• Guntrigger@feddit.ch
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    11 months ago

    Everyone here is arguing the benefits of prohibition. I’m just interested to know how much money Rishi (and/or his family members/friends/donors) have invested in vaping and nicotine alternatives.

    • Jojo@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      It always confuses me to learn that when people want to ban smoking it somehow means ban “cigarettes” and not “nicotine”

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        In the US it’s the opposite, which is absolutely bizarro land. Want to ban vapes but not cigarettes.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Well what’s wrong with nicotine? In itself it’s not worse than booze. It’s all the other crap they add that makes it so terrible

        • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          Hi from the depths of a nicotine addiction and struggling to quit. Its a worthless chemical that gets more expensive everyday and my brain SCREAMS at me for a fix if I try to go more than even a few hours. At least heroin gets you high.

          • HikingVet@lemmy.sdf.org
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            11 months ago

            And even when you break free for the most part the chemical which is classified as a poison will make you crave it years later.

          • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Stay strong on your recovery friend 💪

            Thank you for your comment, this is always my biggest beef with those defending nicotine (smoking/vaping).

            It’s like, WHAT DO YOU EVEN GAIN FROM IT?

            • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              WHAT DO YOU EVEN GAIN FROM IT

              Smokers/vapers report a balanced pick-me-up with reduced stress and a sense of calm. If you ignore the massive health hazard and addictiveness and just pay attention to the effects, it seems like the best possible non-intoxicant. There’s a reason why indigenous people used it regularly and it was almost immediately an export crop when discovered.

              Positive Effects

              Nicotine createsTrusted Source a temporary feeling of well-being and relaxation, and increases heart rate and the amount of oxygen the heart uses. As nicotine enters the body, it causes a surge of endorphins, which are chemicals that help to relieve stress and pain and improve mood… Nicotine may also temporarily improve concentration and memory

              Honestly, a wonder-drug. Minus the whole “highly addictive and smokers die a horrible and painful death” part.

              Honestly, if it weren’t addictive, I’d probably consider vaping. But I have enough addiction with caffeine in my life.

            • random65837@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Google is your friend, lot of positives with Nictotine, Nicotine and Cigarettes aren’t locked together.

          • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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            11 months ago

            I suspect your struggle comes mostly from the habits, rather than the chemicals involved? I’ve known a number of cigar addicts that managed to quit, they often said that the hardest part was avoiding it after an activity, like a cigar after a cup of coffe, a cigar after a meal, etc. Being allowed cigar breaks during work also encourages use, since it’s a “free pause”

            • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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              11 months ago

              You don’t have any fucking idea what your talking about. I stopped smoking cigarettes 2 months ago and switched to tobacco free pouches. I have been tapering down from 6 mg to 4 to now 2. And here’s a good tip, especially when talking about addiction. You don’t get a say in anyone else’s experience amd diminishing another persons struggle makes you look like a real jackass, especially considering you have no experience of your own. I can tell because if you did you wouldn’t be spouting this bullshit

            • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              That’s really not the case. Nicotine is highly physically addictive. “Habits” are involved in the way the mind links itself to the addictive substances and the effect of consuming them. My wife quit smoking 15 years ago, and walking in the woods still gives her near-uncontrollable urges to light a cigarette. Because she and I camped a couple time the first year of our relationship and she smoked a cigarette on a hiking trail. That’s not habit-related. Having a cigarette was a more formative and powerful influencing memory to her than basically anything else in her life.

              Being allowed cigar breaks during work also encourages use, since it’s a “free pause”

              That’s just anti-smoker bullshit. Honestly, if you work at a job where you need to smoke to get a break, you should be finding another job anyway. Let’s just stick to hating the drug instead of the smokers.

        • Goblin_Mode@ttrpg.network
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          11 months ago

          I mean I’m no expert but I do have some knowledge on the subject.

          The difference is how you injest it. Our stomachs are much more resilient than our lungs. Your stomach is, for all intents and purposes, a sac of acid that dissolves mostly anything you put in it, your lungs on the other hand literally only do 1 thing all day and it’s breathe air. There are different qualities of air of course, and microparticles in it that could cause harm, but on the whole it’s more or less all the same.

          Its like dumping garbage into a sink vs. a paper bag. The sink will get disgusting, and you may end up with a clogged drain, messed up pipes, or worse. But at the end of the day if you just clean the mess and don’t do it too often it will probably be fine. The paper bag on the other hand is gonna get Soggy, gross, and start falling apart in your hands. You can dry it out but it will never quite be the same…

          • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            There are different qualities of air of course, and microparticles in it that could cause harm, but on the whole it’s more or less all the same.

