this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Man the fuck up and outlaw it for everyone instead of this sneaky prohibition that only affect people that can't vote yet. It's such a cowardly, disingenuous way of doing it.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Prohibition never works, the best bet is to keep it legal and make it as inconvenient as possible like: raising taxes on tobacco, make it illegal to smoke outside of dedicated zones (Quebec has done it I believe), fine people who litter their cigarette butts (hard to implement but, it might deter a large majority from doing it), keep helping smokers to quit and keep raising awareness for younger people.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is the way. There are so few places to smoke in BC that I pretty much only ever see people doing it 5 metres from a bus stop.

They are so expensive that the few people that still do it smoke maybe a pack a week.

We even banned the sale of no-nic vape juice because they were becoming a gateway to nicotine addiction for teenagers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just visited Canada for 4 days, was around a lot of people and I only smelled smoke twice. Both times were outside the airport (once arriving and once departing).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We even banned the sale of no-nic vape juice because they were becoming a gateway to nicotine addiction for teenagers.

That's crazy and backwards. Ecigs were a critical tool I used to kick a 2 pack a day habit. Vaping is the best smoking cessation system around.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

except the ones using it don't even smoke rn.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago

Nah the best bet is to remove the profit motive. And through legal means execute every cigarette company owner or employee who covered up health risks for mass manslaughter.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This method stops current smokers from being criminalised.

If you ban it like prohibition, you will instantaneously create a black market. Continually increasing the age you can buy cigarettes is easier. Everyone that this effects will not have the option to legally create a cigarette habit/addiction.

A straight up outlawing would have the maximum effect. But it would be costly to enforce, whilst increasing overall criminal activity.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

They just need to outlaw the commercial production of cigarettes. I'm very anti cigarette personally, but at the end of the day, tobacco is a plant and should not be outlawed. But outlawing commercial products it makes tobacco legal and accessible to those who want it. With commercial cigarettes being less available, in guessing through either lack of convenience or lack of ability to act on an impulse, that the amount of smokers will drop.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That'll never happen, the tobacco industry is too big and too many jobs will be lost all at once, so it becomes highly politicized and loses popular support. With the proposed law, the tobacco industry at least has time to pivot to something else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

So let's give the companies that have lied about the harms and effects of their product a heads up? They never gave people who died of cancer when they knew it caused cancer but denied it. Moving the age will just give the time for the business owners to get more of the money out and fuck over the smaller employees anyways.

I honestly think there is no solution that doesn't have negative effects. I'm personally very against the banning of something (especially a plant) as a solution to a problem as it creates plenty more problems (see America's drug problems)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ok, but and believe me I'm all for this, cocaine and heroin are plants as well, or at least you can grow coca and poppies and get the drugs from them. Should cocaine and heroin be legal as well just because a) they're plant derived, and b) people will use the drugs and get addicted to them because that's how it works? As I said, I personally would legalize, tax, and educate people about safe recreational, therapeutic, and medical drug use for all drugs personally, but most people find that too extreme.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unironically yes, cocaine and heroin should be legal, or at the very least decriminalized. If they were legal, regulated, and you could pop into a headshop and buy them, the black markets surrounding them would begin to evaporate.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I agree, as I said

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hmmm, where have I heard this proposal before?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The reason I used the word Prohibition is because I think it's bullshit either way. We're sitting here legalizing pot because Prohibition doesn't work, but somehow doing this chickenshit year-by-year outlawing is somehow going to fix something that education is doing a fine enough job. People are going to smoke cigarettes, there's always a group that will do it, legal or not. Whether you want a crime problem around it or not is the obvious question these chucklefucks don't seem to understand, despite repeated examples to the contrary.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Add in the danger of having the following mentality: "what are these rights laying around that I'm not utilizing? What, that person over there enjoys having these rights? Well, I don't like that person, so I don't care about their rights fuck em"

This ladies and gentlemen, is how you Nazi 101 (but with rainbow flags and affirmative action this go-around)