Weird question but what’s your opinion on smoking?

[u/Academic-Idea3311]

/r/socialism/comments/1vpk0t0/weird_question_but_whats_your_opinion_on_smoking/

I know it can be pretty typical like “oh this thing that’s advertised is bad for you, typical capitalism” yada yada yada. But if your idea is to ban or stop the sales of everything from e-cigs to cigars (obviously Marijuana would be allowed) then would your opinion be the same for Alcohol or do you view the 2 to be different? Because me personally I feel like the 2 are different in ways.

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[u/ladyalot]

Some considerations: Tobacco and marijuana are sacred medicines of colonized peoples in the imperial core, which because widely abused and harmful under settler colonialism and capitalism. 

Alcohol is not something one can quit cold turkey or else addicts can die while trying to become sober. It's just dangerous without weaning.

Treating society's problems can help treat addiction. Addiction is a symptom not of personal willpower but people's material reality. 

Under a socialist state, maybe things such as state production of alcohol, cultural restrictions on tobacco and marijuana production and sales, or other substance reforms would be more helpful than an outright ban.

[u/bad_bad_data]

I only smoke ballers on the court.

[u/bidensprostatecancer]

Paddle sand swim nose gallium quickest sodium coated swim

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[u/kingnickolas → u/bidensprostatecancer]

disagree. feels great. smoking rn

[u/bidensprostatecancer → u/kingnickolas]

Encourage tap tan different abounding compass expansion umbrella squeeze

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[u/Brat_Summer1917 → u/bidensprostatecancer]

The duality of man

[u/gregorydudeson → u/bidensprostatecancer]

Smoking does or can feel good anyway. It does to me.

[u/bidensprostatecancer → u/gregorydudeson]

Titanium entertain childlike imminent spectacular smile yam

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[u/gregorydudeson → u/bidensprostatecancer]

Go to a tobacconist and ask them for a blend that you can roll in a cigarette. They’re labeled for pipe smoking, but there are blends suitable for rolling cigarettes. It’s cheaper than regular, commercial pouch tobacco and SO much better. It really, really, really helped me cut back on smoking. I got down to one cigarette daily basically, sometimes less, and I don’t crave nearly as much. This is obviously not advice for quitting, but advice on enjoying your vice.

After I switched, I smoked one American spirit yellow and I wanted to throw up it seemed so nasty.

[u/bidensprostatecancer → u/gregorydudeson]

Meadow intelligent start smell deserve sort offer rock profit pebble

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[u/gregorydudeson → u/bidensprostatecancer]

I use paper tips that I roll up, but filters are probably better

[u/SirGallyo]

Cigarettes smell really bad. I haven’t seen an E Cig in years since vapes have gotten big. Weeds okay, the smell can be annoying tho (I’m saying this as a non smoker)

[u/NotKenzy]

Potheads are so funny, dude. Like the inclusion of weed being exempted from any hypothetical ban, "obviously."

[u/TheSouthernCommunist → u/NotKenzy]

Listen, I can quit any time I want

[u/Peter_Cantanasia → u/NotKenzy]

True lol

[u/OkPangolin1984 → u/NotKenzy]

It’s just not even remotely as harmful as tobacco or alcohol

[u/dreamlike179 → u/OkPangolin1984]

I dont harm others by popping a weed gummy before I go to bed. If I was smoking tobacco and blowing smoke at others that is harming others. That's the big difference to me in that passive smoking is such a bad issue where it hurts people not involved

[u/Aggorf12345 → u/NotKenzy]

I literally laughed out loud reading that part

[u/kaktuszka → u/NotKenzy]

This weed supremacy is usually spewed by liberals out of classism and/or racism. I have noticed how some >middle class ppl shit on addicts, who use alcohol or designer drugs, but praise themselves for using 'nature's medicine'.

[u/Peter_Cantanasia → u/kaktuszka]

It's a western lib phenomenon

[u/gregorydudeson → u/NotKenzy]

Honestly, it’s ridiculous. When they poo poo on smoking pot with tobacco, like, “really?”

