Reply #12: Prohibition will never be 100% effective, that's true.

[denverbill]

But cigarettes and booze are 2 different stories.

I would guess that 90% of all smokers agree that smoking is bad for you. Some don't give a damn, others know it, but either can't quit or aren't willing to quit. If selling tobacco was illegal, some would probably just quit cold turkey from the get-go, many would buy as much tobacco as they could afford and stockpile it. Once their stockpiles ran out, most would probably come to grips with the fact that it was going to be an enormous pain to keep trying to buy cigarettes, and quit then and there. A few would begin smuggling from Canada or Mexico. Fewer still would probably grow their own. By this point, I'd bet 90% of all smokers would decide to bite the bullet and quit, and a month after quitting, life would be moving on. They'd still be pissed about the ban, but every day away from smoking makes it easier.

Virtually nobody would start smoking who hadn't smoked before the ban began.

I just don't think smoking has the same sort of social/health implications are drinking, or even smoking pot. During Prohibition, 90% of drinkers didn't have the same concerns about their long-term health that 90% of smokers do. Drinking bans to them were simply an attempt by religious prudes to impose their morality on the entire populace. AFAIK, there is also no real evidence that pot-smoking significantly contributes to disease either. And both drinking and pot have significant 'highs' other than the mild stimulus that tobacco gives.

Frankly, to me, banning is more humane than our current system. Every day, smokers get kicked further and further to the curb. First, smoking lounges. Then, no smoking in entire buildings. Now, no smoking with 15 feet of buildings. Around here, smokers have to stand out in the wind and rain and snow, and then get taxed extra for the privilege. And they can't even smoke in businesses which don't care if they smoke, like bars.

It just seems ridiculous to keep a product legal that kills 300,000 people per year, while at the same time, we force companies to recall products if one child chokes to death on a tiny plastic part of a product that wasn't meant to even be consumed.