so why is it even legal while other drugs which are fare less harmful are demonized?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26547057/

what about canada?

• 45,000 Canadians die from smoking each year - and the number is still growing.
• Smoking is responsible for one in five deaths in Canada. This is roughly five times the number of deaths caused by car accidents, suicides, drug abuse, murder and AIDS combined. The chance of dying from smoking for long-time smokers is 1 in 2. Deaths from smoking result in 15 years loss of expected life, on average.
• About half the deaths from smoking happen before the smoker reaches 70 years of age. These smokers lose an average of 22 years of life. Older persons (70 and over) who die because of smoking lose an average of 8 years of life expectancy.
• Of the 45,000 deaths each year:
  29,000 are among men
  16,000 are among women
  100 are among infants

its a form of thinning the herd, it is needed

Then there's the matter of this shocking revelation.... The worlds oldest, all smokers

A lot of truth in that.

Smoking is yucky.

That doesn't cite any sources, so its reliability must be questioned.

This simple fact that smoking is dictated as cause of death regardless of circumstances is common knowledge.

Dont young women care that most men hate it as soon as they see them light up a smoke. I will never date a woman who smokes unless she like to smoke my pipe.

I don't know why, but the decision as to whether to ban a substance or not certainly has no correlation to how dangerous a substance is. Tobacco is a case in point.

However given how dangerous tobacco is, I would still not be in favour of a ban. Prohibition has proven again and again to be totally ineffective when up against market demand. All a ban would do is open up a new market for crooks to profit from.

Keep dangerous substances legal, sell them and collect tax. Educate people free from propaganda, contol advertising, and make using these substances socially unacceptible and people will gradually move away from them on their own. Tobacco is a case in point again.

And the big bonus is that crooks will be out of pocket Attention: REGISTER / LOGIN to view the image!

If they really wanted smokers to stop smoking they would subsidize nicorette/nicoderm or just make it free the way they do needles. Doesn't this raise the possibility that perhaps they enjoy collected the outrageous tax on tobacco?

Voluntary population culling at an early age.
What's the prob?

Yes they should fund nicorette/nicoderm. Perhaps that will happen in time. And I don't think there is any doubt they enjoy the generated tax revenue. They are likely also, (at least in the US), lobbied by the tobacco growers who no doubt would prefer consumtion to continue.

There is and has been a decline of tobacco consumption in North America in general for some years. This trend is not lost on the tobacco companies who spend massive amounts promoting their products in Asia where it is a growing market.

Why are the numbers here declining? No doubt there are many reasons. And I think education and declining social acceptance are no doubt contributing to that trend.

Does it really matter if the govt "wants" to go this route or not? Does the tax revenue generated cover the related costs of tobacco addiction?

I think not.

438k is nothing. we can easily make that up with extra immigration from china

I want to become part of the statistics!

I think so. If they were losing money on this don't you think they would be doing everything and anything in their power to be rid of cigs rather than the paper tigers they are currently pursuing?

Oh, stay tuned for exactly that Scrottie!

Within 5 - 10 years cig. will be banned. The momentum for it is clearly apparent.

Not to an addicted POS of course!

lol!

The negative impact has been known for 40 years, why, tell me have they not been put in the same category as cocaine/heroin? Or even marijuana.
And then if there is a total ban they will just have a tobacco black market where the prices will likely work out to be less with even more cross border smuggling.
I think history has proven time & time again that prohibition and bans don't work and are totally pointless.

You ever watch that old snipes/stallone movie demolition man? When they get frozen and wake up in the perfect society where everything even reasonably bad is banned.........and everybody is miserable?
People like you remind me of that.

You have very good reason to be nervous. Please, get help addicted POS.

Hey, did ya hear? At GM Place there is now a total ban on cigs at Canucks games. No outdoor smoking section, no smoke breaks, no cigarettes period! Apparently, if you're caught even possessing cigs, they'll kick your addicted PoS ass out the door.

Welcome to your new world filthy animals.

Please stop smoking.

Likely the same thing they've been doing at seahawks games for years. You have to go all the way down to the street level, which is quite a distance in a real stadium.

Nervous about what? I could care less. It's more the laughter at your complete lack of intelligence. Please post something that doesn't make me want the last 10 seconds of my life back. Attention: REGISTER / LOGIN to view the image!

Lol, anyone can go a few hours without a smoke if they want to go to a hockey game. Besides, who wants to see those losers amymore anyway..?

Hey I'm not on here to "enlighten" anyone.

I'm on here to make smokers feel like the garbage they are.

It's funny you're almost at a religious level, so much do you lack the capacity to think for yourself. The point is not about bad for you not bad for you, it's about choice. Something you don't understand.

lol!

What's that buzzing in my ear?

lol!

smoking is not good. i started smoking again after i quit for 2 years. smoking is the most addictive substance known to man. its very difficult to quit and it will kill you.

yah i know