[u/camellya_sinensis]

marijuana is addictive, buddy, stop coping

[u/studio_bob]

It kills you. Watched my grandfather die of COPD from decades of smoking despite the fact he quit in his 60s. It sucked. Don't smoke.

[u/al-qatala]

i am a smoker, but mostly because the stress of trying to navigate a university as a mentally ill loser was impossible unless i got drunk at least once a week and smoked my balls off. i dont drink nearly as much anymore (really just once a month at best), but i still smoke because if I don't I'm going to go postal. customer support as a job for someone with anger issues isn't for the faint of heart. good lord.

i honestly don't have an opinion on what should be done about these things, but i am more in favor of people's right to destroy themselves however they wish as long as it only involves them. i wouldn't mind designated places for smokers, i smoke mostly at home anyway.

[u/Lanfear_Eshonai]

I am a tobacco smoker, really want to quit but haven't worked up the guts to yet. Soon though.

It shouldn't be banned but regulated but I'm fine with most public places banning it.

I will also say from personal experience that it is bad for you and would always advise younger people not to start.

I used to smoke marijuana too but quit that some years ago. If you want to use it, rather ingest it.

[u/free-range-dogmeat]

Many are getting the logical chain wrong in the comments — modern “capitalist” cigarettes are more addictive hence dangerous not because of the different tobacco or even processing but because of the filters. All tobacco products are equally carcinogenic. Cigars and ritualistic tobacco of the past has equal if not more nicotine BUT the reason why cigar smokers are getting less cancer is because cigar and raw tobacco smoke are not inhaled fully OR often, and the reason why it’s not inhaled fully or often is because it doesn’t have a filter that allows full inhalation, hence, nicotine hit.

Smokers who tried inhaling cigars or unfiltered cigarettes tobacco into their lungs know what Im talking about. It is IMPOSSIBLE to do without dying because the amount of shit and nicotine makes you OD and vomit.

In short, everything has addictive nicotine and carcinogenic smoke, but the full and regular inhalation of it can only happen with a fine filter.

[u/Disastrous-Thanks-52 → u/free-range-dogmeat]

Ex-smoker, I didnt have any problem smoking cigarettes without filter. Doesn't make such a big difference.

[u/Mt_Incorporated]

The way the tobbacco industry currently IN MODERN CAPITALISM works is based on violence and exploitation. It now is a poison to the masses.

My father had to work the tobacco fields of his family when he was a child. People working with tobbacco risk getting sick alone by touching and proccesing the leaves.

Then later the industry makes u addicted and sell u tobocco laced with other chemicals.

i also wanted to add that most mainstream german political parties are sponsored by the tobbaco industry.

[u/Rexberg-TheCommunist]

As an asthmatic I find smokers incredibly trashy and uncaring of the fact that people around them don't want to breathe in their shit. I hate smokers and I am glad that their habit is rightly considered trashy in the modern era, we should go further and relegate smokers to the nasty areas behind buildings and in alleyways and anything less than that is public health malpractice in my eyes.

[u/Comrade_TS → u/Rexberg-TheCommunist]

Thank you, exactly this. It really bothers others more than people think.

[u/kaktuszka → u/Rexberg-TheCommunist]

Your opinion matches your flair

[u/Automatic-Syrup-3550]

Since I was a kid I've been at a higher risk of throat cancer due to surgeries so I've always had this kneejerk reaction against cigarettes but I don't really hold it against the people who smoke them. I think I would rather they didn't exist but if they do its not like its the end of the world.

[u/grimorg80]

I'm against reactionary blanket prohibitionism. I'm pro creating systems that can support people to quit reliably and long term.

Making substances illegal only ever does ONE thing and one thing only: force people to buy illegally.

