Being pro or con smoking is one issue –

How harmful it is to those around the smoker is another –

Taxing one particular group because their vice is considered unacceptable by others – is another. That’s the main point of this issue.

We need to ask which group will be next ?

How about people that wear heavy fragrances in the office?
People that bring small children aboard airplanes?
SUV owners?

See what I mean? It’s a dangerous, not to mention, unfair method of raising money.

Maybe we need to see just what our fearless leaders, in all political parties, have been doing with the huge sums of money they take out of our checks already. If our infrastructure isn’t getting repaired…it takes an act of congress to fund our troops…no one is getting their health cared for…government is taking personal property away from citizens and giving it to private interests….

Well? Where’d it all go?

So why would government even propose this? Simple. Most of the cost of a pack of cigarets is taxes, which goes directly into general revenues, to be used however our legislators wish. This tax has nothing to do with health care.

Why should I pay for the medical costs for middle class children? If it’s so bad, why on earth can’t the upper class be taxed on their yachts and luxuries to pay for it? I smoke and I keep myself out of the institutions. Saves the government money, don’t you think? We, the mentally ill, should not have to pay taxation on tobacco at all because it is a medication same as our pills. Their are many studies which confirm what I write about the mental health benefits of nicotine.

The patch and the gum don’t cut it. Cigarettes are the best delivery system for nicotine to the brain, in only 8 seconds. That’s handy because we get it right away when we need it, to get out of sticky situations where we can just make an exit in these days. And it suffices.

Nicotine helps schizophrenics, bipolars, depression, psychological distress, Alzeihmer’s, Parkinson’s, and Tourette’s Syndrome, and .AADD. It also helps cure an immune problem called sepsis which kills 250,000 people a year.

It’s a medication. It should not be taxed at all. Health costs? Many of the people above had comments to say about sky divers and such. THe FDA regulations they are proposing to go for a decrease in nicotine. Just great. So now we’ll be forced to buy more cigarettes to get our fix. Lower the tar which causes cancer, heart attack,etc. fine. It wouldn’t taste as good, you say? Then allow the tobacco companies to flavor the tobacco
like we flavor coffee. OH no, FDA says no to that.

I like smoking. I don’t want to quit. I like kids but I am low class and feel the high class should pay for their medical costs, not us. I have trouble getting food on the table and feel that is where the illnesses caused by tar originate from. And if we die early, in our lifestyle, it’s a kindness of God, after all, we still die basically of natural causes. We didn’t blow our heads off.

i dont have to pay taxes on cigaret because of this

i think it is overlooked that there are certin good effects besdes the enjoyable effects as well as bad

if you dont like this then too bad suck my ashes

There are good reasons that could be debated for the morality of the Government regulating tobacco, illegal drugs, and other controversial matters. Stop attacking each other and actually talk about the issues at hand! Solving problems is a lot tougher than fighting like children, but if you want anything productive to happen it is worth the extra effort.

You are correct in that smoking isn’t a healthy pastime, and that people do get sick and even die from smoking related illness. But your post seems to imply that non-smokers never get sick and aren’t a drain on the health care system.

The number of hospital stays are about the same for smokers and non-smokers — with the non-smokers even edging out the smokers slightly with more hospital stays per lifetime. Why? Because non-smokers live longer. They are more likely to get Alzheimers, degenerated and broken bones, and other conditions of the elderly merely because they live long enough to get them.

The cruel truth is that we ALL die. And many of us, whether we are dying at 50 or we are dying at 90, will die after one or more long expensive hospital stays, surgeries, or in an expensive nursing home.

Smoking isn’t healthy. That’s true. But non-smokers shouldn’t feel that their health care dollars are going ONLY toward the consequences of smoker irresponsibility.

Why’s that guy smoking, he doesn’t look cool, he looks like a lil nerd. Everyone knows that only cool people smoke, not NERDS!!!!

218 comments, didn’t read all of them, but the issue is simple. The federal government does not, in the SLIGHTEST, have the authority to do this. And, while the comments in the video may be misdirected, they still ring true. Why smokers? Sure, it’s not the same as being black, but it’s discrimination nonetheless. It’s targeting a certain group of people for no reason.

Why not raise taxes on Gasoline? It’d decrease emissions and lead to greater general health. Or what about Alcohol? Hell, even things like Soda, in all their surgary sweetness, could be cut back on (and if you decrease soda consumption, you decrease all that waste). Or hey, you could be fair and impose a federal sales tax, so everything we pay for costs more.

It doesn’t sound so good when you have to pay more for something YOU use, huh?

**** Democrats, **** Republicans, who cares what side you’re on. It’s an unwarranted attack on a group of people that steps outside the powers of the federal government.

Very well said. I live in NH and for reasons unknown some folks ride motorcycles without helmets while claiming to “live free”. It’s ridiculous.