I mean, we’re spending billions on medicaid, military, and federal workers to smoke and stay as healthy as possible. Charged for their maintenance because of a choice.
If I had a problem with alcohol as much as I had with tobacco, I’d be court ordered to rehab based on health reasons and public opinion, a danger to myself and others. A majority of the public is saying no to cigarettes. While at the same time the tobacco companies won’t give out any signifigant information on how second hand smoke effects other people.
Yay! Great, you pay your medical bills. What about the people who don’t? Does that make them exempt from smoking? Freedom is not free!
#1 by geoweeg on February 6, 2010 - 2:33 am
I agree completely. I think people need to be made to take responsibility for their actions.
#2 by vote_usa_first on February 6, 2010 - 2:43 am
1) you have the right to smoke. your body (property), your cigarettes (your property).
2) you also have a right to your money (which is your property)
Government forcing you to stop smoking, or forcefully stealing from you to pay for others, is against the most natural of rights – property rights.
#3 by Victoria C on February 6, 2010 - 3:15 am
Would you say the same of obesity? Would you order all the obese people on Medicaid/Medicare to fat camp? I’m a grown person and I can make my own decisions, I do not smoke when my nieces and nephews come to my home or when they are in my car. I take care not to smoke in public places or in areas where adults or children may be. I have an addiction, but I have never smoked a cigarette and drove my car the wrong way down the highway and killed anyone. Alcohol kills more people than smoking. I worked for the Medical Examiner for some time and I can tell you we had more people die from alcohol related deaths than smoke.
#4 by candy g on February 6, 2010 - 4:02 am
I can assure you that you do NOT pay either mine or my husbands medical bills and I dont smoke around others so it becomes a moot point really.
#5 by playswing2000 on February 6, 2010 - 4:14 am
please understand to start with you say its right to smoke and then give lecture people donot care for their health and it cost you money as tax payer Well theoretically you may be right but practically you are dead wrong, immature and impractical.If laws are made to perfect the society and people for perfect health and other habits then there will be only morons living in the society without any fun enjoyment and individual taste etc
Also in that case govt will have no other business then to make only regulations and manage them like managing kids in a school What is important is govt should create awareness of ill effects of such bad habits and enforce to prevent habit adopted by children
Certain things which is not criminal in nature or does not cause damage and harm to third party and can be regulated for proper location and time then it should not bother other people for tax payment etc
#6 by Logic316 on February 6, 2010 - 4:53 am
There is actually no such thing as a right to smoke.
The supreme court has established a long time ago that it can regulate, restrict, or prohibit the use of any drug deemed to be dangerous to public health. If the law can ban marijuana, then it can restrict the use of more “traditional” recreational drugs such as tobacco. Just because a chemical substance has been popular with a large portion of the population for a longer time, does not mean it should be exempt from the law. Smokers are drug users, plain and simple, and actually the worst kind because they automatically impose their drug habit on everybody around them.
#7 by Princess on February 6, 2010 - 5:53 am
Big deal. I pay for everybody who won’t get off their a** and work’s medical bills, children, food, ….shall I go on.
#8 by Susie D on February 6, 2010 - 6:20 am
What about the obese who don’t pay their own medical bills? Obesity is poised to take over smoking as the #1 preventable cause of illness – and our obese are not just adults, but children as well.
You can argue that second hand obesity has no ill effects on others – but it costs a fortune to treat the lifelong problems that these people face.
I smoke – I smoke outside of my home because I have a family of non-smokers. I do not smoke in public places aside from bars or clubs where it is allowed – my feeling is that if the bar allows smoking and a nonsmoker doesn’t like it then he or she has the right to choose whether or not to be there.
Oh, and going back to obesity……do you realize that morbid obesity (a health CHOICE!) is a disability? They can get paid to be obese and not work…..I on the other hand am a working smoker who pays taxes and my own health insurance.
The obese will drain the system for literally decades with chronic medical problems. A smoker will most likely develop at an adult age emphysema or lung cancer and die. We’re cheaper than you think.
#9 by Tracy on February 6, 2010 - 7:08 am
So you would rather the medical bills for all these illegals who enter who all their kids? Is that better for you? Yes, keep complaining about smokers while helping illegals enter the country and getting everything free, at all of our expense.