Smoking Rant
Before I start with the rant, I don't smoke at all but what I'm going to say is going against this statement. Also this rant mostly my opinion along with some facts. I don't feel like researching all of this right now especially at this time of night.
About a month ago while listening to the radio at work, I hear ads that start off saying in the following effect, "If you want to reduce heart disease, you should stop smoking and work on quitting right now." Basically the ad starts off with one subject that's completely unrelating to smoking at all and then suddenly becomes an ad to get people to quit smoking right now. There's been a rash of anti-smoking ads to get people to quit smoking along with laws to limit smoking areas in public places and increases in smoking taxes. So the question I ask to myself, "Why people are so determined to crush the people who smoke?"
I think the reason for this is about three fold. One, smoking is unhealthy for you in the long term. Two, it's rather a nasty and disgusting habit to have. Now I don't smoke because of the first two reasons but I don't tell people that they should stop smoking. It's their choice to smoke or not. If they want to have lung cancer, it's their fault. They knew the dangers of smoking each and every time when taking a puff. Why are people so hellbent to get people to stop smoking? Is it that they have a mission to help the people who smoke? They think that they are addicted to the nicotine of cigarettes that they can't just stop on their own. They feel that they must save everyone from the evils of cigarettes and their second-hand smoke. Speaking of second-hand smoke, I don't really believe it's more dangerous compared to smoking a cigarette. It's just something that the anti-smoking groups use as a shock tactic. Also the statistics of second-hand smoke are mostly unfounded and biased.
Over the past 10 years or so, the government has been raising the cost of cigarettes along with the taxes associated with them. They hoped that smoking would become a habit too expensive to keep up and make people quit that way but that didn't work. People still smoke. So the next idea is to reduce the areas where people can smoke which is happening right now in Ohio with Issue 4 and 5. Smokers really hoped that both of them won't passed but they should really focused on getting Issue 4 not passed as it's the deadlier of the two since that one is an amendment and would be hard to get changed.
The interesting thing about this is that smoking has all these limitations and stigmas attached to it compared to alcohol. Smoking ads can't be on TV and have the stigma to be a nasty habit while alcohol is so popular with most people. Alcohol can be a dangerous habit as well which alcoholism is considered to be a disease but you don't really hear many ads for treating alcoholism or talk about quitting drinking compared to smoking has. I know the effects of alcohol and what it can do to me but I still make the choice to drink it. I think that some people view smoking as the thing that you can do anytime you want without the impairment of your judgment and can work normally even after smoking which drinking can't say at all.
So in conclusion, I'm really against how smokers are getting their rights reduced all the time. It's their choice to smoke. People forget that. They tried to make it a disease which it's not at all. Government won't ban cigarettes since it would become another failure like Prohibition was in the 1920s. So they do the next thing which is to reduce their ability to buy and where to smoke. People should stop trying to get people to quit smoking and focus on other things with their time. Just let the smokers kill themselves slowly as they chose to do it to themselves in the first place.
About a month ago while listening to the radio at work, I hear ads that start off saying in the following effect, "If you want to reduce heart disease, you should stop smoking and work on quitting right now." Basically the ad starts off with one subject that's completely unrelating to smoking at all and then suddenly becomes an ad to get people to quit smoking right now. There's been a rash of anti-smoking ads to get people to quit smoking along with laws to limit smoking areas in public places and increases in smoking taxes. So the question I ask to myself, "Why people are so determined to crush the people who smoke?"
I think the reason for this is about three fold. One, smoking is unhealthy for you in the long term. Two, it's rather a nasty and disgusting habit to have. Now I don't smoke because of the first two reasons but I don't tell people that they should stop smoking. It's their choice to smoke or not. If they want to have lung cancer, it's their fault. They knew the dangers of smoking each and every time when taking a puff. Why are people so hellbent to get people to stop smoking? Is it that they have a mission to help the people who smoke? They think that they are addicted to the nicotine of cigarettes that they can't just stop on their own. They feel that they must save everyone from the evils of cigarettes and their second-hand smoke. Speaking of second-hand smoke, I don't really believe it's more dangerous compared to smoking a cigarette. It's just something that the anti-smoking groups use as a shock tactic. Also the statistics of second-hand smoke are mostly unfounded and biased.
Over the past 10 years or so, the government has been raising the cost of cigarettes along with the taxes associated with them. They hoped that smoking would become a habit too expensive to keep up and make people quit that way but that didn't work. People still smoke. So the next idea is to reduce the areas where people can smoke which is happening right now in Ohio with Issue 4 and 5. Smokers really hoped that both of them won't passed but they should really focused on getting Issue 4 not passed as it's the deadlier of the two since that one is an amendment and would be hard to get changed.
The interesting thing about this is that smoking has all these limitations and stigmas attached to it compared to alcohol. Smoking ads can't be on TV and have the stigma to be a nasty habit while alcohol is so popular with most people. Alcohol can be a dangerous habit as well which alcoholism is considered to be a disease but you don't really hear many ads for treating alcoholism or talk about quitting drinking compared to smoking has. I know the effects of alcohol and what it can do to me but I still make the choice to drink it. I think that some people view smoking as the thing that you can do anytime you want without the impairment of your judgment and can work normally even after smoking which drinking can't say at all.
So in conclusion, I'm really against how smokers are getting their rights reduced all the time. It's their choice to smoke. People forget that. They tried to make it a disease which it's not at all. Government won't ban cigarettes since it would become another failure like Prohibition was in the 1920s. So they do the next thing which is to reduce their ability to buy and where to smoke. People should stop trying to get people to quit smoking and focus on other things with their time. Just let the smokers kill themselves slowly as they chose to do it to themselves in the first place.