CVS is gonna stop selling cigarettes

[korny]

Originally Posted by Wafles

You can pull statistics like this from a lot of places and for a lot of different things. You know how many people die indirectly from alcohol per year? What about the number of people for talking on the phone while driving?

You can't just rely in statistics like this as a basis for your arguments. You have to analyze every area of something and the consequences from it. If cigarettes weren't legal would all of our taxes go up? Cigarettes are extremely highly taxed and the government needs this income to do a lot of very beneficial things.

I only smoke on average 1 cigarette a month btw, but I'm just saying you can't make arguments like that and expect to be taken seriously.

I most definitely expect the argument from a quality of life perspective to be taken seriously when I bring up a statistic like that. By merely breathing the same air that is polluted with the byproducts of a cigarette, I am potentially at risk for cancer and other life threatening diseases. To argue that the government relies on the heavy taxing of these deadly, extremely addictive products is a counter to the validity of my claim in any way, is preposterous. However much money the government makes from taxes or however high our taxes are raised in correlation with the illegality of cigarettes is irrelevant. To argue in favor of the monetary repercussions vs the health benefits that come with regulating what goes into the products that are capable of causing thousands upon thousands of people to die by merely inhaling their byproducts is more of an argument of greed vs responsibility. The general acceptance of something doesn't take away from the outright contradicting nature of it's very existence. I don't believe that any substance in particular should be outright illegal at all, we should have the freedom to do what we want with our bodies, but to impinge upon others ability to live devoid of these substances by exhaling the deadly air that stagnates at local restaurants or bars, is just plain unfair to others seeking a higher quality of life.