that's great that they are banning smoking infront of kids.
ugh. poor babies.

@Fabby :Like I said before, and I will stand by it to death. EACH FAMILY HAS THEIR OWN BELIEFS AND OPINIONS. You are not part of their beliefs or opinions so stop trying to say what is right or wrong for other families. And yes, people should be allowed to be concerned about their family member. They have a right to do whatever the hell they want. And thats not going to change as much as you might want it to.

Perhaps you should start respecting other peoples beliefs and opinions. Because the impression you are leaving me is that "only my opinion counts and you can rot in hell if you dont agree with me". Really fucked up. So why dont you just accept that some families are different then yours and some people believe differently then you. Right and wrong are different for every person.

mau5ie: Hell yeah, poor things. You'd think some people would have common sense!

Fabby: Ya know? Maybe you should stop getting into other peoples business (family I mean) and worry about your own life. If you feel that family shouldnt get involved, then its your opinion. And yours alone. Apply it to your own family. Because like it or not, other families DO have the right to be concerned, and yes, sugur plum. They do have the right to act.


MidnightWolve and mau5ie: Yeah, that is pretty messed up. I'm glad for the most part that is banned.

@The Myriad of Family Comments: You know, it is the thinking processes above....that create the issues they do...family...SHOULD HAVE NO RIGHTS...at ALL period. Not for anything. Families are social constructions, nothing more than being similar through blood. Each human is still an individual. Blood bonds do not make you answer to them unconditionally. At least they shouldn't. Right now they do, and it's really messed up. Let me give you some examples to put it more in perspective for you.

Example 1: An older person changes their will to disown all of her greedy family, and instead bestow it all to the loyal servant of the household. The family, upon hearing this...declares the person mentally incompetent and puts her in a psych ward, nullifying her will. Do you really think family should be allowed to do this?

Example 2: An older person has been showing a desire to pass away to all that know them. The older person recently slips into a coma and becomes brain dead, and is requiring life support to survive. The family wants the person alive because the family is jobless and they are living off of the older person's disability check. So the family puts the older person on Life support to keep them alive so they can still live off the disability checks. Again....another reason why family should have absolutely no say about an individuals life.

Example 3: An older person does not want to die...but a family wants the inheritance. So when there is a chance that medical procedures will save them...they decline the services, saying that the person wanted to die if it came to this.


Do I need to provide any more examples of why Family should have no say period on what happens to an individual member of the family?

EDIT: Oh...and for the record...I am not a smoker myself.

I'm going to repeat this for the thousanth time. Families have different beliefs. They have every damn right to do what they choose. Just because you are a smoker and believe otherwise doesnt mean everyone else thinks the way you do. For crying out loud, a mother has every damn right to tell her 16 or 17 year old child to quit smoking. And has every damn right to jump in and take the cigarettes away. A family can do what they want to do. Sorry but its right. It doesnt matter whether its right or wrong. It is strictly the family beliefs.

....and if the "family" believes something different than the individual who is being controlled by the family...would it not be the individual's right to decline involvement with the family? By the way....INDIVIDUALS have different beliefs....INDIVIDUALS within a Family Concept may share same beliefs together...but this is not always the case. Please respond to what I typed, rather than what you assumed I typed. As that is completely and utterly lacking of debate etiquette. So, now to show you how your response came off....I'm going to post it below outside of context like you did with my previous content....


MY QUESTIONS: YOUR ANSWER:

I think the ban is a step foreward. Some people have asthma and can die by having an asthma attack from this crap just because someone can't put down their cigs for an hour or so.
And no one wants to breathe in someone's cigarette smoke, resulting in second hand smoke which can eventually lead to the same problems as if you were smoking the cig yourself if you're exposed to it enough.

Fabby: on the contrary, stop converting my words into utter bullshit, beating up kids has nothing to do with this debate. ALL I am saying is that people have there own damn opinions and if that's what they wish to do, then that's what they do. I dont honestly give a CRAP what you do in your family.

Backing up Wolve: I'm pretty sure what she meant by "respecting others opinions" is that every family and individual person is different, and its not your job to judge how every person treats their family member. Maybe it shoudnt be their decision to decide whats best for the smoker. And I agree for the most part it isnt. But you know, its not your place or mine to have a say in a families problem. So in other words, life is unfair. That simple.

My point exactly, thank you. I'm going, lol, its getting a little annoying. Kitty, lol, I advise the same. You wont win. Its just the nature of these things.

Not a bad idea.

Feel free, sweetie.

