Smoking as a Public Health Issue

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Originally Posted by Evascythe

Don't you tell me what to do.
I am allowed to laugh if I wish.
There is no law preventing me from doing so.

No, but there's forum rules to prevent you from being an idiot. Stop blindly attacking other people without posting anything of substance yourself.

I actually think that smoking is an issue being handled fairly well by the government at the moment (Canadian government, although i'm pretty sure the laws are nearly the same in the US, not sure about other areas); by discouraging smoking without banning it outright, which i doubt would have any effect outside of wasting the police's time. I think the three things you mentioned are all perfectly reasonable ways to discourage it, although i think education is the most important thing, especially with teenagers. I hate these "drugs are bad" style anti-smoking campaigns, because of course the best way to tell teenagers not to smoke is to have a bunch of adults tell them it's bad for them. I don't really know the most effective way to do this, because statistics aren't exactly effective either.

Most of the smokers left out there today are adults who know it's a health risk but have a very hard time quitting or don't bother, or stupid kids who start smoking because all their friends are doing it. I know a few of the second group who started in grade 7-9 and already want to quit today. Whatever works, i guess.