Do you smoke?

[MarkS]

My Son tells me that they have been discussing in one of his classes the fact that there is a bill being drafted now to make smoking in your car illegal if there are minor children in there with you. What next? Will they make it illegal to smoke in your own home if there are children present?

[frankykeno]

I know a 15 year old kid who can't run 180' (home plate to second base from when we play baseball) because he's having breathing problems because his parents are heavy smokers and light up about a pack a day EACH. I go to his house and I'm in tears because there is so much smoke in the air. Is that fair to him? He could potentially lose his life early because his parents get some sort of pleasure from smoking?

This is not a defense of parents that smoke but I do feel that in your example what is really at issue here is that young man's parents and their decision making as parents about a risk to their child. Whether that risk might be in exposing him to levels of secondhand smoke or any other of the myriad of things that parents must decide everyday they raise their children, I believe this case it is more about poor decision making. Smoking is the vehicle of harm but the greater harm to my mind is in those parents that aren't taking the steps they should to respect their child and protect him.

[wilomn]

The government should never have the right to tell me I can't. There is a time and place. I am all for regulating not banning.

LOL LOL LOL

YOU sir, are the PERFECT customer.

You're hooked, hook line and sinker.

You do know, don't you, that tobacco is one of if not the most taxed commodity out there, right?

Who sanctions the use of the most addictive drug known to man? Who regulates that sanction? Who allows this regulated and sanctioned drug to be advertised in almost all known media? Who benefits from the growing and selling of raw tobacco, the manufacturing and selling of cigarettes, the taxes paid on the delivery vehicle of the sanctioned and regulated most addictive drug known to man go where and please, tell me again why the government can't TELL you not to smoke?

If you please....

[Argentra]

Wow...I'm not the only one allergic to the stuff! From the looks I get when I try to let people know, I was starting to feel freakish.

Never, ever, ever. I can't even be around others that do because it causes my sinuses and eventually my throat to swell shut. And I live in Colorado - the chimney state.
Neither of my parents smoke either...because their parents (my grandparents) did and they hated it. ALL FOUR of my grandparents died from issues that came from smoking!

I wish some beetle or something would come along and wipe out all the tobacco crops! Then EVERYONE would have to quit cold-turkey.

[JeffFlanagan]

My Son tells me that they have been discussing in one of his classes the fact that there is a bill being drafted now to make smoking in your car illegal if there are minor children in there with you. What next? Will they make it illegal to smoke in your own home if there are children present?

I'd hope people would know better than to smoke around children without a government ban. Too much to hope for, I know.

[Slim]

Yes I smoke, and I enjoy it intensely.
Yes I know it will kill me.
Yes I know you don't want to smell it.
Yes I know you don't want to see me do it.
Yes I know I'm setting a bad example for the rest of the human race.
Yes I know you have a burning need to save me from myself.

That's just the way life goes sometimes.

Happiness will be the last drag from the last cig on the last day of my life....which for me, and most of you, will happen sometime on the evening of 21 December 2012 But, that's a whole different thread.

It should be illegal

Why? Because it kills people?

Should we also outlaw drinking?

[Slim]

I wish some beetle or something would come along and wipe out all the tobacco crops! Then EVERYONE would have to quit cold-turkey.

I wish some beetle or something would come along and wipe out all the tomato crops! Then EVERYONE would have to stop eating tomatos cold-turkey....I HATE tomatos.

[wilomn]

I wish only one wish, the best wish I ever heard wish in case you want to know.

I wish that I have no need for any wish.

[Slim]

I wish that I have no need for any wish.

Ahh, but the need to strive for the things we wish for drives the human soul, and fuels the human experiment.

Would you agree that without need, we would never seek to improve our selves?

[azpythons]

i smo...wait erm...are we talking bout ciggys...gross