It's 2016. Why does ANYONE use Tobacco?

[JU-87]

Hi all
It's 2016. Why does ANYONE use Tobacco?

Seriously.
Smoking it: causes Lung cancer, Emphysema, stinks, etc...
Chewing: Gum cancer, Mouth cancer, etc...
Pipe Smoking: Mouth/throut cancer
CIGARS: Mouth/throut cancer. Supposidly macho-cool. I think they look like turds.

Honest question: Why use Tobacco?

Early on, the U.S. Congress adopted the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 and the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969. These laws—
•Required a health warning on cigarette packages
•Banned cigarette advertising in the broadcasting media
•Called for an annual report on the health consequences of smoking

In September 1965, the Public Health Service established a small unit called the National Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/history/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[WY_Not]

To each their own. If YOU don't like it that is YOUR business. If someone else does, that is their business and really none of your concern. Pretty sure the same question could be asked about a great many of your life decisions as well as the life decisions of others.

It is called freedom. It is messy and dangerous but it still light-years ahead of the alternative.

[WhyNot]

Big Brother should put his $ where his mouth is & stop collecting all those delicious tasty taxes from it then?

I am not an advocate of smoking but the laws have went way way too far against this personal liberty. Now, with said liberty comes responsibility. If you are doing something that has these almost 100% chances of dire health consequences, you should be prepared to pay for your own mistakes i.e. heart attacks, cancer surgeries etc. The cig taxes should be collected towards this, not the current tax & spend structure. Just all IMHO

[Curzyk]

I love how the first two people to reply to the question "Why" are "WY_Not" and "WhyNot".

[WY_Not]

My WY is for the state and just happens to be a nice play on words.

[ArmedAviator]

It's a freedom same as RKBA. Smoking is barred from restaurants and bars and many public places which I think is acceptable because of the health repercussions of second hand smoke. If someone wants to consume tobacco is any way, shape, or form, it is their right and decision.

With that said, I've seen tobacco, specifically smoking, ruin otherwise healthy individuals. The immediate cost and the secondary (healthcare) costs are also a factor.

Same goes for alcohol, atleast in excess.

[Brian D.]

Honest question: Why use Tobacco?

Because I like it. Besides that, there's a history of the non-smokers in my family living a little longer. That has allowed them to experience the joy and fulfillment of Alzheimer's/dementia for a couple extra years.

[WY_Not]

I'd have to argue the smoking ban with you. It should be entirely up to the owner if they want to allow or not allow smoking in their establishment. Their property, their rules. If people (customers or employees) don't agree then they are free to go elsewhere. Let the market decide not the idiots in Columbus or in the voting booths. And it definitely NEVER should have been put into the Ohio Constitution.

It's a freedom same as RKBA. Smoking is barred from restaurants and bars and many public places which I think is acceptable because of the health repercussions of second hand smoke. If someone wants to consume tobacco is any way, shape, or form, it is their right and decision.

With that said, I've seen tobacco, specifically smoking, ruin otherwise healthy individuals. The immediate cost and the secondary (healthcare) costs are also a factor.

Same goes for alcohol, atleast in excess.

[ArmedAviator]

I'd have to argue the smoking ban with you. It should be entirely up to the owner if they want to allow or not allow smoking in their establishment. Their property, their rules. If people (customers or employees) don't agree then they are free to go elsewhere. Let the market decide not the idiots in Columbus or in the voting booths. And it definitely NEVER should have been put into the Ohio Constitution.

It's a freedom same as RKBA. Smoking is barred from restaurants and bars and many public places which I think is acceptable because of the health repercussions of second hand smoke. If someone wants to consume tobacco is any way, shape, or form, it is their right and decision.

With that said, I've seen tobacco, specifically smoking, ruin otherwise healthy individuals. The immediate cost and the secondary (healthcare) costs are also a factor.

Same goes for alcohol, atleast in excess.

Well that is a good point and for some reason I didn't think of it that way. I agree with you - leave it up to the establishment. I'll then create my own database of "do not patronize while breathing."

[carmen fovozzo]

What does 2016 have to do with it ? From a X smoker that smoked for almost 40 years..now off the DRUG for 20 some years...

[sodbuster95]

I smoke cigars because I LIKE cigars and because I have exercised my free will and CHOOSE to smoke cigars. It's really that simple. One of my favorite relaxing activities is to sit on my patio with an adult beverage while enjoying a fine, hand-rolled cigar. If someone else takes offense at that, they are free to stay the hell off my property.

Concurrently, I respect the CHOICES that other people make; whether that's to drink alcohol, shoot firearms, eat fast food, vote, not vote, run marathons...whatever.

Unless or until a choice to exercise a freedom has some deleterious and substantial impact on the right of another person to exercise their own freedoms...those choices are, frankly, no one's business.

[Cruiser]

I quit 36 years ago and have never missed it!

[SeanC]

Basically everyone I know who smokes has switched to vape. Will it give you cancer? Maybe. But maybe is better than the virtual certainty that smoking will give you cancer.

I think of this when I see people smoking and wonder: "Who still smokes in 2016?!"

[sodbuster95]

Basically everyone I know who smokes has switched to vape. Will it give you cancer? Maybe. But maybe is better than the virtual certainty that smoking will give you cancer.

I think of this when I see people smoking and wonder: "Who still smokes in 2016?!"

The University of Toledo Medical Center recently published a video on social media concluding that "vaping" is at least as dangerous, and likely more so, as cigarettes. Their conclusions were unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, but hey! It was on the interwebz, so it must be true!

[Sevens]

I guess I am "agist" or "age discriminator" in that, when I see people under the age of, say, 30 who smoke... I honestly begin to wonder if they are clinically stupid. Older folks, seems to me that they have either grown addicted or simply weighed the good versus bad and chosen to do what they enjoy.

The ones I simply struggle with the most are the young 20-somethings who are dirt poor, can't manage money, work a job that pays them a pittance and STILL choose to smoke given all that goes along with it AND the associated ridiculous cost (the result of absolutely maniacal and ill-conceived taxes.)

Those make me shake my head. The only ones that actually anger me are the idiot parents who drive around with children sealed up in the car while chain smoking. But to be perfectly honest, I probably see almost as many parents driving around with kids bouncing around the car in no manner of a seat belt or car seat.