Smoking tobacco should be illegalised completely.

Thank you, amieturtl3, for debating this important topic with me. First, I'll respond to your 3 reasons for why smoking should be made completely illegal. First, while I agree that smoking is harmful for the person who smokes, and for those who have to breathe the fumes, I don't think that's a good reason to make smoking illegal. If smoking were banned in public places, but allowed in private places, that would protect unwilling second-hand smokers. Also, your argument from the harmfulness of smoking proves too much: 1. If some activity is extremely harmful to your health, it should be illegal. 2. Smoking is extremely harmful to your heath. 3. Therefore, smoking should be illegal. The problem is with your first premise. It could be applied to anything that is extremely harmful. EX: 1. If some activity is extremely harmful to your health, then it should be illegal. 2. Binge eating is extremely harmful to your health.[1] 3. Therefore, binge eating should be illegal. But surely it is absurd to think that we should make binge eating illegal, in which case we should reject your first premise. Second, you say that we should make smoking illegal because it costs tax payers a lot of money to treat preventable problems. But this doesn't have to be the case. The reason smoking costs tax-payers money is because a lot of smokers do not have medical insurance. If a law were passed requiring everybody to have medical insurance, then it wouldn't cost tax payers so much money. And, in fact, Obamacare HAS been passed, and it DOES require everybody to have medical insurance, so problem solved. Also, your argument proves too much: 1. If some activity costs tax payers a lot of money and is preventable, then it should be made illegal. 2. Smoking costs tax payers a lot of money and is preventable. 3. Therefore, smoking should be made illegal. But the first premise could be applied to many things which we wouldn't want to be made illegal. EX: 1. If some activity costs tax payers a lot of money and is preventable, then it should be made illegal. 2. Public education costs tax payers a lot of money and is preventable. 3. Therefore, public education should be made illegal. But nobody wants to make public education illegal. So the mere fact that some activity costs tax payers a lot of money is not a good reason to make it illegal. Third, you say smoking should be banned so that it doesn't influence the next generation to pick up the habit. But again, that argument proves too much. If preventing the next generation from picking up bad habits is any reason to make those habits illegal, then we should also make cussing, lying, pornography, drinking, unfaithfulness, and rude behavior illegal for the same reason. But surely that is absurd. Now that I've responded to all of your arguments for why smoking should be made illegal, let me give you a few reasons for why I think smoking should remain legal. 1. If smoking were made illegal, then a LOT of people would lose their livelihood. Many families survive by growing tobacco. That is not to mention the people who work in tobacco plants and manufacture cigarettes and other forms of tobacco consumption. 2. A ban on tobacco would be unenforceable. Tobacco can be grown in a person's own back yard. Outlawing tobacco would create more crime, which would be an even bigger burden on tax payers because they would have to pay for more law enforcement and more prisons. 3. Banning tobacco would create organized crime. We know this because we tried prohibition once. Tobacco is more addictive than heroin. [2] Even though alcohol is less addictive than heroin, outlawing it created the mob. Prohibition was eventually overturned because it created more problems than it solved. Banning smoking would create the same problem if not worse. 4. We value freedom in this country, and that includes the freedom to put ourselves at risk by the lifestyle we choose. That's why we would frown on any suggestion that the government enforce dietary restrictions on us. Benjamin Franklin said that anybody who would give up liberty for safety deserves neither. [3] 5. Most people who smoke would like to quit. But smoking is highly addictive. What these people need is care, not punishment. It would be wrong and unfair to criminalize smoking without providing smokers with addiction treatment. But addiction treatment is often unsuccessful, and it would be a huge burden on the tax payer if it became mandated. 6. A ban on smoking would not prevent smoking. It would be a useless law, creating problems but not solving any. Thank you for listening. I look forward to your rebuttal. [1] Flay, Brian R. Health Psychology, Vol 13(1), Jan 1994, 73-85. http://psycnet.apa.org... [2[ "Nicotine: Harder to kick than heroin" http://www.nytimes.com... [3] "Benjamin Franklin", Wikipedia http://en.wikiquote.org...