Posted on 10/24/2002 4:44:47 AM PDT by chance33_98
Edited on 04/14/2004 10:05:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
JUDGE NOT!
In my opinion, you're wrong, Tobacco companies are producing a legal product, no one is twisting our arms to buy it.
Looks that way, doesn't it!
When Big T fell before it's knees in front of the Attorney Generals, well...........yep!
Well, I don't know where you got that propaganda, however, the Tobacco Settlement Money (MSA) pays $50 million a year into each state. The smokers who buy cigarettes and pay taxes on those cigarettes are paying the Tobacco Settlement Money 100%. Not Big Government and NOT Big T.
That money coming into the states was supposed to be spent on Tobacco Education and to pay for the sick smokers ON welfare, should there be any.
But, if you have been following this, the states saw a huge windfall with this money. They are spending it on everything BUT what it was intended.
Most of us have our own health care insurance, thank you. And if we are stuck paying for any sick smoker ON welfare should there be any, we have the state in which we live in to blame.
Smokers who pay cigarette taxes are paying for their own control, their own restrictions, their own bans and also paying for their own politicians to further tax the hell out of them.
Smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes are not supposed to have ANY say on ANY of this. That is why we have all banded together to fight CITY HALL!
How old are you? I had a Grandmother smoked "3" packs of unfiltered Camels a day, and lived to be 86! She died of old age. This was many years ago. People have been smoking for decades.
But you have no right to tell me what 'MY' moral choice should be, you only need to concern yourself with your moral choices.
CA Guy, smokers pay into society far more than they'll ever use. According to the NEJM Oct l997: "Lifetime costs for smokers are estimated to be $72,700 for men and $94,700 for women; lifetime costs for nonsmokers are estimated to be $83,400 for men and $111,000 for women [cited in USA Today, 11/l9/97, Nationline, "Quitting could be costly"] You need never worry that you'll have to pay for any smokers health care because in fact WE pay for YOU.
As far as luing cancer, before cigs, we only could find it in people that mine for a living. It was after cigs getting around that lung cancer became a great killer.
Yes, smokers are more at risk of contracting lung cancer than nonsmokers, even though recently the new cases seem to be increasing in ex and never-smokers faster than in smokers. However, smokers still have a 93-98% chance of never having lung cancer because it is not as common as antis would have you believe. The fact is that cancers of all kinds are diseases of age, and as the population ages, there is more of it.
We know that smoking is a risk, we know that many things human beings enjoy are a risk to their health, but we--as taxpaying adult citizens--have decided the benefits outweigh the risks. And the "benefits" are as varied as the people who make those decisions.
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