4 ms·

You're making some good points, but I think addiction, as a whole, subverts the ideal of 'think for themselves'. Your own CDC link states that 72.8% of African

by mholm 5y ago

You're making some good points, but I think addiction, as a whole, subverts the ideal of 'think for themselves'. Your own CDC link states that 72.8% of African Americans want to quit. Addiction cessation programs might seem patronizing, but the vast majority of people can't do it alone. Even adults don't have access to all the information when they make a choice, especially those in lower income communities. If we had better publicly available addiction treatments, or improved the conditions that lead people to start smoking, then sure, legalize them. The current market doesn't reflect honest and fully informed consumer choice, and that's where I believe the state should come in. It's likely that we won't find a middle ground here.

busymom0 5y ago
All of that can be applied to every single decision we make in life. Pretty much every human "want to quit" sugars, junk food, exercise more, eat healthy etc. It's definitely more than the % which wants to quit smoking. That doesn't mean we should government come in and ban sugars, junk food, force exercise and force people to eat salads. That's straight out of a Black Mirror episode where people are forced to do these things. > The current market doesn't reflect honest and fully informed consumer choice I don't think you are correct here at all. The tobacco industry and sales is very heavily regulated. They can't even have ads broadcast plus are hidden behind counter at stores. And as I presented in the CDC stats, vast majority of the blacks pick up smoking when they become adults and not kids. So they are already making "fully informed consumer choice". And a significantly small population actually smokes anyway. Junk food on the other hand which takes more lives, has more addiction and is consumed by kids doesn't have much regulation. There can be better steps which can be taken such as "those who don't smoke" get a tax rebate for example.

by mholm 5y ago

busymom0 5y ago

All of that can be applied to every single decision we make in life. Pretty much every human "want to quit" sugars, junk food, exercise more, eat healthy etc. It's definitely more than the % which wants to quit smoking. That doesn't mean we should government come in and ban sugars, junk food, force exercise and force people to eat salads. That's straight out of a Black Mirror episode where people are forced to do these things. > The current market doesn't reflect honest and fully informed consumer choice I don't think you are correct here at all. The tobacco industry and sales is very heavily regulated. They can't even have ads broadcast plus are hidden behind counter at stores. And as I presented in the CDC stats, vast majority of the blacks pick up smoking when they become adults and not kids. So they are already making "fully informed consumer choice". And a significantly small population actually smokes anyway. Junk food on the other hand which takes more lives, has more addiction and is consumed by kids doesn't have much regulation. There can be better steps which can be taken such as "those who don't smoke" get a tax rebate for example.