Mon 11 Feb 2008
The legality of smoking cigarettes various already by state and local context: whether you can smoke inside a place of business, or in a bar, or in a public park, is a matter of either statute or at least public debate.
But let’s go all the way. Presume that cigarettes have just fallen under a blanket, unconditional ban: a national prohibition on smoking, in public or private. What happens?
Posted by Josh Millard9 answers so far!
It would proliferate the way the pot-business is, perhaps even more rigorously due to a larger number of already-addicted people.
I never understood why smoking hasn’t been banned yet, apart from tradition and habit. Silly reason, but there you go.
A fair amount of extremely pissed-off working-class Michiganders in the throes of serious nicotine withdrawal (which, let me tell you, makes one pretty irrational and significantly lowers impulse control), who already hate the gubmint anyway, would start cleaning their guns and stocking up on ammo. And they have a lot of guns.
That’s probably only about half a joke.
Increased forest fires when people tried to get away from patrolled places and go smoke outside of the city.
Mass riots because what many would consider a personal right has become regulated and a certain amount of expected freedom has been lost.
I would LOL all over the silly Americans from my base in whatever tiny godforsaken scrap of land inhabited by right thinkers still existed on the planet.
FelliniBlank is absolutely right. I would not want to be a cop trying to enforce a smoking ban on private property, especially in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the north woods of Wisconsin. Not that there are that many cops per square mile around there. I think it would be almost impossible to enforce. I’ve heard tales of people pulling guns on Jehovah Witnesses. Then again, I’ve heard about pot raids so there would have to be some complicity in the local atmosphere to keep quiet.
In cities where there are smoking bans, they already have smokeasies, just like they had speakeasies during Prohibition.
Maine is looking at a law to prohibit smoking in a vehicle where there is a child under the age of 16 present (Bangor already has such a law). It’s likely that smoking in a home where young children are present would be the next step.
I’ve known people who traded their food stamp money for tobacco. Pretty sure it would all just turn into an underground industry just like drugs. The government would lose huge amounts of tax revenue. Medical costs from smoking-related illnesses would go down, social security would be tapped into more as people live longer.
I grew up in an era where it was considered cool to smoke, so this is kind of an interesting question. We’re in the midst of a huge cultural shift. 25 years ago, it was okay to smoke in offices, and my dad has told me stories of visiting people in the hospital 50 years ago and seeing people smoking near someone with an oxygen tent. It was that prevalent in our society. A nationwide ban would mean tobacco would turn into a controlled substance, which is a big difference. I wonder if that’s the way things will actually go in the future.
They should ban smoking and sentence offenders to death — by smoking. It might take a while.
It would be utterly unenforceable, like most existing smoking bans. I’m already not supposed to smoke within 20 feet of a door, vent or window, or in any “commercial” zone.
I still smoke where I want to.
If you combine Prohibition and the War on Drugs as it relates to marijuana, you’re probably most of the way there already.
How else are we going to be told about the aliens among us?