I don't see govt getting hard on smokers. You can smoke like a chimnney and you won't lose your license like drinkers do. You can smoke pretty much anywhere (except public places indoors) and not harm anyone else except yourself and those who have to breathe the fumes. Smokers are getting off easy compared to the harm they do to themselves and others!
No need to overstate the sanctions against smoking. And I have already posted that tobacco use is among the most expensive costs to health, not the most. Certainly homosexual lifestyles and obesity cause far more harm to the fabric of society and health than smoking does. At the same time however, smoking is the number one cause of upper respiratory problems in children and contributes to a host of medical maladies in adults. That fact alone should give you and everyone else pause to consider its unhealthy aspects.
On many places, you can't smoke OUT IN THE OPEN. Are you trying to tell me that cigarette smoke is worse than diesel fumes?
Smokers are being taxed more than drinkers and aren't "getting off easy" anywhere.
And there is NO proof whatsoever, that smokers' health is worse than other peoples or that they "cost" you and/or businesses more money than others.
Smoking "CAUSES UPPER RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN? Since when and according to who? That's one of THE most spurious, fallacious statements about smoking, that I have EVER seen posted to FR.
And with that know-it-all attitude, they'll probably hold your wake in a phone booth.
"------ and contributes to a host of medical maladies in adults. That fact alone should give you and everyone else pause to consider its unhealthy aspects."