Poll: Do you think Big Tobacco should help people quit before they get sick and die, or just help when sickness sets in

[snooker]

Simple and to the point.

Should big tobacco assist those that want to quit smoking but not sick yetr, or just stick with helping the smokers who get sick?

 

[Linflas]

Speaking as a former smoker the only entity responsible for my habit is me. No one from Phillip Morris came and held a gun to my head to use their legal product. Likewise they did not assist me in anyway when I decided to quit. Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing.

 

[snooker]

well said.


I do agree on one part with you, The one smoking is the one in the end who has sole responsibility to quiting. But as far as using a legal product, to a 12 year old (Yup I was 12 when I started) it wasn't legal nor doesn't take a gun to the head to get the habit going. All it takes is peer pressure, and the ever so accessible spots the 7-11's and circlek's out there placed their cigs in the early 80's. Right up by the cashier next to a bunch of candy, On the same shelf as the candy. Which was the counter top where the cash register is/was. You know how easy it was back then to take a pack of smokes and slip it into your pocket? Very very very easy....... Also quite nice for big tobacco to be allowed to place cig machines in all the pizza huts etc..... The government caught onto that one and stopped it, but some of us as kids at that time was already sucked into it..

 

[powerMarkymark]

<< Speaking as a former smoker the only entity responsible for my habit is me. No one from Phillip Morris came and held a gun to my head to use their legal product. Likewise they did not assist me in anyway when I decided to quit. Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing. >>



Excactly, well put.

 

[jjones]

No, people smoke because they choose to smoke. If you're blaming your former habit on peer pressure and easy accessibility then your peers and all those 7-11's and Pizza Huts should be to blame. Please, we need to blame somebody, just as long as it is not ourselves.

 

[iamwiz82]

<< well said.


I do agree on one part with you, The one smoking is the one in the end who has sole responsibility to quiting. But as far as using a legal product, to a 12 year old (Yup I was 12 when I started) it wasn't legal nor doesn't take a gun to the head to get the habit going. All it takes is peer pressure, and the ever so accessible spots the 7-11's and circlek's out there placed their cigs in the early 80's. Right up by the cashier next to a bunch of candy, On the same shelf as the candy. Which was the counter top where the cash register is/was. You know how easy it was back then to take a pack of smokes and slip it into your pocket? Very very very easy....... Also quite nice for big tobacco to be allowed to place cig machines in all the pizza huts etc..... The government caught onto that one and stopped it, but some of us as kids at that time was already sucked into it.. >>



so, for all of your choices, you blame Tobacco companies? Damn, i hurt my leg once trying to jump my bike, i should go sue Schwinn.

 

[snooker]

<<

so, for all of your choices, you blame Tobacco companies? Damn, i hurt my leg once trying to jump my bike, i should go sue Schwinn. >>




I would blame the stores, but they simply put the products in the places that the product makers pay for/request.

The US Government recognized this problem with the location etc...

BTW, my point is being that the government is willing to make the tobacco companies help them pay for the tobacco related sickness's, but not willing to help people quit that still smoke. Doesn't it seem that the cheaper way to go for US taxpayers would be to stop the smokers from smoking before they get sick and have all them medical bills add up that we as taxpayers will end up paying for, along with big tobacco? Maybe I am wrong in thinking that way, but it seems less expensive in the long run to help people quit instead of treating their illness's caused by smoking.

 

[shiner]

Neither. It's not "Big Tobacco" that's making anyone smoke. It's simply a ridiculous idea that they are to blame for people dying from smoking. Yes they make the product but they don't' force anyone to do it. I think all the idiotic lawsuits against the tobacco companies are a travesty of justice. Awarding these morons big $ because a product they freely chose to put in their bodies is killing them. I could probably kill myself with an overdose of Pepsi if I wanted to but would PepsiCo be responsible?

 

[GSOYF]

God I hate people. They should not pay a damn dime.....they are just making a product, and people are too stupid to not use it. Everyone knows that they are bad for you, so why the hell do people smoke in the first place??? It's because they are dumb, and you should not blame the company for selling a product to dumb people.

:|

 

[Linflas]

The funny thing is people were calling cigarettes coffin nails etc before I was born and before there was ever a Surgeon Generals warning on the pack. The entire time I smoked that warning was on the pack and my smoking friends and I used to joke about it all the time. There is no way I could enter a court of law and claim that I did not know that smoking was not good for my health and that I was duped by the tobacco companies.

 

[iamwiz82]

I'm saying that i dont believe is this "Help those who make bad decisions" just as i dont believe in welfare. It was a smokers choice to start. If they succumbed to peer pressure, it shows they are weak, nothing more.

 

[snooker]

<< If they succumbed to peer pressure, it shows they are weak, nothing more. >>



Hate to burst your bubble, but all kids are influenced by peer pressure, so you are saying all kids are weak. You said it yourself. Whether it be an older brother, older friends, or same age friends, it all amounts to peer pressure at young ages.

You remember people saying to you, ahh comeon just throw the rock once, or comeon, just sneak out this one time, Or, Hey do you want to skip science class?

That is peer pressure too and everyone as a kid has done something in their childhood life that was influenced by others.

If the ways the companies was advertising not a problem and placing their products in the stores, why were they in so much hot water and have all these lawsuits against them?

One thing I do know, When I was a kid and started smoking, that surgeon general warning didn't mean anything. After all, at 12 years old, how was I supposed to know who, or what for that matter, a surgeon general was? Find 1 12 year old today that can tell you who the surgeon general is and what their job is. Bet you may find 1 in 10 that knows the answer Heck most adults today does not even know who the Secretary of Defense is, let alone the surgeon general.....

BTW I do consider this a very good topic for discussion....

