Why aren't cigaretes illegal?

[Iggy]

1) Unlike most other soft drugs, especially Alkohol, Fat and Sugar, Cigarettes are beneficial for the economy. Why? Because they save annuities. Smokers usually die (if the die from it) within a few ears after retirement, and they mostly die to a "cheap" disease (lung cancer). Far cheaper to treat than say diabetes.
2) Cigarette taxes. A very lucrative position in any national budget. So, even in states without any significant tobacco industry, they are beneficial for commonwealth.

Obesity and Alcohol are a lot more devastating to public health systems.

Very sobering post.

 

[Stapel]

So quiting fags isn't working so well eh? It's ok, I "quit" smoking years ago except I still smoke when I drink, maybe 1/2 pack a week one day out of seven. I don't understand how that "transgresion" should be anyone's business but mine.

I only smoke hald of the days now, and I'm under a pack a week.

Quitting completely is not really an option, I guess.

 

[Cheetah]

1) Unlike most other soft drugs, especially Alkohol, Fat and Sugar, Cigarettes are beneficial for the economy. Why? Because they save annuities. Smokers usually die (if the die from it) within a few ears after retirement, and they mostly die to a "cheap" disease (lung cancer). Far cheaper to treat than say diabetes.
2) Cigarette taxes. A very lucrative position in any national budget. So, even in states without any significant tobacco industry, they are beneficial for commonwealth.

Obesity and Alcohol are a lot more devastating to public health systems.

I though it still costed a lot of money to treat people with lung-cancer etc?

Anyway, I think the solution Ireland and Norway has taken so far is good enough. Banning smoking from public places. Then Stapel can have his freedom, and I can have my (somewhat) clean air.

 

[Scuffer]

Everyone dies of something though, and it costs to treat them whatever it is.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

That's the point. Lung Cancer treatment is comparably cheap - surgery costs don't exceed some 1000€'s, the chemotherapeutika aren't too expensive as well. For Small Cell Lung Cancer, radiation is pretty cheap as well.
Then, after say two years, you're either dead, or recovered. No further medication needed. Arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure caused by smoking are more expensive; still, no match for those caused by obesity or diabetes.

You have to see it that way:
The typical heavy smoker with no other serious risks manages to reach retirement age while still being productive. Then, lung cancer usually strikes between age 60-70. A good portion of those affected doesn't survive. That saves 10+ years of annuity payments and medication for other diseases .
Alcohol and obesity (especially the diabetes type 2 which almost exclusively is caused by it) affect many while they're still far away from retirement, while both also aren't causing a fast demise...
And, alcohol not only causes health costs, but "sabotages" production, leads to violance and accidents.
40 years of diabetes treatment, including insuline, other medication, polyneuropathia treatment, special diets, educational programs, sometimes surgery (to get rid of those rotten toes/feet/legs) are A LOT more expensive than treating lung cancer.
This does sound sarcastic, but it is true. The only question is if "Passive Smoking" also causes serious disease. If that turns out to be a major fact (I doubt it, though), the calculation may change.

Time to get my lunch break cigarette .

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

It would be nice to see them banned. But a ban would not get rid of them. More underground crime would thrive and the tax withdrawl will further stress the national economy.

 

[Mise]

On a side note, I've always wondered why you can smoke cigarrettes at 16, but you can't drink until 18? Do they want you to get addicted to smoking first, so you have something to do at pubs? Or are they trying to make it easier for 16 year olds to smoke weed? Or is it so school kids can burn down the bike shed again? I know that cigarrettes aren't dangerous in the "I forgot my keys but that window's open and the guttering should be safe to climb up" sense, but it's still bloody nasty to think what goes into 16 year olds' lungs.

 

[Stapel]

It would be nice to see them banned. But a ban would not get rid of them. More underground crime would thrive and the tax withdrawl will further stress the national economy.

How can you say that?
"It would be nice to see liberties taken away from people", is what you say here.

Why is it thgat so many hate FREEDOM?

 

[Pikachu]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that passive smoking kills about 3000 innocent Americans every year. So passive smoking is responsible for more innocent deaths in the US alone than international terrorism worldwide! But where is the war on tobacco?

And I don’t think the Americans are completely honest about the seriousness of passive smoking, as the British Medical Association has estimated that passive smoking kills at least 1000 innocent people a year only in the UK, and they claim that this estimate is very conservative.

Passive smoking is deadly and causing it must be a very serious crime!

