Reply to Can someone give me some reasons why tobacco is not illegal?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]"Someone sitting by himself at home smoking a cigarette is harming no one but himself."

This is only true if the guy is smoking in a sealed vault. If he lives in an apt building, or has his windows open, or has family members who live with him, etc. then he is harming others in addition to homself. And since it is impossible to smoke without negatively impacting others, it should not be lefal to do so. [/quote]

Yes, but once you are beyond the general vicinity of the person smoking, you are getting ridiculous.  We all breath the same air, which is full of pollutants, including those emitted by the factories that make your clothes, the car you drive, and the power plants that provide electricity to your home.  You are crazy if you think that, but for the individuals smoking cigarettes on your planet, you would be breathing clean air.  Furthermore, if you are looking to breathe strictly 100% oxygen, you need a bubble of some kind.  Criminalizing cigarettes is not going to make a lick of difference.[/quote]

The difference between tobacco smoke and the other things you mentioned (car emissions, power plants, etc.) is that those emissions either (a) do not contain the potent carcinogens and toxins that are found in tobacco smoke, or (b) are regulated and controlled in such a way that they stay below the threshold for human safety (this is why you have to have your car inspected every year -- to ensure that it is not producing emissions at a level greater than that which is considered safe.

The thing that sets tobacco smoke apart is that there is no "threshold" -- any amount, even fleeting, miniscule exposures, is considered unsafe by the regulatory bodies of this country (and the world, actually). There are only a handful of substances that meet this criterion (i.e., exposure is unsafe in any amount, even tiny amounts). Another example is asbestos.[/quote]

I am not sure why I am continuing to respond to this but the frantic lack of reason just irks me.  I may have to go get in my safely emitting car and buy myself a lethal pack of cigarettes to calm down.  Ok, your statements are so hyperbolic, I am not sure how to make sense of them.  How do you define "safe" as you have used it here?  Safe is a relative term.  I think it is accurate to say that a bullet to the head is not safe even in a small amount.  A puff of cigarette within 100 miles of you, or even within 10 feet of you is not equivalent to a bullet to the head.  You are citing nothing so I have no idea what you are basing your conclusions on but any medical professional can tell you that the lung cancer cases they see are people who have smoked multiple packs per day for years, not someone who once walked by someone smoking a cigarette.  [/quote]

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