            Absolutely, and that’s the problem. The same argument you just posed could also be used against intentionally smelling flowers, or sticking your nose over a pot of boiling broth to smell that chicken deliciousness.

            We don’t know that vaped nicotine is more harmful than most things we breathe. In fact, I’d say there are non-drug things people do that we already know to be worse than vaping. Ever go camping? The smoke from that fire is worse than vaping, worse than almost any substance you might want to smoke.

            So the question is how bad vaping (the action, not the drug) is. Is it as bad as sniffing a rose, as bad as lighting a scented candle? As bad as incense? As bad as a campfire? If, as many suspect, it’s near the beginning of that scale, then the only critique we can rightly have is towards the substance vaped. If it’s near the end of the scale, we kinda need some research to support that claim.

            Its like dumping garbage into a sink vs. a paper bag

            As of yet, the medical and scientific community have not found solid evidence that it’s “like…garbage” at all if you don’t like it on fire.

            Which is where things get complicated. Because it MIGHT be terrible for you. Or it might not be bad at all.

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Because smoking is WILDLY more harmful than vaping.

        Yes vaping has SOME health risks, but it’s like saying drinking tea and drinking four loko are just as bad because they both have caffeine

        • Jojo@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          The full effects of vaping are not well understood, and while they’re almost certainly not as bad as cigarettes, they’re also almost certainly still bad for you, and they are indeed still addictive for the same reasons as cigarettes because they still use nicotine.

          Further, one main reason their risks remain as poorly understood as they do is that (again, because of the same active ingredient) people who vape often also use cigarettes. The two are closely linked, I don’t think my confusion should be so easily dismissed as that.

          • Chetzemoka@startrek.website
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            11 months ago

            Oh sorry, I was thinking nicotine supplements like gum and patches. In my mind, smoking and vaping are the same thing. “Don’t inhale particulate matter of any kind” is an excellent rule of thumb for all humans in all situations

            • Jojo@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              Exactly my point. It always throws me for a minute when I realize people are treating them so separately.

            • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              So you’re against smelling flowers, too? And scented candles?

              The problem is that we “inhale particulate matter” all the time. Every day of our lives.

              • Chetzemoka@startrek.website
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                11 months ago

                Yes, and it kills people.

                https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8140409/#:~:text=The World Health Organization estimates,PM2.5)%20in%20polluted%20air.

                You’re not that stupid. You know the difference between inhaling concentrated particulates from a cigarette or vape and smelling a fucking flower. (Which, by the way, pollen grains are average 10-20 microns, not 2.5.)

                https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7937385/#:~:text=Many studies have reported that,2020%3B Schober et al.%2C

                • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 months ago

                  You’re not that stupid. You know the difference between inhaling concentrated particulates from a cigarette or vape and smelling a fucking flower

                  And you’re not that stupid. You know that fine particulate matter in the air every breath we take is different from someone vaping sometimes. There’s a reason your linked study doesn’t mention vaping AND why scientists are still saying the risks of vaping are unclear.

                  Your second study is more useful, but it really is not intellectually defensible to take it results as saying vaping is unhealthy. Instead, its results are saying that we need to keep regulations to control air quality with regards to vaping.

                  I’ll reiterate my original critique.

                  “Don’t inhale particulate matter of any kind” is an excellent rule of thumb for all humans in all situations

                  …is something I disagree with, like most extreme naive generalities.

          • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            The full effects of vaping are not well understood, and while they’re almost certainly not as bad as cigarettes, they’re also almost certainly still bad for you

            That used to say that about artificial sweeteners. The question shouldn’t be “is it bad for you” but “is it worse for you than 99 other things you do in a day”. And vaping nicotine is “almost certainly bad for you” because of the nicotine, and nicotine is a known quantity - we know how bad it is and isn’t. We don’t have evidence that the mechanism of vaping is bad for you, and there’s no “almost certainly” on that.

            And the truth is, I have problems with people who lean on “poorly understood” for vaping. Evidence shows vaping as a mechanism (for THC as it were) going back over 2000 years to ancient Egypt. Widespread use of hookahs started in the 19th century and has tons mechanically in common with modern vaporization. There are some differences, but short of a few badly-designed vapes that let air reach the lungs while superheated, it looks a lot like people are saying “not well understood” because they cannot seem to “understand” bad things and they don’t want to say good things. We have TONS of research precedent around room-temperature air with vaporized herbs in it.

