Smokers – selfish scum or persecuted minority?

MDWilliams1857

If you want to kill yourself why don't you buy a knife instead of sending away $10 every couple of days

Wouldnt that be my choice to make? Its my money right?

So long as I don't have to get any of it second hand which includes when I'm walking down the street or trying to enjoy some fresh air in a park, or clean up your mess, yeah go kill yourself wherever you like.
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Like I said I dont smoke. Im just amazed at how many people want to ban everything they dont like. Personally, I would rather sit in a restaurant full of smokers than sit in a restaurant with one screaming kid that wont shut up. Kids should be banned, not smokers. Same with movie theaters. Also, anyone that wears pachuli should be banned from coming near me.

chanson104

I have never smoked, but I do have compassion for smokers. I understand that it is an extremely difficult habit to break.

That being said, I do think that it is child abuse to smoke around children and extremely incosiderate to smoke around anyone else. I also don't think that Medicare or Medicaid should have to pay reoccuring medical bills associated with smoking or that the hospitals or doctors should have to absorb the cost; especially when someone isn't making an attempt to stop.

I am a nurse, and it gets very frustrating to have a patient with a respiratory diagnosis that smokes and has every intention of continuing to smoke. Sure it's your right to smoke, but is it your right to have others suffer the financial burdens of your habit?

MDWilliams1857

MDWilliams1857, No studies done?...Really?....Where do you come from!!! Do some research pal!!! Give your kids a chance!! Stop smoking!!

I dont smoke. Try reading my posts. And yes, no study has ever proven that second hand smoke is as dangerous as people try to make it out to be. Read up on it.

EverlastBoston

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/TobaccoCancer/secondhand-smoke

Here's your study!!! Read up.... Straight from the American Cancer Society....second has smoke is more dangerous!!

emtjmac

People should not be allowed to smoke in any place where the smoke might be inhaled by myself or my children. They should not be allowed to smoke in any place where any children whatsoever might inhale the smoke. That includes pretty much anywhere, including inside their homes in the case of an apartment building or thickly settled neighborhood unless they live in a place that is isolated enough. I used to be a smoker, quit four years ago. I'm ashamed that I exposed other people to cigarette smoke but I was ignorant at the time.

Wow. Perhaps you would have been much happier living in the Soviet Union. Is this a joke? you really think you should be able to dictate what I allow not only in my place of business but also in my own home? I can only hope that you are part of a very small minority.

People have a right to live without being exposed to toxic, carcinogenic smoke.

MrsM1ggins

I don't think smokers are selfish scum but I don't think they're 'persecuted' either.

I think part of the problem for non-smokers is that cigarette smoke really is disgusting. It smells bad and clings to your clothes so it makes you smell bad. I don't like spending time in a smoky atmosphere because I find it so unpleasant. I'm not sure smokers are actually aware of just how bad it/they can smell.

To me it's no different to asking me to sit next to a piss-soaked wino, except he won't bleat on and on about being opressed.

MDWilliams1857

So far people are commenting on how smokers are inconsiderate. The debate isnt whether or not smokers should be more considerate. Should a business owner be told that they cant allow smoking in their own establishment?

RunningAweigh

I think smoking should be banned completely in public places, not just in places with "3 or more walls" like it seems to be here. Why should I have to breathe in the smoke because of someone else's bad choices? There is very clearly a sign outside the door of my work stating that it's a no smoking area, however people stand and smoke there every single day, including my manager. I shouldn't have to be breathing in YOUR smoke to get to my own job. It's disgusting. The smell is vile enough, but the smoke really affects my breathing and I end up coughing for a long time after inhaling it.
It's the same for smoking in the street, if I'm walking behind someone and all of a sudden they light up and I'm hit in the face with a cloud of smoke, I really don't appreciate that. It's not a case of walking past and coughing to be obnoxious, it's coughing because I can't help it. My lungs are not accustomed to being filled with smoke, if you have the right to blow smoke in my face, I have the right to cough when you do so.

Smoke all you like in your own home, but anywhere in public should be completely banned. I'm all for people making their own choices, until those choices start affecting others. It's a vile, disgusting habit. I genuinely can't see why anyone in this day and age continues to smoke, or worse, picks up the habit. Find something else to calm your nerves or your stress, something that won't harm you/your surroundings.

MDWilliams1857

I don't think smokers are selfish scum but I don't think they're 'persecuted' either.

