Smokers – selfish scum or persecuted minority?

Smoking is repulsive and it kills. The people saying second hand smoke is harmless are kidding themselves, it's disgusting that it is still legal to sell tobacco. I appreciate the fact that it is an addiction but I just feel so sad for people who lose family members needlessly. The only people I would call selfish scum though are the people who throw their butts on the ground. THERE IS NO EXCUSE.

If you find it repulsive dont do it. Its not just people saying that second hand smoke is harmless, its the countless studies that have been done. A lot of things are disgusting. Should we ban them all? A lot of things are harmful, should we ban them all? We should ban every thing that is harmful to our health?

Ooh yeah sure.. let's go back to how our ancestors lived with just the earth and the animals...
"Don't do it"
Unless you, yourself, have been addicted I don't think you can necessarily talk.. it's not that easy

It's actually REALLY easy to not get addicted to cigarettes, actually just as easy as not getting addicted to meth or heroin. Don't do it in the first place. Common sense isn't very common these days.

I don't smoke and never have. Would also never date someone who did.

With that said, your comments have been incredibly ignorant. Everyone has lived under different circumstances. Many people have lived around smokers their entire lives (parents) and many haven't had the education about smoking that many of us have. Some people have friends who've peer-pressured them while they were young and easily influenced.

It doesn't take a genius to see why someone would 'try' smoking and could potentially get addicted.

You never have, I never have. Good for us. But get off your high horse and realize that many people aren't as fortunate.

I quit smoking over a year ago after smoking for more than 15 years. Here I sit at my desk logging my breakfast on MFP and perusing the boards, before I get back to studying for my final in a few minutes. I'm stressed out enough with this test coming up, but more stressed AND distracted constantly because I have to smell smoke coming through the cracks around the doorway from the closet right next to my computer....because my neighbors sit on the stairs over it and smoke constantly. It also comes in around the front door and any and every time I open a window to let in some fresh air. When I walk outside to go check the mail, or walk up to the park, or take out the trash, or even just grab something from my car, I have to walk through cigarette smoke because of people outside smoking. I'm fed up with the whole nonsense. I'm moving to the country, and that's that! I deserve the right to have clean air in my own home, and not have to walk outside and inhale smoke instead of fresh air. Not only that, but when I'm in morning school drop off traffic, there's a group of nurses from the vocational center that stand on the street corner off of school property where we are all backed up in traffic, smoking away, while their smoke comes into all of our cars...while we have to sit there... And then there's driving down the street when people are in their cars smoking and it wafts into my window constantly...especially if I get behind someone smoking! All this aside, I do believe people should be able to have the right to smoke if they want, but seriously, it makes it really difficult for people trying to quit, or have already quit, and it's not good for us to be inhaling the smoke of others. I mean, I'm really glad that my neighbor spares his kids and his wife(who quit smoking) and goes outside to smoke right by my front door so my daughter and I can have to smell/inhale it! ARGHHHHHHH

Selfish scum. I don't like constantly being exposed to the smoke from my fiance. If I want to avoid it, I have to leave the room. He hotboxes me in the bathroom in the mornings, and when we go somewhere, he has to smoke before we go, smoke a cig when we get there, smokes while we're there (festivals), and smokes on the way home. When we first started dating, his first question to me was "do you smoke? because i hate smokers"...well he is one of THEM now. On top of the cigs, he dips as well. Can we say it together now? EEEEWWWW!

Nationwide ban? Nawww..the gov makes too much $$ killing people with the cigs.

I smoke and I think that restraunts and especially bars should be allowed to choose whether or not to allow smoking. And going to the American Cancer Society for info on Second hand smoking is like going to R.J. Renolds for information on second hand smoking. IT'S BIASED!!! DO your own research looking up American Journal of Medicine and you'll see that 20 min-60 min of second hand smoking doesn't effect you except while you're in the smoke. 15min after you leave the smoke your body is back to normal. What I'm sick of it going to casino's where smoking is alllowed everywhere, that have nonsmoking sectioning, and getting dirty looks, or over exagerated coughing when I light up. When I'm in the casino non-smokers are in the minority and they can't stand it. Anymore that's were I prefer to go, great food, good drinks, and I can have a couple of cigarettes freely. But if i see a nonsmoker I usually ask if it's okay for me to smoke. It they say they prefer I not i use an E-cig that glos blue at the tip and lets out water vapor. I try to be considerate but sometimes when I'm in a smoking establishment I just don't care because the non-smokers choose to come come here knowing that there is a chance that evreyone will be smoking.

You took away our bars, where children shouldn't be, and the majority of people smoked, you took away the owner's choice of small restraunts and bars. This isn't a dictatorship but it's begining to feel like one. How many people die from getting hit by drunk drivers? Maybe focus more on the that instead of the 'nuisance' of tobacco smoke.

