comment #1

allstar397 says ...

and once again you try to fit some activity or taste into singular social "castes" if you will. I'm so shocked.

comment #2

actionman says ...

Cigarettes should be illegal. I hate them with a passion. They are worthless.

comment #3

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

actionman, yes, cigs are awful but they shouldn't be illegal. I was a smoker, but I quit because well, I don't want to damage my skin or my health, but I still think people should have the right to smoke cigs.

comment #4

byanyother says ...

The actresses are under pressure to stay thin, that's why most of them smoke.

comment #5

corey3rd says ...

Those are the moments I reach out for porn.

comment #6

p.Vice says ...

Shouldn't this story be prefaced with an MPAA warning?

comment #7

actionman says ...

TrashPunk: my problem is that they KILL PEOPLE. And EVERYONE knows this. It's a scientifically proven fact. I find it to be a travesty that cigs are legal and pot is not.

comment #8

MindlessObamaton says ...

cigs = gross

expensive cigars = me happy

comment #9

Gabriel says ...

Actionman - Anything in this world can KILL PEOPLE. You could kill yourself or someone else with a jar of mayonaise if you wanted to. Should mayonaise be completely off-limits to all people - including those who can enjoy it in moderate doses?

comment #10

Floyd Thursby says ...

"Anything in this world can KILL PEOPLE."

Surely not masturbation. Say it ain't so.

comment #11

AH says ...

Alcohol kills people too but I don't see people clamoring to ban that (history notwithstanding).

comment #12

arturobandini2 says ...

Thursday will mark my 10 year anniversary since giving up tobacco. I still miss it terribly and suck up second-hand smoke whenever possible, but if I gave in and had just one, I'd be back to 2 packs a day in about a week. I just don't know how people afford it nowadays -- the only thing more ridiculously overpriced is printer ink.

comment #13

Edward says ...

No one's mentioned that second-hand smoke is just as bad for you.

comment #14

scooterzz says ...

after decades of two packs a day, i quit a little over three years ago and agree with everything arturo said....i'd also add that, now, every time i'm around a heavy smoker i'm embarrassed to think what i must have smelled like after a night on the town during those smoking days.......

comment #15

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

cars, planes, earthquakes, collapsing buildings, lightings, junk food, and running too much can kill people, too...

comment #16

KB says ...

No, we only ban the real hazards nowadays. Like light bulbs.

This is the year that the cigarette has made an onscreen comeback. Hathaway and Winslet both smoke onscreen. I know I've seen a couple others.

comment #17

the400blows says ...

WHile we make cigarettes illegal, then why don't we make fast food restaurant illegal too? They kill people too, with heart disease, diabetes, etc. Has anyone ever heard of free choice? Pretty soon it'll probably be illegal to breathe the air.

comment #18

Howlingman says ...

NANNY STATE:

In which government pretends they care about your well-being in order to tax you senseless.

comment #19

Josh Massey says ...

"Cigarettes should be illegal. I hate them with a passion."

Are these two exclusive sentences, or should cigarettes be illegal because you hate them?

Do you let the government make your other decisions for you?

comment #20

Edward says ...

Government -- like father -- knows best.

comment #21

Arran says ...

Cigarettes have an absurdly low thread count. Heroin has a little more cache.

comment #22

televisiontears says ...

I'm not a heavy smoker (about 4-5 cigs a day), but I'm sick to death of the cultural image of a smoker as being somehow inferior, and it all boils down to the smell. If cigarette smoke smelled like roses and tasted like fine wine, the smoking bans would be nearly non-existent. It's one-hundred percent the smell that pisses people off and lets anti-smokers have a holier-than-thou attitude.

I want to slap people like actionman who give a little fake cough when I venture fifty yards from a building in the name of simple courtesy and common sense. It's not enough for these pricks, they want smoking banned everywhere - on an empty sidewalk, at a dingy pub, even in your own home. I swear if I hear one more fake cough, I'm going to snap. Never mind the idiots who go to a bar *in which smoking is allowed* and complain about the goddamn smoke. Are you kidding me? Self-righteous wankers, the lot of 'em and if I knew where they lived I would sneak in when their not home and blow a carton over everything I can find. Piss off, actionman.

comment #23

dixiedugan says ...

In two weeks it'll be one year for me. And yeah, there have still been times that I'd like to light up, but the smell makes me puke. That's what's keeping me from smoking. That and I'm trying to prove to myself that I need not be a slave to anything...but my dvd collection.

comment #24

televisiontears says ...

Oh, sorry. Their = they're. Anger at smug fascists trumps proper English.

comment #25

irvingberlinalexanderputz says ...

Smoke good! Fire bad!

comment #26

Kim Voynar says ...

Actionman says: TrashPunk: my problem is that they KILL PEOPLE. And EVERYONE knows this. It's a scientifically proven fact. I find it to be a travesty that cigs are legal and pot is not.

Actionman, while I'm with you on the pot being legal bit, the logic of the first part there is just non-existent. As others have pointed out, anything can kill you -- a tree in a windstorm, a slippery bathtub, a car wreck, a faulty electrical socket, too many Big Macs and Super-Sized Cokes, even too much Tylenol or Nyquil. Yes, smoking cigarettes has been shown to make people more likely to get lung cancer -- ONE of the many ways in which people's bodies can die.

We're all dying from the moment we're born, there's no guarantee that if you don't smoke you'll never die of lung cancer, or if you do smoke you will. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll get killed in your car driving to work or running up to the store to grab something you forgot to stop and get on your way home. I believe that when your number's up, it's up, period. We like to think we can "cheat" death, that doctors "save" lives. There's no "saving" lives, there's only prolonging death for a while longer.

I don't think cigarette smoking, or pot smoking, or booze, or most things, whether they can "hurt" you or not should be illegal. As adults we have to make choices about what we put in our bodies and how we live our lives at any given moment. During the decade or so of my life when I was pretty much non-stop pregnant or nursing babies, I didn't put so much as Tylenol or caffeine in my system, much less smokes or alcohol. Right now, I smoke, less than a half-pack per day. I didn't smoke for 14 years, started smoking a few a day last year at Sundance. I smoke when I want to -- right now -- because I enjoy it. I'm quitting smoking again, though, because I want to train to do a triatholon, and need my lungs to be at full capacity in order to accomplish that goal. With my family history, I'm more likely to die of breast or colon cancer than anything, though, so if down the road I want to smoke an occasional cigarette again, I'll do so.

And Jeff, I'm with you on the smoking in Europe thing. You can actually enjoy a cigarette there without feeling like all the judgmental asses around you are giving you the stink-eye for smoking while they pollute their livers with alcohol, clog their arteries with Mickey Ds, and pollute the environment with their SUVs.