[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by berettafan

No child has ever made the choice to start smoking because it smells good. Kids pick it up because they see the cool hero of a movie having a smoke after he saves the day. They see Rick having a puff before hopping on that cool ass bike and riding off into the sunset. They pick it up because WE tell them it's cool. They keep the habit on their own of course (i'll never deny the pleasures of a smoke break after a hard day-just glad i managed to quit).

Claiming that smoking is a personal choice and is noone elses business is akin to claiming that street racing is the same. It's an unbelievably ignorant stance and shows a total lack of compassion for your fellow man.

What might all that money going to lung cancer research be doing if we didn't have tobacco products in our market? How's about spending a few of those bucks looking for answers to colon cancer, breast cancer, autism, etc?

This topic comes up every so often on PPOT and I never fail to be stunned by the 'screw my neighbor and his kids' attitude that so many show. How some of you can not see the obvious fact that we are passing this curse onto our descendents by our failure to stamp it out is beyond me.

Would you please come out, and teach me how to live my life? I'm not capable of making my own decisions, then taking responsibility for my actions.

Since when is the government my nanny? I chose to start smoking by my own accord, and later struggled through quitting. Nobody made me start, it was MY CHOICE. You can make a similar argument for the following: coffee, beer, liquor, flying, skydiving, driving, biking, motorcycles, athletics, violent TV, the internet, and basically everything else in life.

But, but, but.....just think about all the money spent to make cars safer! Imagine how we could better use that money! Think about the children! Please........