Do you agree with the new anti-smoking law?

[dH]

Cars may of been a bit of a stretch but w/e I was at work. Bottom line I never agree with any forced goverment regulation. You people see something that may or may not affect you positively and are all for it. Laws like these start precedents people and slowly but surely more and more rights begin getting eroded until finally one affects you than you complain. By than it's too late though.

[zoic]

It still boggles my mind to see people smoking despite the health risks associated with it.

I feel the same about alcohol, so different strokes for different folks. I simply cannot fathom how people can drink even one drink, then think it OK to operate a high velocity crash vehicle like it is nothing.

Alas, I did find it was much easier to quit drinking, while tobacco still has it claws in me. I am an occassional smoker, even skipping days in the winter when it is too cold to go out for a smoke.

[spackler]

Smoking is not a right. The point of laws like this is to protect bystanding people from having their rights (the right to not get cancer from second hand smoke) infringed upon. I am all for you doing whatever you want, as long as what you're doing doesn't have a negative impact on my life. What right do you have to do that?

[Shivas Irons]

It still boggles my mind to see people smoking despite the health risks associated with it.

It's a drug and people are addicted. It's that simple.

[Andrea]

I sure wish I could get my kids to not smoke....but then I was a smoker as a teen and no adult could tell me differently either. Plus the cost is astronomical! Save that money for the slots or a bottle of vino. I quit in 1983 and ten years later to the day bought my first (and only) new car.

[Shivas Irons]

I sure wish I could get my kids to not smoke....but then I was a smoker as a teen and no adult could tell me differently either. Plus the cost is astronomical! Save that money for the slots or a bottle of vino.

Save money from smoking so you can spend it on gambling and booze?

[Andrea]

makes sense to me...lol

[Kilroy]

We should not need a law for that, but it seems we do.
As a smoker, I feel that smoking indoors is just wrong. I can't even remember the last time, but it has been more than 18 years since I lit up indoors. I remember when the primary purpose of a coffee table was a place for the ashtray. Do they still make ashtrays?

[jeffc]

It's a drug and people are addicted. It's that simple.

but it all comes down to choices. Thousands of people quit every day. You either choose to quit or you don't. And besides, there are all kinds of things to help you quit (e.g the patch, etc.).

Furthermore, it's not like people start smoking now and aren't aware of the risks....or they just choose to ignore them. At that point they are not addicted.

[dH]

I like it how in these debates everyone feels they must get the last word and be right almost as though these "web forums" have a gravitational pull for these types of personalities!

[1972Apex]

I like it how in these debates everyone feels they must get the last word and be right almost as though these "web forums" have a gravitational pull for these types of personalities!

I hear you brother !!!!

[jonf]

I simply cannot fathom how people can drink even one drink, then think it OK to operate a high velocity crash vehicle like it is nothing.

Apples and oranges. Drinking alone is not dangerous to others, whereas smoking in an enclosed public area is.. If I am drinking at home, I do not pose a risk to the public, just like an individual smoking in their own home. Only by making the decision to drive is the drinker becoming a danger to others, and hence drinking and driving is illegal. Smoking, on the same level, is now being made illegal when it is dangerous to others - in enclosed public spaces. Drinking is not illegal, nor is smoking, because both can be done without endangering the public. If one decides to drink, one must also refrain from driving (and cannot drink in public, so one could argue that drinkers are just as oppressed as smokers, as they can't walk around on the street boozing it up). If one decides to smoke, one may not smoke public buildings. I'll kill my liver with booze, someone else an kill their lungs with smoke, but neither of us has the right to endager others. Seems fair to me.

[dbleber]

Not to be a threadjack but since you all are on the bannig topic shouldn't there be a law against advertising beer drinking on TV? No one is ever drunk or violent, the girls are models etc.everything is perfect. What they don't show you is the young driver runnng his car into a telephone pole and the old man coming home and beating the crap out of his wife and kids

There is a difference between social drinking and getting drunk and out of control. They show social drinking and are promoting that, not to say they don't want a guy to buy a 2-4 every night, we can't expect government and companies to baby-sit us. Smoking is band because of the by product, beer doesn't have a by product that will affect those around them in a direct way. Standing beside someone drinking will not harm you directly as it will smoking. Drinking and driving does and it is very serious but beer companies can be held responsible for what we as free citizens do with there product. Besides, I love beer advertisements during hockey season!

[jonf]

No one is ever drunk or violent, the girls are models etc.everything is perfect.

Hey man, that's what they all look like after a few...that's the most accurate advertising there is.

[perrsco]

I'm happy the non-smoking law has gone through... Seeing friends and family being affected by the negative effects of smoking (ie, emphysema, death by cancer, etc.), coupled with my experience when I worked in a rehabilitative/palliative hospital, really hit home for me. Not to sounds melodramatic or anything, but I can't bring a cigarette to my mouth anymore.

[Shivas Irons]

but it all comes down to choices. Thousands of people quit every day. You either choose to quit or you don't. And besides, there are all kinds of things to help you quit (e.g the patch, etc.).

jeff - you claim it's a simple choice, but it just isn't that easy. Sure thousands quit every day, but millions more do not. Crack-heads know crack isn't good for them but they don't quit because they're addicted. Same thing with cigarettes, except cigarettes are much more addictive than crack.
People who are addicted to a drug don't necessarily want to be.

[Shivas Irons]

I like it how in these debates everyone feels they must get the last word and be right almost as though these "web forums" have a gravitational pull for these types of personalities!

I really like the one's that ask the moderator to close the thread - right after they have made their post thus guaranteeing the last word.
We should close this thread now.