Citizen Power

This caught my eye today:

22% Say Smoking Should Be Against The Law

Over one-out-of-five U.S. voters (22%) say the federal government should outlaw tobacco smoking, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Seventy percent (70%) disagree, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.
That support should come as good news for the 15% of voters who currently smoke — unless, of course, they’re trying to quit.
Only 14% of smokers think tobacco smoking should be against the law. Eighty percent (80%) are opposed, and five percent (5%) aren’t sure.
Twenty-two percent (22%) of former smokers say smoking should be outlawed, along with 23% of those who have never smoked.
Generally, those segments of the voting population that have the highest levels of smoking are the ones most likely to favor making it illegal.
But 71% of voters also believe that tobacco companies should not be held liable for health problems that current smokers develop.

From Rasmussen, the polling people.

I know a lot of people still smoke, and they think it’s a matter of freedom, and from a legal standpoint, they are right.  But  they have to consider who they may be harming. I have family members who still smoke, and I wish they’d quit. I am a former smoker.  I smoked for many years, and quit nearly five years ago. I have to say I must have had it easy, because quitting smoking for me wasn’t that tough. I had smoked over a pack a day for quite a while, and I was definitely hooked, but when I decided to quit I had made up my mind, and I never was even tempted to start again.  I had reached the point of just hating it.   I was able to quit the first time I tried and I never relapsed even once. From stories I hear, that’s rare, but it really wasn’t that hard for me. Now that I’m a reformed smoker, I’m trying to get everyone to quit. But the question is, do people have a right to smoke (kill themselves) or should it be illegal?

If you look at it as suicide, I guess everyone has the right to commit suicide, but only if they don’t take people with them. That’s the problem with smoking, it spreads.   A “no smoking” section in a restaurant is like a “no peeing” section in a swimming pool . . . it’s going to waft into someone else’s airspace,  and they will be breathing that smoke whether they want to or not. So, it definitely harms public health. For that reason alone, it should be outlawed in public places.

The question still remains whether countries can and should ban something that leads to near-certain death. You could argue that high-fat food (burgers, fries, ice cream) leads to heart disease, stroke, even cancer,  and you could argue that should outlawed also.  But I’m not for that at all. Who’s to determine what we can eat or drink and why would it be up to anyone but us what we want to put in our bodies? (After all, autonomy over your own body, and privacy, is the Constitutional argument for allowing abortions to be legal).

The statistics for smoking are bad enough though, that it gives people a good excuse to act like Big Brother. This is from the American Cancer Society:

Health Effects of Smoking

Each year, a staggering 440,000 people die in the US from tobacco use. Nearly 1 of every 5 deaths is related to smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.

Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths. It is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), and esophagus, and is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, liver, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, colon and rectum, and some leukemias.

About 87% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women, and is one of the most difficult cancers to treat.

That’s enough to nearly scare anyone who smokes to death — if the cigarettes don’t kill you first.

My solution to all of this is that it’s in the country’s best interest to discourage smoking, from a health insurance and public safety point of view. Keep cigarette smoking legal, but raise the taxes on them to about $10 a pack. If people really, really want to kill themselves, they can pay for what it costs the rest of us.

Even though I hate cigarettes, I do think weed should be legalized. After all, it’s good for people. The day it becomes legal (and I think that day is coming) I’m going to be the first in line to buy some. I might have to bake it in cookies or something though, since I can’t see starting up smoking again.

Maybe if marijuana was legalized, no one would want to bother with tobacco anymore.  What would be the point?