An American Addiction Centers Resource

New to the Forums?Join or

Could smoking tobacco become illegal?

Discussion in 'Tobacco / Nicotine' started by Joethefirst, Jan 7, 2016.

  1. Joethefirst

    Joethefirst Community Champion

    The way things are going smoking is becoming less and less socially acceptable. There are more and more places were you can't smoke and taxes on tobacco are getting ever higher.
    Could there become a time were smoking tobacco becomes illegal?
  2. nick92

    nick92 Member

    Well, it wouldn't be bad actually. Even if it becomes illegal, some people will still smoke, but at least the likelihood of developing a respiratory disease as a result of second-hand smoking will be drastically reduced.
  3. Tsky45

    Tsky45 Community Champion

    I doubt it since it doesn't get you high they wouldn't be able to consider it a drug. Cigarette companies make a lot of money and would try to fight legal battles to keep this from happening. I think people should be able to decide to quit given the knowledge about how bad it is for you. There are things they should have made illegal now that they haven't because of money.
  4. juno

    juno Community Champion

    With Marijuana trending towards legalization, I doubt tobacco will ever become illegal. However, like alcohol the restrictions, laws, and taxations may become tougher. I agree that cigarette companies spend a lot to keep politicians on their side.
  5. serenity

    serenity Community Champion

    Cigarettes don't mess with your brain and get you high, so I doubt that it will be illegal one day. They consider it a "safe vice", that's why it is still being openly sold all around the world.
  6. 6up

    6up Community Champion

    I also think that cigarettes should be completely banned and declared to be illegal. Thousands of people die daily from cancer. We are losing friends and family members at an alarming rate and I think that governments must do something.
  7. Nergaahl

    Nergaahl Community Champion

    Most likely it won't. After all, there's no point in making it illegal. Lots of people are already addicted, and besides second-hand smoke it doesn't affect others. Also, it leaves your mind clean, unlike marijuana, which seems to have gotten a plethora of supporters lately. It would be absurd if weed got legalized and tobacco prohibited.
  8. FuZyOn

    FuZyOn Community Champion

    It will never be prohibited, that's for certain. It would be like Marijuana, people would find a way to get tobacco even if they aren't allowed to smoke it. Let's not forget how much the government makes when it comes to tax. It's not an issue for them
  9. bleblanc10

    bleblanc10 Senior Contributor

    That would be awful hard to enforce in my opinion.
  10. zaerine

    zaerine Community Champion

    I think it is far possible in here. It is because the law enforcing anti-smoking in public is not strict and you can commonly see a no smoking side with smokers on it. Maybe on a certain small area you can implement a smoking ban but hard to implement that in a whole country.
  11. pwarbi

    pwarbi Community Champion

    Making something illegal, doesn't necessarily mean that people won't do it. You only have to look at drinking alcohol and the prohibition era in the US to see that it doesn't work.

    To be honest, with the amount of revenue the government are getting through tax, I can't see a time soon when they would make it illegal anyway.
  12. kassie1234

    kassie1234 Community Champion

    I doubt that it'll happen here, since the government gets revenue from the sale of sad as that is, I don't think they'll make it illegal because money talks.
  13. anorexorcist

    anorexorcist Community Champion

    I don't think so, as you have said all the taxes and stuff represent even more money for the government and I don't think that they are going to reject that extra income. Even if there are a lot of places like you mentioned, there are still a lot of people who smokes and don't really respect those orders.
  14. Rainman

    Rainman Community Champion

    I doubt that smoking tobacco will be illegal any time soon but considering the fact that we have numerous drugs which are illegal but are still be used so I don't think that would help or change much. They'll keep them legal so that at least the government can make some money taxing cigarettes and other tobacco products.
  15. KissMyGritsXD

    KissMyGritsXD Member

    Tobacco, sadly, is one of the worlds most sold substances in the world... It's very harmful and causes serious health issues... But considering the Government actually has taxing rights over tobacco, they would never make smoking it illegal. Although certain laws that are place on tobacco will surely be place in the future..
  16. L_B

    L_B Community Champion

    I can't see it ever becoming illegal because even though it is terrible for your health the government makes a lot of money off the sale of cigarettes. Also with the moves towards the legalization of marijuana I can't see them going backwards and making cigarettes illegal.
  17. vegito12

    vegito12 Community Champion

    I think that there is money to be made and the governments tax people so I don't think a ban will happen anytime soon as there is profit to be made and also it is a big business which makes money for many people, and I think that it can be hard to try and stop this from stopping in most countries around the world. The drug can make many people sick and also the cost of it is real high which can make people lose money in the process, and many people can ruin their lives in the process and it can be sad as well. I hope that more people do more in their life and also try and look after thier health which can make them think more about their family and also not try and take this drug which is not a good thing.
  18. endoftherainbow

    endoftherainbow Active Contributor

    It's not likely that they will make it illegal. The businesses want to be able to cater to people who don't smoke just as they want to still be able to cater to those who do, but they have to do so outside of their establishment to make sure that everyone can have a balance that favors both the people and business. When the no-smoking policy became effective nationwide in America, there were only a few states that didn't force the bars and restaurants to become compliant. To retain the business from people who smoke, they usually had to build an outdoor patio to accommodate them. That being said, many of those establishments would still sell cigarettes behind the just had to use them outside to not negatively affect the non-smokers that were present.

    With the exception of CVS and just a handful of other places that pledged to no longer sell them at all, businesses still make a lot of money off of people addicted to them, and still profit from the harm to everyone's health whenever people smoke outside or not. The FDA and other agencies get a percentage of the revenue from those things when they are sold. It should be illegal because of how harmful it is to your lungs, the secondhand smoke factor, and lung cancer among other things. But will it become illegal? I really doubt it.
  19. henry

    henry Community Champion

    No, I don't think it will ever become illegal. Why? Because there's just too much money involved. The tobacco industry makes millions and millions of dollars with the product, so there's no chance in hell they will give that up just because of people's health.
  20. JohnBeaulieu

    JohnBeaulieu Community Champion

    Smoking may be unhealthy, rude and just an over all stupid thing to do, but I doubt out right criminalizing it would help. Regulation is one thing, outlawing it wouldn't work.