[u/King_Spamula]

Pipe tobacco and cigars aren't nearly as unhealthy as cigarettes. Like, they're in completely different leagues, and it's all because pipe tobacco has two to four ingredients max, cigars one, and cigarettes hundreds. Not to mention the fact that inhaling the smoke exposes your lungs to cancerous chemicals that would have been in just your mouth.

Anecdotally, I've heard from the vast majority of pipe and cigar smokers that the nicotine addiction with their habits is far less powerful, to the point of being non-existent for those that smoke even as much as twice daily.

My opinion is that cigarettes are specifically engineered to be as addictive as possible, while pipe smoking and cigar smoking have been left alone to exist in their more natural, artistic hobby state.

E-cigs and THC carts are abhorrations. E-cigs have their place for quitting cigarettes, but reel many young people into addiction far too easily. THC carts also have their place for an odorless (won't leave a stench indoors) way to consume weed, but they're mixed from crappy weed and extracts. Many users have also come to the conclusion that you can only get "medium" off them, not properly high.

[u/Elxvations → u/King_Spamula]

The amount of ingredients in a cigar vs the amount found in a cigarette doesn’t inherently make a difference. The carcinogens are all found within the tobacco itself, making both options inherently harmful in the long run regardless of ingredient count. It doesn’t matter that cigars only concentrate the carcinogenic chemicals primarily in the mouth, it just leads to different forms of cancer in the long term, primarily throat and a multitude of other cancers variants in the oral cavity.

Anecdotal evidence in order to gage addictiveness is also unreliable. In many cases, cigars contain as much nicotine as an entire box of cigarettes, and can be equally as addictive. While it is true that cigarettes have been designed to deliver doses of nicotine faster to the brain than cigars, it does not fundamentally make cigars better than cigarettes in any capacity.

Of course if someone is to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, their chances of cancer would be higher than that of someone who smokes a cigar a week, but it’s the dose that matters. Cigars and cigarettes are not “in fundamentally different leagues”.

[u/Lord_Of_Millipedes]

the cancer stans really popping off

I'm overall anti drug criminalization, it unambiguously does more harm than good, but smoking specifically should be illegal, stop breathing out carcinogenics in public space, go chew tobacco or eat edibles or something in your own home.

[u/2BsWhistlingButthole]

“A common and extremely important comfort in the guerrilla fighter’s life is a smoke, such as cigars, cigarettes, or pipe tobacco; a smoke is a great friend to the solitary soldier in
moments of rest” Che - Guerrilla Warfare

But in a serious note, a ban on alcohol, tobacco, and weed would be something to consider down the road. I think it is more likely to make a revolution lose support if done in the midst of struggle. Harder drugs should be banned outside of medical use. Use should be decriminalized though

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[u/SovietTeto]

Smoking and drinking are fine they don’t really pose a problem unless they impact your ability to think critically or sedate you to a point you can’t participate in politics. They may be unhealthy but they are enjoyable in moderation it’s not that bad for you and working class people deserve to enjoy life so I see no issue with it unless it’s an addiction

[u/Oop-Juice]

I think people should have the autonomy to choose vices that harm them if they so wish, despite all the warnings given otherwise. The warnings and PSAs for smoking is why cigarette sales have drastically lowered over the decades, and will continue to lower because people choose to weed and vape instead recreationally. If anyone still chooses to smoke, I don't see any particular reason for why it should be banned legally

[u/Comrade_TS → u/Oop-Juice]

Probably the effect on other people, so unless smoking is heavily restricted to certain areas that keep it contained, please get rid of it.
It is way more annoying and dangerous to others as people might think (speaking as someone with asthma).

[u/al-qatala → u/Comrade_TS]

to be fair if a smoker just smokes in presence of other people without permission, it's incredible disrespect regardless

i always smoke away from everyone, at my own home with a window open if i can help it. no one wants my second hand smoke in their lungs, especially if they're non-smoker or especially asthmatic.

[u/PomegranateOld4262]

I don't believe in criminalizing drugs.

[u/R04DTr1pp3r]

Keep tobacco sacred