Should cigarettes be made illegal?
@beautyqueen26 (16030)
United States
May 22, 2009 12:26pm CST
I hate cigarettes! They killed my granny. They're just plain bad.
But, I don't think cigarettes should be made illegal for one very
good reason.
If the government illegalizes cigarettes and makes sale
of cigarettes illegal, they
won't be able to tax the sale of cigarettes and would
lose a big chunk of income.
What do you think?
Should cigarettes be made illegal?
Should cigarettes be regulated like a controlled substance?
Would that just encourage an illegal drug trade of cigarettes?
What do you think?
4 people like this
4 responses
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
25 May 09
Personally I don't like them either, and I know many people who smoke who would be way better off if they did not smoke, but they are adults and therefore have the right to destroy their own bodies if they want to. Not that I think that is a good thing. But I don't believe in taking other people's right to do things away from them. I think it is good that people are no longer allowed to smoke inside public buildings any more. so there for they are confined to smoking outside or in their own homes which does not affect other people that much. So I don't wish to take their right to smoke from them.
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
24 May 09
prohibition never works.i have no doubt it'll become an illegal trade if they ban it.sometimes the very fact it's forbidden makes people want it.
@moonchild1au (6237)
• Australia
23 May 09
Like many others, I too have this bad habit of smoking (I wish it was easy to give up). I think if it was made illegal, it would encourage people to go black market (just like with chop chop which is illegal becasue no taxes are paid). I think they shouldn't be made illegal for the same reason you mantioned above & that the governments in every country would lose out on ALOT of income.
@beautyqueen26 (16030)
• United States
23 May 09
I worry about that too.
As you mentioned, smoking is not so easy to quit.
A non-smoker can't imagine the difficulty involved.
And I do really sympathize.
Like any addiction smoking requires treatment.
I'm hopeful that the governments will allocate money
for treatment and recovery from smoking.
That way if a person wanted to stop smoking, they could.
Here's a good article about the link between genetics and smoking
which could explain why some people smoke and others don't.
http://linkbee.com/smokinggenetics
Turns out there may be genetic predisposition.
It's a really good read.
@moonchild1au (6237)
• Australia
23 May 09
That's a great article & I would have to say that I agree with alot of it. I guess when it comes to giving up, for a non-smoker, it would be like trying to give up something you really liked or food or sweets.
@beautyqueen26 (16030)
• United States
23 May 09
Food addiction is a really big thing over
here in the US; many people suffer.
To some extent, it's very much like
smoking addiction in that it has really
bad health consequences.
1 person likes this
@xparttime1 (142)
• India
23 May 09
we should be responsible before anyone does anything we should take the responsibility. we should stop smoking before government illegalizes smoking.before smoking we should think that not only we harm ourselves but we are also polluting the atmosphere. we have no right to do this, if we can do some good than pls do, atleast dont do any bad. what i feel is that we should be responsible for the society, atmosphere and other people and stop smoking. let us pass a healthy atmosphere to the next generation.
