A popular (but so far, unsuccessful) politician has said that he wants to "ban cigarettes". This is the same politician that wants to legalize marijuana.
Obviously, I don't expect cogent thought from this guy, nor his followers. They emote, they don't think. But this was still pretty jarring. In fact, I want to make sure it's really true. Yes, it seems that Bernie Sanders really said that cigarettes should be banned but has gone on record that marijuana should be legal.
I used to smoke cigarettes in high school, college, then off and on in my twenties. I quit about eight years ago. No regrets or shame. Life can be stressful and you need a pressure cooker. I don't advise smoking cigarettes, it's not a healthy habit and again, I haven't smoked in many years-but I'm not an anti-smoking zealot who thinks that all smokers are evil. In fact, I've always thought that bad filmmakers give villains cigarettes to smoke so that stupid or overly moralistic people can figure out who they can root against. "Hey! She's smoking! She must be evil!" Again, this is how stupid people know who to root against in Joel Schumacher movies.
Anyway, back to banning cigarettes. A government banning cigarettes would be absurd simply because of the tax revenue that cigarettes provide. Like it or not, smokers pay huge taxes. The other grim truth is that smokers die earlier than non-smokers so they don't receive Social Security benefits.
There are moral reasons not to ban cigarettes as well-yes, you read that correctly. The government should not tell me what to do with my body. Pro-chociers say this all the time. Because smoking cigarettes is unhip but smoking weed is cool, that "my body. my choice" part is ignored. A government has no business protecting you from yourself. If you want to smoke cigarettes, pot, snort cocaine or shoot up heroin-it really should be your choice.
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