Smoking: A Vice That Will Not be Tempered by Price

I think that it is safe to say that a lot of people out there are smokers. In fact there are a lot of people out there who are going to smoke regardless, and smoke often at that. It is really not like the dangers of smoking are some great mystery these days. If people want to do something or rather if they are addicted into doing something, they will find a way to do this. Regardless of how much information is out there.

I’m not going to get too preachy. If people want to smoke their lungs into dust, then go nuts. That’s their business. It’s a choice that they are going to really have to live with any consequences. The consequences will depend on a person. Some person could pretty much inhale pack after pack of cigarettes and it would be years before it shows up. Then there are other people who would smoke maybe ten percent of the heavy smokers and suffer the price from their chosen vice.

It is not like people haven’t died from results of heavy cigarette smoking or moderate cigarette smoking. Nicotine addiction is rather powerful and when a person starts, it’s a slippery slope to something bad. Granted, if you listen to certain people, it’s a shorter slippery slope before you hit the bottom and suffer the consequences.

Second hand smoke, there are obviously some problems and there has been an uproar about smoking in public places. Allow it in bars I would think.  Restaurants, I would say that’s a logical place to ban it due to families. Other public places well you can go back and forth but I think that any place where children are around a lot, you shouldn’t really smoke. Respect the rights of non smokers and we’ll in turn respect your right to smoke yourself into an early grave.

Interestingly enough, the United States Government just keeps raising the taxes on cigarettes each passing year, it just keeps going up and up, with no end of the price hike in site. They try to claim that this is a measure to discourage smokers, to prevent better health. Really we all know it’s just an easy way to fleece money out of addicts. They know that really the price doesn’t matter. If someone is addicted to something like cigarettes for example enough, they’ll find a way to drum up the funds to pay for it. And if they can’t pay for it legally, well there are people who take the desperate measures.

Smoking can be a danger, but it’s a choice. No one forces you to pick up that cigarette and take that first drag. It could kill you but then again, drinking water or breathing the air could potentially kill you under some freak circumstances. You could drop dead at any moment. Now there’s a pleasant thought for today! Regardless, price is no obstacle for those with an addiction and the government obviously isn’t that stupid, they see it as an easy way to profit off of an addiction.