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Should smokers bear the responsibility for the health risks of cigarette smoking?
Results so far:
| No | 22% | 274 votes | Total: 1266 votes | |
| Yes | 78% | 992 votes |
No
by Anthony Megna
Created on: May 08, 2008 Last Updated: January 04, 2012
It seems quite plain that smokers already bear their own health risks of smoking. Should mountain climbers bear the risk of climbing mountains? What if they get stuck? There are penalties put in place in some states that force the rescued to pay up should they need professional services. Should fishermen bear the risk of boating? How far are we going to take this argument? We live in America, the land of the free the last time I checked. Should alcohol drinkers bear the risk of imbibing? Well, the answer to these questions is that they already do. If you get caught drinking and driving the penalties are severe. Loss of license, financial burdens, maybe jail time. Risk is an inherent part of life.
Another example are casinos. Assume for a moment that your community passes a law allowing full fledged Las Vegas style casino gambling in your district. Are the casinos responsible for the small minority that may get addicted to gambling? Smoking is the right of every person living in the United States that is of age to partake. Yes, we all know about the big tobacco companies adding nicotine which can cause addiction. That is true, and they have paid big fines for this deplorable action. However, people smoked long, long before this and the medical community is still doing studies on smoking.
What I don't understand are the people who live into their nineties and hundreds that still smoke and have been doing so since they were very young. If cigarettes kill, how can these people have lived such a long life? What about the french? So many of them smoke, eat rich foods, and are quite healthy. Before we condemn the tobacco industry, and lord knows they have been the target of a lot of venom, we should be damn sure we have all the facts. Secondhand smoke is a joke. Every person exposed to smoke is going to die early? Come on! There isn't one documented case of this happening! Why don't we look at car pollution and other particles in our air first.
I am very troubled by the hypocrisy out there. I don't like people smoking when I eat out, as most people don't. Trying to section off an area doesn't work. It is okay that they banned cigarettes in most restaurants. But in bars? Please. Alcohol and cigarettes go together just fine, thank you. And if you work as a bartender and don't like smoke, you joined the wrong business.
People who smoke run risks. So don't people who drive fast, people who drink, people who cheat on their spouse, and on and on. It is up to the individual to be responsible enough to weigh the consequences of the actions they take. That is what being an adult is all about.
If our soldiers who are fighting overseas and put they're lives on the line want a smoke after an intense battle, am I going to schoolmarm them to death about smoking? Come on. And anyone that does should try fighting in a war. Talk about risk!
No, smokers bear enough responsibility without people ranting and raving about health risks. Our freedom is at stake, and every day that goes by it seems there is another law and another complaint that we can or can't do what we want without hurting anybody. It makes one want to colonize another planet real quick.
Learn more about this author, Anthony Megna.
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Yes
by Leann Zotis
Created on: May 10, 2008 Last Updated: November 10, 2010
If tobacco were a product being imported from Colombia or some other South American country, it would have been banned decades ago. Tobacco is a "cash crop" in the United States and the powerful lobbyists in Washington D.C. can be given the credit for the addiction, health problems and ultimately the deaths of millions of people around the world. Money is the reason tobacco companies exist with only superficial regulation placed upon them.
Anyone who claims they "didn't know" the dangers they were facing when they took up this filthy addiction are only fooling themselves. For an enlightening look at the ugly behind the scenes workings of the tobacco industry one need only pick up "The Gilded Leaf", an eye-opening account of the tobacco culture written by Patrick Reynolds, grandson of R. J Reynolds, one of the founding fathers in this deadly industry. In this explosive expose, Reynolds documents that, not only did tobacco manufacturers know their product was addictive and deadly, they actually incorporated addictive properties into the processing of the tobacco. If their customers couldn't manage to become addicted to nicotine due the nature of their own addictive personalities, the tobacco industry could help them along.
If the highly documented facts in "The Gilded Leaf" are to be believed, the tobacco industry knew what they were doing and what the results would be decades before the 1964 warning on cigarette packages from the surgeon general appeared. They knew and they suppressed that knowledge! Why? To reap their fortunes while they could and to put off the inevitable backlash once the truth was known. Tobacco was king for several generations. Fortunes were made because people chose to be too blind to see the obvious facts.
Cigarette smoking is a choice. Every choice in life carries with it a high level of responsibility. The outcome of this particular choice is clear and always has been. If I choose to drive a car at a high rate of speed and cause property damage, injury or death I can expect to be held accountable for my actions. I will have to pay for what I have done and my insurance premium will sky-rocket because of my actions.
If I choose to be careless in my intimate relationships and find myself pregnant, alone and unmarried, I will have to own up to that decision. I have only the choices of abortion, adoption or a twenty year commitment to raising the child that results from my actions. Each of those decisions carries with it a high level of personal responsibility.
If I choose to be uncommitted in my educational pursuits, refuse to seek gainful employment and generally do not provide for myself, I will spend my life struggling to survive and may end up as a burden to my family or to society in general.
I have chosen my path - I must live with my decision.
Why should cigarette smoking be any different? The person who chooses cigarette smoking as a lifestyle choice should be responsible for every expense and risk incurred. It starts with the first cigarette. Valuable disposable income must be relinquished each day, each week, each month, each year, to support this addiction. The costs to employers are greater for smokers than for non-smokers. Who should be expected to pay for that?
The quality of life goes down with each passing year for smokers who can't breathe well enough to walk any distance, who cough and gag trying to clear their lungs, who will ultimately lose years of their precious life to their own poor decisions. Who should be expected to pay for that?
It is clear that smokers, just like everyone else in every avenue of life, should ultimately take the responsibility for their personal choices.
Learn more about this author, Leann Zotis.
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