Report: Nationwide smoking ban would reduce heart attacks

hey, it's the only bad habit I have left.

hey, it's the only bad habit I have left.

You beat me, I have two. Smoking and a rich diet. And considering my genetics (my family has mainly been smokers for a couple generations) and none have died from anything linked to smoking. Our meals/diets kill us.

I had to quit, got too expensive (and the new FSC ones taste like crap, and I think they are actually worse for you.)

What really grinds my gears is that North and South Carolina, once the very heart of the tobacco industry, have jumped on the bandwagon of taxing the bejeezus out of tobacco products and accessories. Example: last year, just before the last tax-hike, a package of roll-your-own tobacco was cost $1.92 with sales tax included. Two weeks later, the same package cost $4.45, an increase of nearly 125%. Strangely, the tax rate on "ready-made" smokes increased the retail cost by less than 30%.

Seems this increase targeted the poorest smokers. I was told the difference was that the loose tobacco came with rolling papers which some political hack thinks kids are going to use to smoke pot. C'mon!

My real beef with the anti-smoking crusaders is that they are penalizing the users while letting the manufacturers off with a slap on the wrist. Cigarettes are to tobacco what crack is to cocaine: a freebase substance-delivery system with extremely high addiction potential. Why are they still allowed to produce and market such a product? Ye gods, the difference between rock and powder cocaine is as much as 15 more years in prison. If the government want to ban public smoking in the name of national health, then I want to see the government prosecute every CEO and board member of every corporation that manufactures cigarettes for what these profiteering bastards have done to our national health, with prison sentences equivalent to those handed down to crack dealers.