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Unlike most drugs, people don't tend to consume cigarettes medically or "recreationally" (i.e. for their experiential effects.) Instead, cigarette use is caused
by derefr 5y ago
Unlike most drugs, people don't tend to consume cigarettes medically or "recreationally" (i.e. for their experiential effects.) Instead, cigarette use is caused initially by 1. a viral meme of "coolness" driven by corporations, followed by 2. addiction. There's no upside for an individual in consuming their first cigarette. The only upside is to the corporations making the cigarettes. (And doubly bad, from a government's perspective, these manufacturers are probably international conglomerates, where all the money they make from the inelastic demand of addicted locals, gets funnelled out of the country.)
> What makes the government the best entity to decide what’s good for one’s self?
Why do entities the FDA exist, you mean?
Imagine if instead of cigarettes, a cartel of corporations decided to try to make a chewing gum containing a tiny amount of cyanide "cool."
You'd want someone to stop them, right? Mostly everyone would.
But no individual has the power to stop a cartel of corporations. You'd need the collective use-of-force of an entire country to stop them.
And no individual's whims should dictate the use of that collective force in these cases. You can't trust your neighbour to know what cyanide even is. You'd want some kind of ...objective standard, or maybe a consensus of scientific experts. Perhaps a requirement for scientific studies showing safety and efficacy.
- unmole 5y ago> There's no upside for an individual in consuming their first cigarette. Nicotine is a potent cognitive enhancer.
- cheeseomlit 5y ago>There's no upside for an individual in consuming their first cigarette https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018192/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018192/ >Preclinical models and human studies have demonstrated that nicotine has cognitive-enhancing effects. Attention, working memory, fine motor skills and episodic memory functions are particularly sensitive to nicotine’s effects. Recent studies have demonstrated that the α4, β2, and α7 subunits of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) participate in the cognitive-enhancing effects of nicotine. Imaging studies have been instrumental in identifying brain regions where nicotine is active, and research on the dynamics of large-scale networks after activation by, or withdrawal from, nicotine hold promise for improved understanding of the complex actions of nicotine on human cognition. Not that I advocate for smoking, or that I think it needs to be justified with some kind of 'benefit' to not be outlawed, but one could argue it does have demonstrable cognitive effects that some find desirable. Even if it didn't, some people just find it enjoyable and don't give a shit about the health effects. Given these facts we could replace the word 'cigarettes' in your post with 'coffee' and it'd make just as much sense, but that's a drug you (probably) find enjoyable personally so we won't be seeing any calls for criminalizing that any time soon.
- sdwr 5y agoPeople smoked before corporations were a thing.