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

On a side note, I've always wondered why you can smoke cigarrettes at 16, but you can't drink until 18?

That of course is different from country to country.
But, it doesn't mater much anyhow when it gets legal; in Germany, the average age kids start smoking is between 13-14, and drinking alcohol (especially the so-called "Alcopops") even ealier. That means, a lot of 11 year old childs comsume those drugs .
And no, it isn't legal to buy any of that below 16. Just shows again bans don't work at all.

Pikachu: Any sources for those claims? (Not your claims, I mean those of your refernces). I have no doubt passive smoking does cause diseases (asthmatic ones at foremost), but deads? Never seen anything conclusive about that.

 

[Stapel]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that passive smoking kills about 3000 innocent Americans every year. So passive smoking is responsible for more innocent deaths in the US alone than international terrorism worldwide! But where is the war on tobacco?

A valid point! Same applies to victims of traffic accidents and manymore issues.

Passive smoking is deadly and causing it must be a very serious crime!

Well, there is room for debate here.
I smoke, and anybody who enters my home will passively smoke too. People know that, and are by no means forced to enter my home.

 

[Bronx Warlord]

They are legal because of the huge tobacco tradition in this nation, the fact it's a multi billion dollar industry, and the fact that industry has damn good lobbyists who earn there money.

It's all politics and money.

 

[punkbass2000]

Why are cigarettes legal? Because they're ingrained in our society. As well as all the great things already posted (largely by DocT ), Cigarettes are seen as "not that harmful or addictive", which is quite far from the truth. Most substance abuse counsellors will tell you that the three most addictive substances are alcohol, heroin and cigarettes. Ask the "moral majority", and they'll tell you that alcohol is perfectly fine to enjoy, cigarettes are kinda bad but not terrible, and that heroin is the devil incarnate. Heroin would be much better for treating patients than morphine, obviously, but our "moral" standards prevent to the idea from even being considered.

 

[Pikachu]

Pikachu: Any sources for those claims? (Not your claims, I mean those of your refernces). I have no doubt passive smoking does cause diseases (asthmatic ones at foremost), but deads? Never seen anything conclusive about that.

I did give you my sources, didn’t I? EPA and BMA should be well known organizations, but since you are too lazy to find it yourself, I’ll give you a link to the British report: http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/humancosttobacco?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,smoking

This is written in the introduction:

The BMA believes that each year in the UK at least 1000 people die as a result of second hand smoke. We accept that this is a conservative estimate and the true figure is probably much higher.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

They tried banning a thing people like to do before. It was called Prohibition. Need I say more.

 

[AceChilla]

1) Unlike most other soft drugs, especially Alkohol, Fat and Sugar, Cigarettes are beneficial for the economy. Why? Because they save annuities. Smokers usually die (if the die from it) within a few ears after retirement, and they mostly die to a "cheap" disease (lung cancer). Far cheaper to treat than say diabetes.

I always wondered if the trade in other Drugs isn't very beneficial for the economy also. Especially the trade in XTC and Cocaine which is pretty big in The Netherlands.

For the rest, I think if cigarettes were to be invented today they would be illigal, but now it has become such a widespread phenomenon to smoke it's to late to ban it.

 

[Stapel]

For the rest, I think if cigarettes were to be invented today they would be illigal, but now it has become such a widespread phenomenon to smoke it's to late to ban it.

The same applies to motorcycles .

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I did give you my sources, didn’t I? EPA and BMA should be well known organizations, but since you are too lazy to find it yourself, I’ll give you a link to the British report: http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/humancosttobacco?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,smoking

EPA and BMA are well known; I may have to point out I am indeed a MD. Thus, I know very well how reliable the German equivalent is - if something fits there politics, they always can come up with some ill-conducted study proving their POV.
And the same happens here. That BMA page links for the 'facts' to site named www.doctorsandtobacco.org, that one links to www.tobaccofactfile.org - which happens to be a BMA project. None provides any numbers or hard facts...

If you look for passive smoking on that page that really matters (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) you don't find any overall statistics.
With one big exception:
Sudden Infant Death Syndrom. But anyone smoking in the presence of small children/during pregnancy is a criminal in my eyes anyway. Zero tolerance for that.

 

[B-52]

Cigarettes are part of a very large and very lucrative industry.

And other drugs aren't?

 

[Dragonlord]

The same applies to motorcycles .

Don't touch my motorbike!!!!!