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It's just ridiculous that smoking is still legal. Ridiculous. There is absolutely no benefit to society by allowing idiots to increase the healthcare costs of those around them.
If we're going to keep smoking legal, all smokers should be placed in an entirely separate health insurance pool that only contains smokers. They can pay for each others' sins. No reason I should be footing the bill for their lung cancer. This doesn't even solve the problem of the damage they are doing to innocent bystanders via their secondhand smoke.
Just such a stupid, stupid habit. It wastes money for the user, costs more for society, yet big tobacco is still allowed to retain profits. Every dime of profit in cigarette sales should be plugged right back into our healthcare system. And this is coming from an otherwise devout conservative.
It's just ridiculous that smoking is still legal. Ridiculous. There is absolutely no benefit to society by allowing idiots to increase the healthcare costs of those around them.
If we're going to keep smoking legal, all smokers should be placed in an entirely separate health insurance pool that only contains smokers. They can pay for each others' sins. No reason I should be footing the bill for their lung cancer. This doesn't even solve the problem of the damage they are doing to innocent bystanders via their secondhand smoke.
Just such a stupid, stupid habit. It wastes money for the user, costs more for society, yet big tobacco is still allowed to retain profits. Every dime of profit in cigarette sales should be plugged right back into our healthcare system. And this is coming from an otherwise devout conservative.
Ridiculous.
No, what's amazing is the cig companies have not closed down due to all of the smoking related lawsuits. I have family member that died of lung cancer due to smoking.
It's just ridiculous that smoking is still legal. Ridiculous. There is absolutely no benefit to society by allowing idiots to increase the healthcare costs of those around them.
If we're going to keep smoking legal, all smokers should be placed in an entirely separate health insurance pool that only contains smokers. They can pay for each others' sins. No reason I should be footing the bill for their lung cancer. This doesn't even solve the problem of the damage they are doing to innocent bystanders via their secondhand smoke.
Just such a stupid, stupid habit. It wastes money for the user, costs more for society, yet big tobacco is still allowed to retain profits. Every dime of profit in cigarette sales should be plugged right back into our healthcare system. And this is coming from an otherwise devout conservative.
Ridiculous.
A person can still get lung cancer even if they've never smoked in their life.
I'm not a smoker, and never will be, and don't like it at all, but to make it illegal just sounds wrong to me.
Gov't learned a lesson from alcohol and tobacco -- if you want to control something, catch it early.
By the time we were ready to "do something" about tobacco, +40% of adults were smokers.
On average, closer to 25% of American adults reported smoking between 1989 and 2007. Before that, Gallup surveys ranging back to World War II found the percentage who smoke in the 30% to 40% range. The highest smoking percentage as measured by Gallup was 45% in 1954.
Thats the thing, they could have made a FORTUNE if they stuck a sin tax on opoiods and just let the people buy them left and right, they obviously are aware of how much revenue comes in from sin taxes on cigs and booze, strange they just throw away such a huge potential $$ stream as opiates/ drugs in general, but I guess they bring in much more when it comes to the war on drugs, that takes lots of agencies, lots of employees, lots of budget money, etc.
Im also not sure I believe the current low numbers on how many people smoke, I deal with tobacco reps almost every day, and all these companies are doing absolutely fantastic, their profits go up every year, but at the same time, we are led to believe less and less people are smoking...? If that were true, it seems most of these tobacco companies would be just barely hanging on.
I dont smoke either, but say for argument sake the tax is so high everyone deceides to stop smoking.
the cig companies go out of business,
and the tax that each state collects goes away
what happens then? the governments say oh goodie, everyone stopped smoking and now were all going to be healthy,
Soooo, personal hatred of something is reason to over-tax it? I hate drinking (alcohol), but don't believe it should be over-taxed or banned. Everyone has something they hate, but that's not justification for adding "sin taxes" and targeting one item/substance over others.
It's just ridiculous that smoking is still legal. Ridiculous. There is absolutely no benefit to society by allowing idiots to increase the healthcare costs of those around them.
If we're going to keep smoking legal, all smokers should be placed in an entirely separate health insurance pool that only contains smokers. They can pay for each others' sins. No reason I should be footing the bill for their lung cancer. This doesn't even solve the problem of the damage they are doing to innocent bystanders via their secondhand smoke.
Just such a stupid, stupid habit. It wastes money for the user, costs more for society, yet big tobacco is still allowed to retain profits. Every dime of profit in cigarette sales should be plugged right back into our healthcare system. And this is coming from an otherwise devout conservative.
Ridiculous.
Are you also okay with separate insurance pools for people who are overweight, have genetic tendencies towards certain diseases, drink more than average, drive too fast, etc? Sounds like a slippery slope.
As for why it's still legal, I think prohibition (of alcohol) proves why that's a bad idea... it only opens up the black market, and eliminates regulations on the product. You think smokers will stop just because it's banned? Not a chance. Also, people like you don't realize how much revenue the tobacco industry brings. It might be "dirty money," but you'd notice and probably whine if all those tax dollars suddenly vanished. Smokers are loved when their taxes are paying for stuff, but hated when you pass one in the street.
Banning only has a partial effect, and creates a criminal underworld -- see prohibition and a million illegal drugs today. But yes, tax the hell out of them.
And do it at the source -- raw tobacco, manufacturers, importers, whatever. That would deal with some of the loophole issue. Of course that would take national action and the North Carolinans wouldn't go for it (farm revenue is worth more than millions of human lives to some people).
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