@Fabby & Kittycat- why don't you both grow up with the condescending name calling. Its just a fucking debate. In the end no ones side matters.

I hate smoking. I can't tell you how much I puke my guts up from the smell. It does major health damage to me, but I would like to say don't ban it because it's everyone's right but I would want people to stop on their own. Unfortunately that's having too much faith in people, assuming they care about the health of those around them :|

Smoking is like drugs, it should be illigal substance because it hurts peoples health greieveously.

It should be banned, because not only do you hurt yourself with it, you hurt others.

What about people with asthma?

Smoking should be treated like drugs!

Freedom of choice to what? Freedom of choice to slowly kill yourself?
Tobacco is proven to be extremely detrimental to your health. Other drugs are illegal in many states that are much less unhealthy -- marijuana, for example, and marijuana isn't even addictive while tobacco is. Smoking should definitely be illegal, because it hurts not only the person doing it, but everyone else around them through second hand smoke.

I'm kindof curious now, Lysine, where you draw the line.

For example, cigar tobacco is widely accepted as one of the more harmful forms of tobacco, as it is unfiltered and contains several known harmful additives.

However, hookah tobacco (shisha) contains less tar and nicotine than cigarette or cigar tobacco. Also, by the design of the hookah itself, it is rare to see someone smoking one in public (hookah smoking is typically done in one's own residence or in hookah bars). Hookahs are simply too large and fragile to carry around and smoke anywhere (though there -are- portable versions, they are not very practical).

Similarly, chewing tobacco only affects the health of the chewer (at least, I've never heard of "second-hand chew").

So would you ban all forms of tobacco? Or just cigars/cigarettes?

nocotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes that makes it so hard for people to quit. For a while now there have been electronic cigarettes which contain only water vapor and nicotine. nicotine itself isn't really deadly- it's the chemicals and tar and all the other junk in cigarettes that really make it deadly because of lung cancer.

don't see why people can't just switch to that. but I guess I support our freedom to do what we want over me dying and vomiting from other people's god damn smoke ._.

North Carolina only banned it in restaurants and bars. Many other places have done this too. Honestly, I think it's a good step. In restaurants, kids are there. Why endanger them and others? It still gives people the ability to smoke, just not as much in public places, which I think is fair for everyone. Smoke your life away at home, where you can't do that to others.

I used to smoke, shame on me.. ):
I quit though. Thank God. I still have craving yet though, so I can speak from my own personal experience.
Listen to me when I say that it's no joy. You may think it is at the time, but days, months, years down the road you notice a huge change in your body. Plus there is nothing cool about it. In my personal opinion, people who smoke are stupid. I was stupid enough to start but it takes strength to quit.

Banning things rarely makes anything better, especially when it's something that is pretty common. I can honestly see this turning into a repeat of the prohibition if it were to switch to a complete ban with no exceptions. Don't get me wrong, I hate tobacco and wished no one would use it, but let's be honest. Banning something like tobacco just improves it's appeal, it takes on a forbidden air and more people will likely become willing to use it, despite being illegal because it becomes "cool." I do Not to mention tobacco is addictive, and incredibly difficult to quit using, as I have learned from a few individuals who smoke. If we were to ban it completely, think of what it would be like for everyone who wasn't able to break their addiction before the ban. Once again, I know it hasn't gotten that extreme, and in this case I'm okay with the fact that it was banned in public, because I don't like smelling your cigarettes. However with the complete demonization of drugs and those who use them nowadays, and sorry for using slippery slope logic, I can see a complete illegalization of tobacco coming soon.

You know a lot of people that say taking away smoking is a violation of their rights don't really see the other side to it. I am a nonsmoker and I have no intention of starting any time in the near future, but I might as well be from all the second hand smoke (which mind you is worse than what the smoker inhales) that I breathe i every day. And no you can't avoid smokers all the time, because there is always someone who doesn't follow the rules in non smoking areas.

Take for example community colleges, I live in Michigan and here if you want to smoke on campus you have to be a minimum of 20 feet away from any entrance. And yet I leave the building and there's someone leaning against the door and taking a drag, or someone smoking in the bathroom. Also in resturants, non smoking sections are usually a joke, seeing as the only thing separating you from the smoking section is about 5 feet of open air, or a simple wall that doesn't touch the floor or ceiling and the smoke just drifts over to you anyway.

I'm sorry but to me, smoking is a nasty habit, and I look forward to the day that it is banned in my state, then maybe I'll be able to breath some clean air for once in my life.