- #1
DiracPool
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Ok, this a thread about the push, at least in the USA, to stop smoking. I'll start with an abridged history as far as I know it. We have been innundated with cigarettes everywhere we look, such as supermarkets, convenience stores, gas stations, etc. ever since I can remember. And although its been curtailed now, there used to be a massive media assault of the virtues of "lighting up."
Now, all of a sudden, in WA state at least, you are treated like a Leper if you want to partake in a tabacco product. This is to the point whereby you have to be 25 feet from any door anywhere legally in order to have a smoke. Which means that when you go anywhere but a farm you need to be standing in the middle of the road, balanced on one foot doing a pirouette in order to comply with the law.
However, half of the real estate of every convenience store has walls of tabacco products. And almost every supermarket and POS establishment carry them to. Seems to me a bit hypocritical.
I'm not a smoker but I will occasionally have one, and I used to enjoy one in many of the bars in the greater Seattle area. Then it all just ended overnight. Is that fair? I personally think that each club or restaurant owner should make the decision as to whether smoking should be allowed in their establishment. You don't like smoking, go hang out with your non-smoking clan at club A. If you want to have a beer and a smoke, go to club B. What's wrong with that? Instead, you can't smoke anywhere and have to be reminded of that fact everytime you go buy a Slurpee and see the wall of cigarettes behind the counter. I say either classify tabacco as a schedule 1 drug and get it out of the stores, or stop persecuting the smokers your government is enabling. What do you think?
BTW, here's one of my favorite artists who agrees with me on this issue. He's been very vocal about it in the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dv0poW-ic8
Now, all of a sudden, in WA state at least, you are treated like a Leper if you want to partake in a tabacco product. This is to the point whereby you have to be 25 feet from any door anywhere legally in order to have a smoke. Which means that when you go anywhere but a farm you need to be standing in the middle of the road, balanced on one foot doing a pirouette in order to comply with the law.
However, half of the real estate of every convenience store has walls of tabacco products. And almost every supermarket and POS establishment carry them to. Seems to me a bit hypocritical.
I'm not a smoker but I will occasionally have one, and I used to enjoy one in many of the bars in the greater Seattle area. Then it all just ended overnight. Is that fair? I personally think that each club or restaurant owner should make the decision as to whether smoking should be allowed in their establishment. You don't like smoking, go hang out with your non-smoking clan at club A. If you want to have a beer and a smoke, go to club B. What's wrong with that? Instead, you can't smoke anywhere and have to be reminded of that fact everytime you go buy a Slurpee and see the wall of cigarettes behind the counter. I say either classify tabacco as a schedule 1 drug and get it out of the stores, or stop persecuting the smokers your government is enabling. What do you think?
BTW, here's one of my favorite artists who agrees with me on this issue. He's been very vocal about it in the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dv0poW-ic8