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Okay. I CAN'T resist answering this one.
Here's the thing. I'm a smoker. I know my smoking affects nonsmokers in a negative way. This is why I try NOT to smoke around nonsmokers. If I DO smoke around them, I try to make sure I'm standing where it doesn't blow in their face and I purposely blow smoke AWAY from them. I don't mind not smoking in restaurants, bars, or anywhere else indoors. Trapping nonsmokers in an area with smoke when they elect not to pick up that particular bad habit isn't fair to them. Seriously, you can ask people I know. I'm very careful about my smoking around nonsmokers. I EVEN ASK IF THEY MIND if I smoke in MY OWN car when they are in it. If they say they mind, I don't do it.
I know I'm ruining my own health but I don't want to take anyone else down with me.
So, I'm a nice smoker. Don't judge me for my addiction when I'm TRYING MY HARDEST not to hurt anyone else (I fully plan on quitting the day I decide to have a baby).
However. Outlawing smoking on city streets is pointless.
You're breathing in the fumes from cars and all other sorts of city pollution. Can you completely outlaw that, too? Don't have exhaust fumes on the streets, you guys! I don't care if you're in a car! See, doesn't work. There take measures, but it's not perfect. But you can't really be angry at someone for driving to work when you probably drove to get to that particular city street, can you?
Then there's this one thing that I keep trying to point out. You don't have to agree with me, but you have to realize that this makes sense: Outlawing smoking OUTSIDE, is a step closer to outlawing smoking all together. This has two problems.
What about all the people who work for tabacco? If you outlaw it, you're sort of getting rid of a pretty high amount of the state income (and jobs) for North AND South Carolina (and other places). That's going to make a bad economic situation even worse. It's like when people want to get rid of mountain top removal without realizing what it will do to West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania (but that's a rant for another post).
Then, let's think about taxes for a minute. Cigarette taxes are outrageous. We have addictions, though, so we pay the price and don't complain as much as we COULD. But those tax dollars go to pay for pubic education and health care and a lot of other things, I'm sure. The main ones are supposed to be education and healthcare though. So, do you REALIZE what happens when you take those tax dollars away?
That's right, folks, the nonsmokers who have never had to pay the taxes are going to have to start paying them. And then wonder why their taxes are increasing. I can actually back this up. Read about what an increase in cigarette tax that led to a decrease in smokers did to New Jersey and Washington DC. I read an article that talked about the same thing in a county in Ohio when I was there visiting my sister. I can't find it now, but it basically boiled down to the smoking decrease was getting higher and higher every year. Yay, right? Sure, until they realized they COULD NOT pay their Superintendent of Schools because the drop in revenue was so substantial. If you pay attention, the Washington article also points out that people head to other places to pay cheaper prices since cigarette prices differ by state. So MD (in my area especially) loses money because WV is cheaper, so is VA if you're closer to there. Out at the WV/VA borders, WV loses money because VA is cheaper. Since we live right where a bunch of states sort of overlap and people work all over the place, people go where they can reasonably pay less prices.
It's hurting state economies and nonsmokers are picking up the slack. Or Education is suffering more. Pick your poison.
And it isn't a one year thing. People stop after a hike...then more stop the next year...then more the next year. It's a PROCESS. People keep stopping because it gets to be too much and if you can kick the habit, you're going to save a LOT of money (I'll save about $35 every week and a half. That's a whole tank of gas. BTW, with gas prices and an economic recession, more people are quitting than before. I don't have a link because I'm too lazy to get one. But you can google it).
I'm not saying people should take up smoking, far from it. It is a horrible habit. It's unhealthy and connected more closely to cancer than most other known causes. I would not wish ANYONE to pick it up. But I also don't see the point in punishing smokers for their bad decisions. Do you get punished every time you order a double bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's or 10 tacos from Taco Bell? Or when you down a bottle of Vodka on a Friday night. We're not looking at the health risks we KNOW are involved. We're looking at governmental punishment.
I'm just saying. Protecting nonsmokers is important, but there's a point where it becomes superfluous and starts ignoring basic facts.
So, go ahead and outlaw smoking on the streets. And then go ahead and outlaw it all together. But remember what happened when alcohol was outlawed during Prohibition and also don't bitch when your taxes go up. It's the necessary evil of doing away with a significant source of tax revenue. I, on the other hand, will take up some other bad habit that will slowly kill me...and not notice the tax increase because I've been paying it since I was 18 anyway.
