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Comments:
mornglory - 2004-12-15 21:15:35
here in the glorious new york city order under mayor bloomberg, we smoke in the streets
people are always going to smoke, there's too much money to be made from it legally, with the govt. involved forget it. can you say lobbying? watch the insider and you'll know what i mean, sista and btw stay strong. i'm glad you're in here xo
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Katherine - 2004-12-16 00:59:02
My mother died from oral cancer caused by cigarettes. I saw what it did to her. I am completely biased and support absolute smoking bans. If smokers want their cigarettes, they can smoke in closed rooms away from animals, children, and people who aren't delusional or addicted. They have about as much rights as the US military has to use depleted uranium. Cigarettes maim and kill. To believe anything else it to be delusional (and all addicts are in denial).
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Katherine - 2004-12-16 01:07:31
Oh and I just have to add...governments control plenty that we don't bitch about because society generally agrees the laws are for the commong good. Noise bylaws. Garbage bylaws. Driving regulations. Landlord/tenant laws. Employment standards. Etc. We have laws forbidding the spread of hatred. Nazis, bigots, racists, and homophobes will scream they don't have free speech because of they are not permitted to spread their hatred. Civil law is usually founded on the belief it is for the public or common good. It always floors me when I read people (not you) who feel "torn" on smoking bans. I mean, 50 years ago, when we didn't know the impact, it would have been understandable, but now it's indefensible.
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Kat - 2004-12-16 16:43:50
I'm currently a smoker. I know it's bad. I am not, however, a fascist, bigotted, homophobic child-molester, thankyouverymuch. And *not* having a designated area, closed off from non-smokers, *that* does just as much damage. I don't want to have to blow my smoke into the air, or in others' faces, or anywhere near children. I smoke, but I'm not an asshole. Or deluded, thanks again. As long as the government profits from tobacco, they should provide their addicts with a place to consume it without having to expose others to it. I also think it's funny (and I mean bad-, ugly- funny) that alcohol, which is directly responsible for ruining uncountable lives every year, is perfectly, socially acceptable. Even more, that drinkers are opposed to smokers sharing space with them. "Damnit, I should be allowed to drown my liver in sirrhosis without getting lung cancer! Freakin' Nazis!" Honestly, I agree that smoking is bad, filthy, terrible. But it's legal, and I wouldn't trust the bastards in power to protect me from their own cash cow. Unfortunately, a prohibition on smoking would likely result in the same black-market shenannigans as the alcohol prohibition of the early 20th Century. So, what should be proposed then? Besides hurling insults and vitriol, that is?
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Katherine - 2004-12-17 01:16:49
Alchohol isn't an addiction for many people, though. Plenty of people drink without being addicted to alcohol, and they do not suffer health effects from alcohol. Few people smoke and aren't addicted. I am not interested in supporting addicts continuing their addictions. I do believe in supporting addicts getting off their addiction. I wish you could have seen my mother. They removed her throat, her teeth and her tongue. The tumour consumed her neck, her mouth, and part of her brain. It was entirely caused by cigarettes. It was the most hideous thing I have ever seen. Tobacco is evil. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Also, there are plenty of rude smokers. Who do blow smoke in your face, throw their butts all over the sidewalk, out their car windows. Who feel smoking is "a right." I have no sympathy for addicts until they want to quit. Eventually you have to quit or your faced with extremely poor quality of life...that's a fact. And as far as using "it's legal" as your excuse for expecting tolerance, well so what? Depleted uraniam is "legal" to. So are nuclear reactors. Do I support those things? No.
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mysteria - 2004-12-21 13:17:06
Not even gonna bother reading those laws; smoking stinks, and the more rules that say 'you can't smoke in public,' the better. I don't think people should be allowed to pollute the air that we all have to breathe just because *they* like breathing in smoke and toxic chemicals. What about me? I *don't* like breathing those things, and where a lot of pollution is concerned, I have no choice. However, in the realm of smoking, I DO have a choice, and that's why it bothers me to inhale it. It's someone else's choice foisted upon me. Sorry, dudes who smoke: do it in the comfort of your own home, where you'll start to see and have to chew through the fug every time you step inside. It's gross. Kick the habit.
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Kat - 2004-12-21 14:13:04
Sure, not everyone who drinks gets addicted. But to say drinking does not damage your health is disillusioned. There are ramifications to everything. You don't have to be an alcoholoic to get drunk and drive - and kill people instantly. And Mystie, dear, I wasn't saying smokers ought to be allowed to blow smoke in your face (because, darling, you know how shitty I feel about smoking around you), I was saying that taking away the closed off, designated areas for such LEGAL activity would only make things worse. The government profits from it. It's legal to do. The least they can do is give the addicts they create a place to do it, and I stick to that. I never said smoking was chock full o' vitamins, or pretty, or pleasant, just that it's legal, and that those who are unfortunately addicted to it are not akin to Hitler for being so - they're people who made a mistake. Not all smokers are Denis Leary, y'know. Basically, my beef is with the gov't on this one: if you make money off of my pain, don't tell me when and where to do so.
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