Friday, 28 November 2008

• Products that cause injuries are recalled. But cigarettes are never recalled. Why is that?

  I noticed the sponsor - Truth - the folks that have been all over the TV as of late.  (Truth - not really.  Truth is only that which is empirically true - that which is measurable, quantifiable, and replicable. Since smoking deals with human behavior, the only universal truth about human behavior is there is no definite truth.)  The query posed about cigarettes is logically valid.  However, the following contradictions exist:
   First, millions of people are killed and injured every year in car accidents. Since car makers don't intend for the people who drive their products to get into accidents and get hurt/killed, does that mean that GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, et al, have to stop making cars, since people die from using them?  (Granted, Ford, GM, and Chrysler may be going under anyway, so if that IS the Truth people's wish, as well as the enviro-wackbags wish, they may get it.)  The biggest killer of teenagers is automobiles, far and away.  Phillip Morris couldn't get those kind of numbers if they tried. 
  It's like using alcohol; just because a booze besotten drunk driver runs into a utility pole or a college kid dies of alsohol poisoning doesn't mean that those of us who use it responsibly should have it taken away from us.  Hey:  They tried, and the biggest beneficiary was Al Capone.  The fact of the matter is that smoking is a drug.  Just like drinking alcohol, or marijuana, anything like that.  Human beings like doing it, and will continue to do so regardless.  Prohibitions NEVER tally in the positive in the end.  Look at the war on drugs, or as some call it, the war on the constitution, and it has continuously lost money, and consistently failed to reduce drug use in the US.
   Smoking is a choice, and not really an incredibly smart one at that. From what I've heard, teen smoking has decreased since these guys have started their ad campaigns, and that is commendable. Teenagers need all the help they can get, and if at legal age they decide to indulge, that is their legal right.  Those under the age shouldn't; but those of age have the legal right to choose for themselves.   I heartily applaud the truth organization, if indeed it was their influence that helped in whole or in part. 
     

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