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I don't smoke, though I did. So I know that it's really a physical addiction that's hard to quit and most health and quit-help groups don't provide proper medication or real help much of the time. I also know that smokers tend to be poorer and have less access to good help quitting.
I don't like funding anything on the backs of the people who are least able to pay for it, (I'm not a fan of sales taxes for this reason...) and I don't like funding a program that is supposed to help children on something that has a solid potential to lose revenue every year. (i.e. if the program encourages people to quit, then the children's health program will be chronically underfunded.) I further think that everyone has the right to go to hell in their own way and that adults have the right to pick their own vices.
ON THE OTHER HAND.... I really would like to see people quit smoking. I don't like encountering the clouds of smoke outside the various businesses and such. I can't be around heavy smokers much anymore because the smell makes me slightly ill. We need better sources of funding to children's health and for health care in general.
I suppose I would be more likely to favor this proposal if a portion of the money was set aside for real, effective stop-smoking programs (not QA, but medicated, physician supervised, long-term adult health programs.) And I suppose I'm very, very tired of children getting all of the benefits in this state and adults ignored. Sure, kids are at the mercy of their parents, but their parents are at the mercy of corporations, luck, and about a hundred other things outside of their control.
Whatcha think? For? Against?
Pcat
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