UK bans sale of cigarettes to future generations.

Rich said:
I won’t argue that smoking is the strongest example of government overreach into personal behavior. Still, the broader pattern feels hard to ignore, especially with the recent pressure on First Amendment. People are losing jobs over jokes, and in some cases even facing charges for repeating well known phrases online. That kind of reaction makes a lot of people uneasy about where the boundaries are shifting.

As for the second point you raised, it increasingly feels as though the government’s priorities are drifting away from the concerns of ordinary people. Just to pick a few examples: I don’t remember anyone clamoring to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” Meanwhile, we’re carrying a $40 trillion national debt, yet the East Wing was torn down to make room for a $400 million ballroom, the Kennedy center was renamed, and it looks like were getting an Arch in Washington. Add in another conflict in the Middle East, or talk of acquiring Greenland, Cuba, or Venezuela, and it becomes harder to believe these ideas are coming from the public’s wish list.

I could go on, but the overall impression is that the government and the people are no longer reading from the same page, and in some cases, not even the same book.
Click to expand...

American politics has jumped the shark. Completely. It's a madhouse.

UK politics is about to jump the shark with the Reform Party gaining ground. It will lead to us going down a similar road where our leaders no longer feel any affiliation with those who didn't vote for them. All that matters is winning. This causes huge disenfranchising, anger, and frustration.

Neither of our countries are in a good place. It's getting dire. As such, I agree with heightened concerns. I would speak more, and give specific examples that ought to have caused huge uproar, but it would likely cross the line as to political commentary on this site.

You final paragraph? I agree most of the way. We've dumbed everything down, from our candidates to our policies. It extends, sadly, to voters. No-one follows up. No-one gets held to account. No-one cares. It's sad, but I don't see good things on the horizon.
 
MarciKS said:
if they're gonna ban cigarettes they should ban booze too then.
Click to expand...

Sorry, that's a red herring.

The laws and regulations controlling smoking are specific. They are not a ban on things that are bad for you. They are not a ban on addictive substances. If alcohol is to be banned, then it's its own thing. There is no, "if you ban one then you ban the other".

For the record, there are extensive laws about Alcohol already in place. There are pricing regulations that price beverages based on alcohol content. There are lists of things you can't do after drinking. There are rules about where alcohol can be sold, and so on. You may not think it goes far enough, and that's fair. But it's not like there is no controls over alcohol.

Let me give you a scenario (and another red herring), they banned smoking, so they should ban alcohol. Alcohol kills people, injures families, causes health issues. We should also ban guns. Guns kill people, damage families, and cause injury. See? You can't lump everything in together.
 
Been There said:
I was under the Impression that nicotine patches were offered for free in the military, if the user followed the rules.
I was one of the few that didn’t smoke, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the rules for non smoking aids, including cessation patches.
Click to expand...
Yes, they were free for us but they always reminded us that it was costing the military a lot of money.

Here were the rules: attend a class in the evening where we had to listen to a Major who was checking his volunteer box by telling us each week how we were all lazy it was just a habit not an addiction, then go off on a long boring monologue about himself. To attend it I had to ride into the base with my husband at 6am sit around the entire day then go to his evening class. Torture for someone in withdrawal.

We all agreed that it was the hardest part about quitting smoking -- but we couldn't get the patches without attending his class. He claimed 100 percent success but he only counted the people who were still not smoking and coming to the class at the end of the three months. Five out of 30.
 
"Whether it is alcohol, drugs, or tobacco, banning products does not lead to improved public health. Still, history is fraught with examples of attempts to do so, all of which have failed. When governments have attempted to institute such prohibitions, the outcomes have often been worse than the risks associated with the banned products themselves."

SOURCE OF ABOVE: RSTREET.ORG

rstreet.jpg
 
VaughanJB said:
American politics has jumped the shark. Completely. It's a madhouse.

UK politics is about to jump the shark with the Reform Party gaining ground. It will lead to us going down a similar road where our leaders no longer feel any affiliation with those who didn't vote for them. All that matters is winning. This causes huge disenfranchising, anger, and frustration.

Neither of our countries are in a good place. It's getting dire. As such, I agree with heightened concerns. I would speak more, and give specific examples that ought to have caused huge uproar, but it would likely cross the line as to political commentary on this site.

You final paragraph? I agree most of the way. We've dumbed everything down, from our candidates to our policies. It extends, sadly, to voters. No-one follows up. No-one gets held to account. No-one cares. It's sad, but I don't see good things on the horizon.
Click to expand...
That's why banning alcohol at this time would be a very bad thing. :cool:
 
gruntlabor said:
'It has always baffled me' why some people prefer safety over freedom.
Click to expand...
Why? Because seatbelt and child safety seat laws reduce the number of fatal automobile accidents. Same with motorcycle helmet laws.

People aren't being protected from themselves with tobacco restrictions, they're being protected from big tobacco corporations who've made cigarettes increasingly addictive and lied repeatedly about smoking's horrific health consequences.

I don't know any former smoker who regretted quitting, or if still smoking, desperately wanted to do so.
All wished they'd never started.
 
All 50 states have specific laws regulating both car seat use and other safety issues such as swimming pools. Some families have swimming pools, choosing to balance the joy of summer recreation against significant safety responsibilities. Other families would not have swimming pools at all, considering them too great a safety hazard to justify the risk.

But car seats and child safety regulations (such as swimming pools) are governed by different sets of laws and risks.

Also, firearms have specific second amendment protections that do not apply to tobacco, alcohol, or addictive substances.

All that said, the weight of the analogy is different for each.
 
VaughanJB said:
It's sad, but I don't see good things on the horizon.
Click to expand...
This, perhaps, is the saddest part of all: we are witnessing the slow disintegration of nations that once stood as examples of stability and promise. In one sense, I’m grateful to be in the winter of my life; with any luck, I may be spared from seeing the final unraveling of a country that once aspired to greatness. Yet at the same time, I worry deeply for my grandchildren, who may inherit a world where a decent life feels less like an expectation and more like a fading dream.

A quick note before you continue: the clip below contains strong language and a few rough edges. It’s from the 2012 series The Newsroom, and despite being more than a decade old, its message feels even more relevant today than it did then.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top