games were seen as a healthy choice for todays youth.

Don't put words into my mouth. I was merely pointing out how wrong it is to use a generalization to prove a point. By all means then, being gay is bad too, as that seems to be the accepted viewpoint in America.

Number 2 said:
Just because you think violent video games are not a factor in violence doesnt mean that other people think and feel the same way.
We'll agree to disagree.
 
this is anecdotal. Last year i worked restocking shelves at a toy store, most of the people working their were smokers and everything was fine and dandy until halfway through the season, when a few stores were knocked over and company policy became 'closing manager locks you in, morning manager lets you out'. 4 people quit and every smoker become supreme dicks for the 12 hours I had to be locked in with them in which they weren't allowed to smoke. not one of them could go 12 hours without freaking out over not being able to smoke.both of the supervisors were smokers too.

eventually after much calls to HR, policy changed so that smokers were allowed to leave the building once each night, providing that an employee stay within the building, lock the smokers out during their breaks and guard the door with a cell phone on hand. that job fell to me most of the time. the way my coworkers changed when they weren't allowed to smoke and the relief they seemed to experience once policy changed and they could let out was absolutely mind boggling. it'd take alot of effort to convince me tobacco isn't addictive in light of that situation.
 
DECK'ARD said:
It's people wanting to impose their personal decision on others, because they prefer it that way.

It's impossible to understand the situation of the second hand smoker if you yourself are a smoker. Because you are conditioned to not have any adverse reactions to it.

These two simple facts are the reasons why people dislike smokers:

1. They smell.

2. It's hard to breathe when in the vicinity of a smoker.

The fact that most smokers don't even consider point number 1, where smokers can smell so bad that point 2 comes in to play even when they aren't smoking, is really the crux of the problem.

However, as to banning smoking. No, I don't support that. People can smoke if they like, I'd just like them to be aware that they smell and the car / house / furniture / anything else in their house or car stinks like an ash tray.
 
hypostatic said:
Why only churches? Mosques? Synagogues? Temples?
I don't want to get blown up or be blacklisted in Hollywood.
Not really I was just too lazy to be more specific.

Number 2 said:
Personally, after all the stuff smokers have gone through i have made it my lifes mission to back the restriction or taxation of anything that brings joy to "straight living" people. Whether the subject be candy or fast food or video games or internet or religion or whatever.. it doesnt matter to me, just as long as it doesnt affect me i do not care any more.
I'm with you, man. I'm sick of being a soft target minority. WE REEK. WE SPEAK. WE SMOKE EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.
 
List of smoking bans by country:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans

My province of British Columbia "bans smoking in all public spaces such as restaurants, pubs and private clubs, offices, malls, conference centres, sports arenas, community halls, government buildings and schools, and within a 3 metre radius of doors, open windows and air intakes"

Looks like the smokers already lost this one:lol

Or, maybe they can win the GAF side of the argument, while we non-smokers have won the "reality" side of the argument. Their call I guess.
 
Pandaman said:
this is anecdotal. Last year i worked restocking shelves at a toy store, most of the people working their were smokers and everything was fine and dandy until halfway through the season, when a few stores were knocked over and company policy became 'closing manager locks you in, morning manager lets you out'. 4 people quit and every smoker become supreme dicks for the 12 hours I had to be locked in with them in which they weren't allowed to smoke. not one of them could go 12 hours without freaking out over not being able to smoke.both of the supervisors were smokers too.

eventually after much calls to HR, policy changed so that smokers were allowed to leave the building once each night, providing that an employee stay within the building, lock the smokers out during their breaks and guard the door with a cell phone on hand. that job fell to me most of the time. the way my coworkers changed when they weren't allowed to smoke and the relief they seemed to experience once policy changed and they could let out was absolutely mind boggling. it'd take alot of effort to convince me tobacco isn't addictive in light of that situation.

Of course tobacco can be addicting. Who the hell is saying it isn't? I'm saying for me personally I don't ever feel addicted or like I have to have a cigarette. But most of the addiction is psychological and if you don't get psychologically addicted to it then the physical addiction is small peanuts.
 
Koodo said:
Don't put words into my mouth. I was merely pointing out how wrong it is to use a generalization to prove a point. By all means then, being gay is bad too, as that seems to be the accepted viewpoint in America.
First of all i didnt say video games were bad. i said that obesity is linked to their use and that the public seems to agree on that. And the gay comment is a stretch.. a closer fit would be that it is commonly accepted that gay people (men in particular) are more susceptible to getting HIV.

We'll agree to disagree.
Okay.
 
Karakand said:
I'm with you, man. I'm sick of being a soft target minority. WE REEK. WE SPEAK. WE SMOKE EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.
Well im just tired of people constantly telling me what to do. People will not lay off. The concept of dictating how people live seems so alien to me. A few years ago i had an epiphany and now i make it a point to eat what i want to eat, drink what i want to drink, smoke what i want to smoke, and fuck who i want to fuck (consenting of course :lol ). im fed up with it all.
 
As far as i'm concered every drug should be legal
Still blows my mind that alcohol is the only legal hard drugs
 
Armitage said:
gotta smoke something
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Arjen said:
As far as i'm concered every drug should be legal
Still blows my mind that alcohol is the only legal hard drugs
That's my stand. Government does not exist to tell me what I can and cannot put into my own body.
 
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