I think part of the problem for non-smokers is that cigarette smoke really is disgusting. It smells bad and clings to your clothes so it makes you smell bad. I don't like spending time in a smoky atmosphere because I find it so unpleasant. I'm not sure smokers are actually aware of just how bad it/they can smell.

To me it's no different to asking me to sit next to a piss-soaked wino, except he won't bleat on and on about being opressed.

So who is forcing you to sit in smokey atmospheres? You can always leave right?

EverlastBoston

I'd like to enjoy a meal without inhaling a cancerous toxin!!

MDWilliams1857

I'd like to enjoy a meal without inhaling a cancerous toxin!!

Ok, so then eat somewhere that doesnt allow smoking. There were non smoking places long before smoking was banned. What gives you the right to tell me that your right to eat my food supercedes my right to make the rules for my estabishment? I would like to enjoy a meal without hearing kids whine and cry. I would like to enjoy a meal without the person next to me being covered in tattoos.

03428

I smoke. Persecuted minority, I don't smoke in front of children or in enclosed spaces, won't smoke in my own flat or car...

RunningAweigh

I don't think smokers are selfish scum but I don't think they're 'persecuted' either.

I think part of the problem for non-smokers is that cigarette smoke really is disgusting. It smells bad and clings to your clothes so it makes you smell bad. I don't like spending time in a smoky atmosphere because I find it so unpleasant. I'm not sure smokers are actually aware of just how bad it/they can smell.

To me it's no different to asking me to sit next to a piss-soaked wino, except he won't bleat on and on about being opressed.

So who is forcing you to sit in smokey atmospheres? You can always leave right?

Why should someone have to leave wherever they are because someone else thinks it's appropriate to light up?

EverlastBoston

Great point...I wouldn't eat in your MEDICALLY PROVEN cancerous establishment.

MDWilliams1857

I don't think smokers are selfish scum but I don't think they're 'persecuted' either.

I think part of the problem for non-smokers is that cigarette smoke really is disgusting. It smells bad and clings to your clothes so it makes you smell bad. I don't like spending time in a smoky atmosphere because I find it so unpleasant. I'm not sure smokers are actually aware of just how bad it/they can smell.

To me it's no different to asking me to sit next to a piss-soaked wino, except he won't bleat on and on about being opressed.

Because you are not special. Because the many should not be punished cause you dont like it. Because its my place of business and if you dont like my rules you can go somewhere else. Pretty simple to me. When I am in a place and I dont like something about it, I leave.


So who is forcing you to sit in smokey atmospheres? You can always leave right?

Why should someone have to leave wherever they are because someone else thinks it's appropriate to light up?

kayl3igh88

Wow there are some really hateful people on here! :noway:

Personally, I'm an ex-smoker. I quit in February and can't stand the smell of smoke anymore. BUT I live in my mum's house with my son, and two of my siblings. My mum's smoked for as long as I can remember, and now after I quit my brother started up. Why? I don't know. But that's their choice, and in my mum's case it's her house, so they can do whatever the hell they like to themselves with cigarettes. I ask only that they don't come into mine or my son's personal space (i.e. bedrooms) while smoking. Because that's my choice. I'm so glad people can't smoke in pubs/restaurants/etc anymore, but if they could it wouldn't be an issue; I either wouldn't eat or drink there, or would get whatever I came for to take away. I most certainly would not go to a friend's house who smoked and tell them what to do or not do in their property just because I and my son are there. Leaving is always an option, and non-smokers are not better or worse than smokers.

MDWilliams1857

Great point...I wouldn't eat in your MEDICALLY PROVEN cancerous establishment.

Thats your choice. See, now we are getting somewhere. If enough people eat somewhere else and I start to lose money, I will change the rules of my establishment because it makes good business sense not because I am forced to. Thats all im trying to accomplish. If you own a business and you want to allow smoking, that should be your choice to do so. I then can make my own choice as to whether or not Im going to do business there.

EverlastBoston

Although you should feel bad when you see a child sitting in your establishment.

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/TobaccoCancer/secondhand-smoke

MDWilliams1857

And for every study you post that says second hand smoke is worse than the plague, I can show you two that say its no big deal.


http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2008/07/01/scientific-evidence-shows-secondhand-smoke-no-danger

Joannie30

Neither. I don't smoke and I never would but that's my own choice. I think as long as smokers are aware of the risks and don't do it around children or while pregnant then it's really their choice.