Before I say anything, I just want to let you know that I don't smoke or drink. I've never drank in my life and I have maybe 2 or 3 cigarettes a year when I'm very stressed. It has a kind of placebo effect on me.
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Originally Posted by MMM
I am not so sure you can simply say it has been proven that the negatives of alcohol outweigh the positives on an individual basis.
I don't think this is as true when it comes to smoking cigarettes.
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This statement doesn't really make much sense, unless I've misunderstood it... I'm not talking about an individual basis, because everyone is different; You always hear the remarkable stories of a man smoking his whole life and not getting lung cancer whilst his room mate or partner or whatever that has never smoked a cigarette in their life gets lung cancer from second hand smoke!
Sorry, I don't understand what you mean with that second sentence.
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Originally Posted by MMM
To say that schizophrenics have a higher rate of smoking is somehow a form of self-medication seems to be a leap in logic to me. By that same vein we could also conclude that smoking causes schizophrenia.
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That's just out of the blue for me. I don't think I've seen the word schizophrenia before today, so I definitely wasn't talking about this when I was talking about "benefits of tobacco".
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Originally Posted by MMM
Saying the damage done by smoking is reversable is very different than proving health benefits. We can recover from broken bones, too, but that doesn't mean breaking a bones has any health benefit.
Regardless, even if Alcohol has no health benefits and Tobacco does, that is not the general perception, and that is what influences the decisions of lawmakers.
I am not sure that you can conclude that Alcohol and Tobacco are equally bad for you...I have seen nothing to make me come to that conclusion, but again, that isn't the perception, and it is the perception that matters.
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I agree with that... I'm not saying that reversal=benefit. I mentioned that to illustrate my point of the severity of tobacco being exaggerated! Nothing else!
I'm not against the lawmakers. The only reason I debate FOR smokers is because I see them as being mistreated! I don't have to be a smoker to debate on their side!
For me, the dangers of alcohol are more than it causing liver disease etc. I also take into consideration the effects it has on people's behaviours, morals and self control. Even if having a glass or two of wine doesn't make someone drunk, it makes a lot of people addicted (I don't know if that's the right word here). And for me, any kind of addiction is negative!