Do you think the government should be responsible for funding programs aimed at quitting smoking?

NO.. Considering lung cancer related illness caused by smoking is the most preventable disease, I don’t think the government should spend millions and millions of taxpayers money discouraging people not to smoke. Warning on the packets are enough as well as graphic advertisment on telly. Yes, nicotine is addictive, but no one placed a gun to a person’s head demanding them to take their first puff.

Because that’s not helping America, that could essentially kill her. They raised taxes on cigarettes because they’re not a necessity, same reason for the UK raising taxes on soda. They’re banned in public places because they effect everyone around you. Insurance doesn’t want to cover health issues having to do with smoking for the same reason they don’t cover swallowing Mentos and soda and waiting for your stomach to explode, the same reason Apple doesn’t cover hammer damages. You did it yourself, dig yourself out of the hole. There are more important places our money should be going, for example, our crappy education programs, or paying off our huge-ass debt.

I completely agree. If you smoke, and kick the bucket because of it - thats your own damn fault.

the government allows the tabacco companies to produce and sell the ciggs to it people, and expects to tax the hell out of it. If it is so horrible and addicting make them illegal. It kills more people than drunk driving yet drinking and driving is illegal, if it is so bad you cant smoke in a bar or anywhere else for that matter help by making them illegal, help by shutting down the tabacco companies, paying and funding to help get americans off of them……Save lives

its an addiction, same as d*ug and alcohol addictions, we have sympathy for those, most young americans smoke because they grow up around it, I think the gov should step in and help for sure to those who want the help.

I don’t think so. You can’t help people with every little problem they bring on themselves. It is possible to quit by yourself, if you don’t have the willpower to stop, you shouldn’t have done it in the first place. That would be like the government paying to help every obese person in the nation, they did it to themselves most of the time. Making cigarettes illegal would likely cause more problems than solve, although I’m also not entirely opposed to things such as marijuana being legal, because in my opinion, if you’re stupid enough to try it, you should have to deal with the consequences.

Hm, this could be another part of my answer, I don’t feel sympathy for people with dr*g and alcohol addictions honestly. And people nowadays are educated on what cigarette smoking does to you, just because you grow up around doesn’t mean you have to be a sheep and follow it, knowing what it can do to you.

no one has the impact or influence like the ones you grow with as a child. You are right, there is a lot of information, but not enough education for the young generation. Some people have the addicting personality, are many other reasons behind how and why the addictions start. I myself have battled it all for years. growing up as a child and teen you adapt to that way of life, there is little hope when you become an adult and now have the ability to change everything you have ever known, much harder and the odds are against you. it can be done, but getting help with something you never knew was wrong or harmful in the same way you know as an adult is harder. I still believe there should be help out there to those who need it and it should be funded. Food stamps, medicail, daycare, housing, is all funded. Why not some sort of help for people trying to get right?

People need to be responsible for their own choices, not bailed out by the gov’t. I have absolutely no sympathy for people who bring bad health upon themselves. I was there, people I know and grew up with made bad choices, and I tried to advice them against it. But its not my fault, or anyone else fault that they made those choices. I had the same choices to make as my friends, but I have never smoked ANYTHING in my life and never will. I don’t drink excessively. So why should I have to pay for their bad choices?

That won’t help, it would just send hundreds of people into with drawl. Drunk driving is illegal because drinking IMPAIRS your decision making, your logicality, your vision, and obviously, your driving ability. Cigarettes do none of those things, they just build plaque up in your lungs and slowly kill you. They tax it because if it exists, it might as well do a tiny bit of good to the rest of the country; if you want to smoke, you’ll have to deal with that. All shutting down the companies would do is make our economy even worse than it already is, and believe me, it’s pretty bad. There are plenty of helplines, there are rehab centers, there are gums and patches, and if it matters that much to someone to quit, they’ll spend the money to do it. If they can’t afford it, but they can afford hundreds of dollars worth of cigarettes a year, that’s their problem.

This is exactly how I feel.

No. The smarter governments have figured out the best policy is to legalise the vices of society, like alcohol, smoking, and prostitution, and then regulate and tax them. If people want to engage in those behaviors, it is their own business.

While I dont care if people kill themselves on cigarettes (that is their problem), I think in countries that pay for their residents’ health care, it would be stupid not to help them quit. It is far less expensive to help them quit than it would be to pay for cancer treatments.

i agree

its their fualt, and when im older i sure as heck dont want anything to do with them. if they get cancer, it will be sad and i will feel bad for them, but its there own fault for being fools in the first place…

yes, for all ages

Kileyjo06, sorry mate your answer is a cop out. Just because one grew up with folks “smoking” left, right and centre doesn’t mean they have to when they are adults. It called choice. If you grew up living in a neighbourhood where people get murd-ered, would you be aquitted if you hacked someone to death because you grew up in a rough and dangerous environment? Of course not.

One of the two major parties in Australia receives rather generous funding from tobacco companies. Not to mention that in-turn those companies have been responsible for some coercion towards that party during election campaigns. I doubt if that party gets into office, that they will do a whole lot to fund such programs, lol.

It is true that growing up around smokers and starting at an early age can lead to a genuine addiction. Young people don’t understand the health risks and see their peers smoking and just think “well they’re okay… why wouldn’t I be?” I think some funds are due, but only towards genuine problems; not those of people who chose to be addicted.