Drunk driving has been illegal for YEARS. Can't believe you didn't know that.

Last night I was sharing a cigarette with a friend and this very very very overweight woman about 27 years old or so- stopped in front of me and sneered and said- smoking is disgusting!!

(she said this to me, not the guy friend I was getting a drag from).

So I let her know that being fat and judgmental is also ugly.

I am going through this thread and I am not sure it's been brought up but, in my experience, smokers tend to litter. A LOT. In that respect, I would say they are selfish scum.

Not all. I will go out of my way to find an ashtray or trashcan or put a butt in my pocket before throwing it on the ground. I've seen plenty of non-smoking people that litter, so that is a pretty generalized stereotype. :flowerforyou:

I understand that, but around here there are a lot of cigarette butts everywhere. As well, a lot of my smoker friends walk out of convenience stores and unwrap their smokes and toss it on the ground.

Like I said, in my experience.

Sounds like you just know some rude incosiderate people.

Is it just cigarette butts that litter your town or is their a lot of trash in general? Sounds like it is more a littering problem than a smoker problem.

What about all the people that drive drunk and kill innocent people that are just driving home? Why don't people focus on that? It costs a lot more to care for a coma victim and put a drunk in jail and care for him for 25-life, than to for insuarnce to pay 50% of an inhaler. I've never smoked a pack and felt like I was "too buzzed" to drive. So I kill myself smoking, I don't smoking arounf children, I ask people if they mind if I smoke so the only person I'm hurting is myself. So everyone can get off my back! Alcohol costs more, hurts more innocent people, and is what people should be really concentrating on, but most people like to drink so no one will ever think about get rid of, or putting a cap on how many drinks you can have. And If I can't smoke in a restraunt then there should be a sound proof area for people that come in with children, and a seperate area for those over 18.

Not very smart are ya? Lots of places have a cap on how much you can drink. Not to mention, if you drink legally, which of course means you don't drive afterwards, then you aren't harming people around you. Alcohol has NEVER harmed an innocent person, an idiot who made a bad choice did that.

lmfao. What makes smoking selfish? Unless you're blowing smoke into another person's face I don't see how it could be considered selfish. I'm an X smoker....still give into the occasional cig but I have quit for the most part.

Personally when I did smoke regularly, I didn't give a *kitten* if someone "persecuted" me. I minded my business and didn't bother anyone else, so if someone had a problem with me for that, screw them :smokin:

I am currently a smoker trying to quit. I am mindful of others around me, especially children and non smokers. I will walk away to have a cigarette, I too believe smoking with children in a vehicle, inside a home, should be considered child abuse. My ex-husband, I found out, smokes in the garage with my son in there, with the garage door open....still child abuse in my book. I am not a smoker that litters, my cigarette butts all get put out and either put in the garbage, an old water bottle, or in an ash tray.

The smoking ban in all public places is a little harsh, I live in California, and they have banned smoking on hospital property, even the parking lots, at parks (which is understandable because of the children, litter and such), at restaurants and bars...the ban has been for at least 18 years now that I remember...

Most if not all of the people against smoking because of second-hand smoke drive cars, and have a carbon footprint. I used to smoke, I'll occassionally have a smoke now, and I love a cigar from time to time. Would I be upset if it was banned? Probably. I can understand the concern behind second-hand smoke though and it's a valid complaint, but I do think it should be considered that everything we do pretty much impacts the people around us.

Now we are comparing apples to computer screens again. Good logic

Its really not about rights of the individual. Fact is , smoking is a public health issue and YES SHS and smoking kills-period! Protecting the overall health of the public is and should be the concern. Its the number one PREVENTABLE cause of disease and law's should be passed to protect those that choose to breath clean air. And those that say "your" business will be hurt, that has proven to be an invalid argument where as most business' though, drop at first, end up increasing sales revenue- so stop with all that non-sense. If you wanna smoke, smoke, but do it in your own personal space.

I quit smoking 10 months ago and I feel better but, when I did smoke the new laws and 100% price increases as tax used to piss me off. They made me want to defy the "politically correct" crowds. I did not want to quit because the government made me. For the record I did not quit because of big brother nanny...I would of quit sooner if it weren't for them, and a proper mind set is everything when you decide to give up a 30 year smoking habit. Stop smoking aide companies make a fortune to "help" people quit, and state and federal governments make a fortune on 100% taxes on the cigarettes. I think if a restaurant wants to have a smoking section and provide adequate ventilation it should be able to.

Last time I checked we lived in the United States of America. The land of the free. I understand that there are people that do not like smoking out there. However who is anybody to say what another individual can and can not do. If someone wants to get cancer by smoking so be it. Every smoker knows what they are doing to themselves.