by Nicole
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the whole war on cigarettes that the government is waging, and how it doesn’t make sense. Okay, smoking is bad for you. It causes lung cancer. It hurts you. We all know this, it has been pounded in our heads by the million dollar ads that caused the increase in the cost of a pack of smokes. I don’t really have a problem with educating people about the dangers, that’s all fine and dandy. I do have a problem with morons suing the tobacco industry because they got lung cancer after smoking two packs a day for thirty years. That makes no sense to me. Does this mean that I can sue the meat industry for the damage they did before I quit eating meat? That would be more logical actually, since there is no warning label on a hamburger. But this isn’t my main concern either.
My big problem with this whole war is that the government has basically alienated every single smoker, drove up the taxes on cigarettes to pay for their ads, and launched a full scale media war against the tobacco industry. No more tobacco ads allowed on TV, no more “teen appealing” icons in the print ads, plenty of commercials by that “truth” campaing to put a stop to smoking. Yet Budweiser still has the top commercials on TV with their cute little frogs, puppy dogs, and lizards. Fosters teaches us how to speak Australian, Heineken teaches us how to be cool with their beer in our hands. I see at least one beer commercial a night, probably more. So why are they alright?
Cigarettes only hurt the smoker. The whole second hand smoke thing may or may not be true, I’ve read a lot of conflicting evidence, but the chances of you getting cancer because you go to a bar one night a week are pretty slim to say the least. But alcohol hurts many. First you have the drunk drivers, no amount of campaigning by MADD, SADD, DADD, or RADD is going to stop them. Then you have the drunken bar fights, the idiots who fall down a flight of stairs because they’re too drunk to walk, the morons who encourage their friends to “chug chug chug” until they die from alcohol poisoning, the drunks who beat their wives, the families in Alanon trying to figure out why Mommy/daddy/significant other cares more about getting drunk than about them. Alcoholism destroys every single person who cares about the drunk, and you don’t even have to be an alcoholic to destroy your life or someone else’s with booze. At least with cigarettes you have to be addicted to do any real damage. So why aren’t the little “truth” people discussing the dangers of drinking? Why hasn’t the cost of booze gone up to fund campaigns that educate and assist people with problems? Why is it okay to be in a bar acting like an idiot and everyone around you will right it off as “Oh, he’s just drunk”, but light up a smoke and you are automatically a wart on the countries ass? Someone explain this to me? Someone explain it to the mother down the street who hides her children every night in fear that drunk daddy is going to go after them next. Explain it to the husband up the block who watches his wife waste away in a pool of alcohol induced vomit day after day.
I’m not saying alcohol should be illegal or anything. I drink on occasion and suffer a hangover the next day. There are many, many people out there who can drink responsibly. I feel that everyone should have a right to choose what goes into their bodies. I’m just saying that the government should either treat all poisons the same, or not regulate any of them at all. Either launch a campaign to stop alcoholism and alcohol related problems, or pull the funding for the cigarette campaign and lower the price of a pack of smokes. Either take the ads for beer off TV, or bring Joe Camel back to life. It’s only logical and only fair. But of course in this country, nothing is fair or logical.