Okay. I CAN'T resist answering this one.
Here's the thing. I'm a smoker. I know my smoking affects nonsmokers in a negative way. This is why I try NOT to smoke around nonsmokers. If I DO smoke around them, I try to make sure I'm standing where it doesn't blow in their face and I purposely blow smoke AWAY from them. I don't mind not smoking in restaurants, bars, or anywhere else indoors. Trapping nonsmokers in an area with smoke when they elect not to pick up that particular bad habit isn't fair to them. Seriously, you can ask people I know. I'm very careful about my smoking around nonsmokers. I EVEN ASK IF THEY MIND if I smoke in MY OWN car when they are in it. If they say they mind, I don't do it.
I know I'm ruining my own health but I don't want to take anyone else down with me.
So, I'm a nice smoker. Don't judge me for my addiction when I'm TRYING MY HARDEST not to hurt anyone else (I fully plan on quitting the day I decide to have a baby).
However. Outlawing smoking on city streets is pointless.
You're breathing in the fumes from cars and all other sorts of city pollution. Can you completely outlaw that, too? Don't have exhaust fumes on the streets, you guys! I don't care if you're in a car! See, doesn't work. There take measures, but it's not perfect. But you can't really be angry at someone for driving to work when you probably drove to get to that particular city street, can you?
Then there's this one thing that I keep trying to point out. You don't have to agree with me, but you have to realize that this makes sense: Outlawing smoking OUTSIDE, is a step closer to outlawing smoking all together. This has two problems.
What about all the people who work for tabacco? If you outlaw it, you're sort of getting rid of a pretty high amount of the state income (and jobs) for North AND South Carolina (and other places). That's going to make a bad economic situation even worse. It's like when people want to get rid of mountain top removal without realizing what it will do to West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania (but that's a rant for another post).
Then, let's think about taxes for a minute. Cigarette taxes are outrageous. We have addictions, though, so we pay the price and don't complain as much as we COULD. But those tax dollars go to pay for pubic education and health care and a lot of other things, I'm sure. The main ones are supposed to be education and healthcare though. So, do you REALIZE what happens when you take those tax dollars away?
That's right, folks, the nonsmokers who have never had to pay the taxes are going to have to start paying them. And then wonder why their taxes are increasing. I can actually back this up. Read about what an increase in cigarette tax that led to a decrease in smokers did to New Jersey and Washington DC. I read an article that talked about the same thing in a county in Ohio when I was there visiting my sister. I can't find it now, but it basically boiled down to the smoking decrease was getting higher and higher every year. Yay, right? Sure, until they realized they COULD NOT pay their Superintendent of Schools because the drop in revenue was so substantial. If you pay attention, the Washington article also points out that people head to other places to pay cheaper prices since cigarette prices differ by state. So MD (in my area especially) loses money because WV is cheaper, so is VA if you're closer to there. Out at the WV/VA borders, WV loses money because VA is cheaper. Since we live right where a bunch of states sort of overlap and people work all over the place, people go where they can reasonably pay less prices.
It's hurting state economies and nonsmokers are picking up the slack. Or Education is suffering more. Pick your poison.
And it isn't a one year thing. People stop after a hike...then more stop the next year...then more the next year. It's a PROCESS. People keep stopping because it gets to be too much and if you can kick the habit, you're going to save a LOT of money (I'll save about $35 every week and a half. That's a whole tank of gas. BTW, with gas prices and an economic recession, more people are quitting than before. I don't have a link because I'm too lazy to get one. But you can google it).
I'm not saying people should take up smoking, far from it. It is a horrible habit. It's unhealthy and connected more closely to cancer than most other known causes. I would not wish ANYONE to pick it up. But I also don't see the point in punishing smokers for their bad decisions. Do you get punished every time you order a double bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's or 10 tacos from Taco Bell? Or when you down a bottle of Vodka on a Friday night. We're not looking at the health risks we KNOW are involved. We're looking at governmental punishment.
I'm just saying. Protecting nonsmokers is important, but there's a point where it becomes superfluous and starts ignoring basic facts.
So, go ahead and outlaw smoking on the streets. And then go ahead and outlaw it all together. But remember what happened when alcohol was outlawed during Prohibition and also don't bitch when your taxes go up. It's the necessary evil of doing away with a significant source of tax revenue. I, on the other hand, will take up some other bad habit that will slowly kill me...and not notice the tax increase because I've been paying it since I was 18 anyway.
