Just to regain perspective... Tobacco kills every year about 700 times

those killed in this entire Iraqi war. and it kills every year about 6 times those killed in the ENTIRE Viet Nam war.

and the statistics available are minimized by legislation bought by the tobacco industry... they also get SUBSIDIZED by your tax dollars.. not that they operate in the red.......

I went out for a smoke break. Sad but true.

Oh, geez-I can't choose. :shrug: (Please know that I am not making light of either. I just don't see the connection. For that matter, the bubonic plague practically de-populated Europe, and look at what AIDS is doing in Africa. Both are bad, but the people that are killed in a war usually don't have much choice about it.)

or to illustrate the gigantic toll that smoking takes. I was just wondering which side the original poster was coming from. Or maybe he was just passing on an interesting factoid.

The common thread, I guess, is that all of these deaths are unnecessary. Nobody has to smoke, and George Bush* didn't have to take us to war.

pointing out that out government not only supports needless loss of life in Iraq but actually subsidizes the cause of death of nearly 1/2 Million citizens a year, probably much more if the tobacco companies did not influence the research.. both parties of our government are out of control.. due to the nature of campaign contributions.. and the power of big business

and i want to point out that Tobacco is one of the most addictive substances there is. 90% of smokers start om their teens.. at a time where their judgment is not developed.. Programs are inhibited/stopped by big money influence.. women are addicted to a greater degree than men..and have a worse time quitting than men...

even Samuel Clemens said Quitting smoking is the easiest thing i ever did.. Ive done it a thousand times.

if you haven't smoked since you were a teenager.. you cant comment on the difficulty of quitting.

subsidizes it's production and taxes the daylights out of it on sales is profound madness. Federal and state gov'ts should cease both. Yesterday.

at 89.

Damn them!

Smoking is elective and they chose to kill themselves Soldiers do not chose to die , There put in that predicament by Politicians.

contenue to do even tho you know it will kill you the next time you do it. you do not know about addiction.
you are totally ignorant about addiction.

my grandpa died ahead of his time from empyhsema from smoking
(a swallow might not be a summer but it is a night out for our new governator)

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(IMHO) Western civilization should have disappeared fifty years after the Raleigh took tobacco back to England.

It's not good for you and some are more susceptible than others to cancers.

Lighten up, dude.

I don't have the exact statistics, but about 400,000 people die from tobacco related diseases each year.

Is that anything like WMD program related activites?

Here is some irony for you. Here in SC last year there was an effort to increase the cigarette tax in order to fund Medicaid. A poll was conducted by The State (www.thestate.com) news paper which showed that even smokers (myself included) overwhelmingly supported the measure, but it was still defeated because the Repub. legislature had all signed a "no new tax" pledge. Don't they realize that the "pass along" costs of indigent medical care is in itself a tax (of course they do...).

Smoking is highly addictive, and it is costly in many ways. Personally, I wish insurance would cover real rehab for it.

... the non-sequitur bogus analogy award of the day.

from tobacco related causes. Cancer, emphysema, heart disease.

It's like a couple of fully loaded jumbo jets crashing each and every day of the year.

It's not a matter of which is worse, the war in Iraq or the death toll from smoking. Both are avoidable.

It's an illegal, completely unnecessary war. Cigarette smokers are drug addicts. I don't get it? Is there some relevent connection?

as intollerent of compassion as the right wingers, or did i touch a nerve on the smokers belief in the right to sell death and suffering.

.
.
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This first one is factual with data,

This second one?,

well my "ex" said I guess I wasn't smoking enough!!

*abuse* of tobacco, is what causes problems.... like everything else, when a relatively benign, or perhaps even helpful substance, is perverted in some way and its intent washed away along with any possible benefits.....


don't blame tobacco. it's the fault of those who never knew what to do with it, except manipulate it for profit and misuse it.