Quote:
Originally Posted by airstreamingypsy
The thing is, smoking affects all of us because of the health risks associated with smoking. Smokers are costing us billions of dollars.
Tobacco kills more than 480,000 people annually – more than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. Tobacco costs the U.S. over $300 billion in health care expenditures and more than $365 billion in lost productivity each year.
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...but because the Federal government benefits by adding special taxes to tobacco products, they tax it and allow legal sale of it for "recreational purposes" instead of outlawing it. Unlike cannabis, which is STILL classified in the same category as heroin on a federal level.
Tobacco produces nicotine, which is a federally regulated drug. The fact that it's available for sale at all on the public market, indicates that the government is making bank on it. If they weren't, it'd be illegal nationwide, because tobacco causes cancer. There's no "but" about it, there's no "yeah well this other study says" about it. It causes cancer, and there is no redeeming social value for its existence. It does nothing FOR anyone, it's addictive, habit-forming, causes people to choke and cough and leaves a film of tar on the windows and walls, makes a person smell bad, and results in thousands of people dying every year from lung cancer directly caused by inhaling tobacco smoke.
I smoked for many years. Was finally able to quit, with the help of Chantix. The "smoking cessation" lobbies also want tobacco to be legal, and push to keep it legal, because without nicotine addicts, they'd be out of business.
It's just a money grab, at the expense of human lives.