Posted on 02/09/2014 11:00:46 PM PST by Olog-hai
Health officials have begun to predict the end of cigarette smoking in America.
They have long wished for a cigarette-free America, but shied away from calling for smoking rates to fall to zero or near zero by any particular year. The power of tobacco companies and popularity of their products made such a goal seem like a pipe dream.
But a confluence of changes has recently prompted public health leaders to start throwing around phrases like “endgame” and “tobacco-free generation.” Now, they talk about the slowly-declining adult smoking rate dropping to 10 percent in the next decade and to 5 percent or lower by 2050. […]
Some experts doubt it. As long as cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products are legal, it’s likely some people will smoke them. Efforts to prohibit them are likely to fail, they say. (Remember Prohibition?) …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I work in a city with a large college and fervent anti-smoking laws. Cigarettes are not going away because young and rebellious people are always going to be attracted to tobacco as long as it is considered “adult” and “risky”. It’s the thrill of doing something their parents would disapprove that gets young people hooked on smoking.
The dumbest idea is banning e-cigs because it is the safest way to smoke if you must smoke and quit if you’re trying to quit but the smoking nazis hate it because it *looks* like smoking. I’ve sat at the next table while someone smoked an e-cig and couldn’t smell a thing. That never happens with tobacco smokers.
I think with each generation the percentage is going down but I don’t think you’ll ever see a tobacco-free population except by government mandate.
Tobacco companies, so powerful that they are unable to successfully fight any legislation. They hand billions over to the feds, and through their sales, pour billions more into state coffers to use on programs to end consumption of their products. I'm sorry, but can we please end this fantasy? 'Big Tobacco' left the party nearly two decades ago.
All Big Brothers need some halfway-convincing Emmanuel Goldstein to project their two-minute hate on.
Look forward to increased taxes to replace that tobacco cash cow. Gasoline? yep. Food? yep
Bump!
The smoking wars are over. Yes a few skirmishes still happen but common sense won.
Aren't we all so privileged they were called upon to perform their grievous task?
Good point there.
There’s a gum chewing hating Freeper on here somewhere that would love that idea.
Please. PhD level scientists all receive the same level of education at the same universities. That some of us choose to work for government is *not* an indication that we cannot get private sector jobs. Furthermore, there is a lot of communication and interaction between government-employed and private sector-employed scientists.
Now, as to the content of this article--it just seems like wishful thinking by someone--who has an MD, not a PhD, I should point out. Wishful thinking is not scientific content.
Rationalize much ?
But don’t you understand, exDemMom, that it is the received wisdom on FR that anyone with considerably more education than they are necessarily ill-suited for work in the private sector?
You need to go back to the re-education camp.
I’m a smoker too who is slowly quitting after about 18 years. Smoking less and less each year since I seem to be getting, of all things, tired of cigarettes. I’ve found some substitutes that I like pretty well. It is bad for you, no doubt about it.
I think we all knew the problem 20 years ago when all of these taxes were placed on tobacco. The inevitable question being “What happens when cigs aren’t sold like they are today?” We’ll all pay more taxes “for the children.” Don’t you love it.
While they promote POT smoking!
As far as I know there have been no studies on the effect of reduced tobacco use on Federal and state taxes.
Higher and higher taxes have had an impact on tobacco use, probably as much as advertising campaigns on the health hazards of use. This follows the axiom that if you want less of something tax it to death.
However, legislators have been careful to calculate their tax schedules on tobacco so as not to kill the golden goose.
I believe most of these excise taxes are used as general funds and not for tobacco reduction so the long term effect of reducing these funds will be an enormous reduction of income for government use.
Where will the legislators look for taxpayers to replace the lost income?
The legislature, at the bidding of our emperor gov, has said they are considering a *tax-free* week liquor sales.....many Nutmeggers go to neighbor [no-tax] states for their booze, as it is.
Politicos have been whining that revenues from cigs, booze, the home building slump, and gambling are way down to the state coffers:
**Contributions to the state fell in tandem with the lower revenues, since the casinos give a quarter of their slot revenue to the state. Foxwoods sent $9.8 million to the state's special revenue fund, while Mohegan Sun sent $11.4 million.**Hartford in the near future...
Question: If you’re successful at killing off smoking, who is going to be liable for all those taxes the smokers used to pay? Taxpayers? Bingo!
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