 

[iamwiz82]

actually, i dont think i have ever done something i havent wanted to. That being said, i did quite a few bad things as a kid. I think i was more the peer pressurer, rather than the pressured.

 

[Linflas]

<< If the ways the companies was advertising not a problem and placing their products in the stores, why were they in so much hot water and have all these lawsuits against them? >>


Because public sentiment turned against them plain and simple. An unbiased study of how we have dealt with smoking over the past 40 years is a fascinating example of the slippery slope argument.

 

[snooker]

<< actually, i dont think i have ever done something i havent wanted to. That being said, i did quite a few bad things as a kid. I think i was more the peer pressurer, rather than the pressured. >>




If you have pressured, then you have been pressured as well I will bet you can think of at least one thing that you didn't think about doing, would not have done on your own, unless others asked and participated in doing, whatever that may be.

Example:

7 kids, all same age, sitting around bored. One says "Hey let's go out and pile a bunch of snow 3 feet tall across the road at the bottom of a major hill" You not the one thinking of that idea, says to yourself "He, what a rotten thing to do, I don't know", then another kid says "Oh comeon, it will be alright, it's just snow", then you decide to go along and do it too. That is a form of peer pressure

In that example I use snow, even though I have never seen snow, but I have had friends tell me they used to do that as kids (Along with icing down the hill so the vehicles slid into the pile of snow) Me personally, I would go along with that without second thought. Sounds like fun

 

[308nato]

In Illinois, the money the state got was refunded to property owners as tax relief. Incumbent re-election ploy. I took mine and bought 14 cartons of smokes. So, I gave it back to Philip Morris 'cause they got shafted by the personal responsibility for your own actions does not exist trial lawyer douchebags.

 

[snooker]

<< In Illinois, the money the state got was refunded to property owners as tax relief. Incumbent re-election ploy. I took mine and bought 14 cartons of smokes. So, I gave it back to Philip Morris 'cause they got shafted by the personal responsibility for your own actions does not exist trial lawyer douchebags. >>



Phillip Morris is getting it's money back that it paid to the various government agencies and states. That is why a pack of cigs is close to $4.00 here and well over $5.00 a pack in places. Maybe when the lawsuits stop the prices will go back down.

 

[NewCompGeek]

NO, The idiots that put the cigarette in their own mouths should help themselves







<---- Isnt not being paid by the tobacco wacko company

 

[yakko]

The tobacco companies should not have to pay anything.




<< You know how easy it was back then to take a pack of smokes and slip it into your pocket? Very very very easy >>

So you are saying you're a theif.

 

[snooker]

<< So you are saying you're a theif. >>



i before e




Not at all and didn't intend it to sound like I was a thief. I have a wife and 3 kids, great job, own my own house. I have everything going for me. No need to, nor want to, be a thief. I watched some of my peers in the late 70's and early 80's take cartons at a time and stick it in their pants and simply walk out of a store. Why? Because they could not buy them and the cig machine only sold packs.....

Think about it. Kids smoke, thats a proven fact. How do you think kids get their smokes? They used to buy them out of a cig machine like when I was a kid, but that has stopped so now how do they get them? They steal them or try to get an adult to buy them for them.

 

[Viper GTS]

<< Speaking as a former smoker the only entity responsible for my habit is me. No one from Phillip Morris came and held a gun to my head to use their legal product. Likewise they did not assist me in anyway when I decided to quit. Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing. >>



If only they all thought like you.

Where's the "People should take responsibility for their own damn selves" option?

Viper GTS

 

[Linflas]

<< Phillip Morris is getting it's money back that it paid to the various government agencies and states. That is why a pack of cigs is close to $4.00 here and well over $5.00 a pack in places. Maybe when the lawsuits stop the prices will go back down. >>


I suspect that $3.50 to $4.50 of that is sin taxes going to government, not Phillip Morris.

 

[GooberPHX420]

man what a load of crap. Since the day cigs were released to the public, people knew they were unhealthy. Everyone knew there was tar in them. Everyone knew you could get ill from them. So what if it wasnt printed on the package until the 70s or 80s, people have this thing called common sense. We dont drink the motor oil from our motors, do we? probably because we know that its bad for us, not because the bottle says "Hey stupid dont drink this." The tobacco companies shouldnt have to pay a damn penny to anyone. My dad has smoked 3 packs a day since he was 25 years old. Im sure when he goes, it will be related to smoking. Unless he is one of those one in a billion chance people. I personally am amazed he has lived this long with no illnesses at all. Im sure emphazema and all other sorts of wonderful things are just waiting to unleash in his body. I accept that. My dad is the dumbass who started smoking, and kept smoking. He knew it was bad for him. He knew it was addictive. It was still his choice. Anyways, I agree on the easy accessability for minors, which is horrible. They do need to regulate these things just a little bit better. Then again, any random guy could walk in and buy some smokes for a kid. I do think instead of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in aide, these companies should have to sponsor LOTS AND LOTS of anti smoking commercials. That seems fair to me. And I happen to think the recent string of "truth" commercials are pretty good. especially the one about piss, dogpoop, and rat poison. Good commercials.

 

[b0mbrman]

Jeez...speaking also as a former smoker, no one is to blame but the smoker...

The tobacco companies could list every health risk associated with smoking, make a list of all their dirty, dirty ingredients and stick them on a website for all the world to see...and you'd *still have lots of new smokers every day.

No one ever *forced* me to smoke. And when I decided to quit, no one beat down my door trying to make me continue. Everyone needs to stop crying and take some personal responsibility.

 

[snooker]

<<
Where's the "People should take responsibility for their own damn selves" option?
>>



Heya Viper and welcome to the thread


The option you look for would be no then