            • Jojo@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              Hookah is pretty bad for you too, my friend. From Wikipedia, emphasis mine:

              The major health risks of smoking tobacco, cannabis, opium and other drugs through a hookah include exposure to toxic chemicals, carcinogens and heavy metals that are not filtered out by the water,[3][8][9][10][11] alongside those related to the transmission of infectious diseases and pathogenic bacteria when hookahs are shared.[3][9][12][13] Hookah and waterpipe use is a global public health concern, with high rates of use in the populations of the Middle East and North Africa as well as in young people in the United States, Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia.[3][8][9][10][11]

              If the best you can say is “it’s pretty much a mini hookah, don’t worry”, then I’m going back to the best you can say for it is that it’s poorly understood. Vaping doesn’t burn anything, unlike a hookah, but the vaporized oils still contain toxins and novel toxins not in the smoke from cigarettes or hookah. The health consequences of that are not well understood, but are probably not as bad as cigarette smoking. That’s the best we’ve got.

              • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                I didn’t say it wasn’t. I said we have a lot more context than people want to pretend about vaping in general.

                And I’m not trying to say “it’s a mini hookah”, nor am I trying to say you should vape.

                Vaping doesn’t burn anything, unlike a hookah, but the vaporized oils still contain toxins and novel toxins not in the smoke from cigarettes or hookah

                If they contain toxins, we probably know quite a bit about those toxins right now. But what about pure vaporized solids? In the CBD and Cannabis community, dry herb vaporizing is the hot new thing specifically because 99% of complaints about vaping being unhealthy are irrelevant. All they do is get the herbs hot without burning it, run it through cooling, and inhale it. I laugh, but I used to do that with lavender with an aromatic herb heating unit.

                The health consequences of that are not well understood, but are probably not as bad as cigarette smoking. That’s the best we’ve got.

                Despite your incredulity, you really haven’t shown that. The consequences are not perfectly understood, but we understand enough to start making educated opinions about vaping. Even your points about hookahs work towards that, with the worst cons being that you still get Carbon Monoxide and the intensity of Nicotine is high. The problem is that we don’t want to tell people that the educated opinion is “probably better for you than that glazed donut”

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Because probably it was defined as burning, not usage of nicotine

        • Jojo@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          But why? The full effects of vaping are not well understood, and while they’re almost certainly not as bad as cigarettes, they’re also almost certainly still bad for you, and they are indeed still addictive for the same reasons as cigarettes. Further, one main reason their risks remain as poorly understood as they do is that (again, because of the same active ingredient) people who vape often also use cigarettes. The two are closely linked, I don’t think my confusion should be so easily dismissed as that.

      • V H@lemmy.stad.social
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        11 months ago

        Nicotine is one of the safest stimulants we know, up there with caffeine in terms of safety. There’s little meaningful reason to ban nicotine. You’re more likely to harm yourself with any number of other things we readily allow.

        The addiction potential of nicotine alone is also far lower than people assume, because smoking is highly addictive both due to the rituals and the other substances involved. I tried to get used to nicotine via patches years back to use as a safe stimulant, and not only did I not get addicted, I couldn’t get used to it (and I was not willing to get myself used to smoking, given the harm that involves). That’s not to say you can’t develop addictions to patches or vapes etc. too, but much more easily when it’s as a substitution for smoking than “from scratch”.

        Restrictions on delivery methods that are harmful or not well enough understood, and combining nicotine with other substances that make the addiction and harm potential greater, sure.

        • affiliate@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Nicotine is one of the safest stimulants we know, up there with caffeine in terms of safety. There’s little meaningful reason to ban nicotine.

          this is from a 2015 article i found on the NIH library:

          Nicotine poses several health hazards. There is an increased risk of cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal disorders. There is decreased immune response and it also poses ill impacts on the reproductive health. It affects the cell proliferation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, DNA mutation by various mechanisms which leads to cancer. It also affects the tumor proliferation and metastasis and causes resistance to chemo and radio therapeutic agents. The use of nicotine needs regulation. The sale of nicotine should be under supervision of trained medical personnel.

          source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4363846/

          in case you think i might be cherry picking, here’s something from johns hopkins, and here’s a source from the cdc. here’s something recent from harvard for good measure.

          edit: i should be clear that the other sources don’t say exactly the same things as the NIH one, but they do talk about how nicotine itself is very addictive, and they talk about some of the harm it can cause

          • V H@lemmy.stad.social
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            11 months ago

            The links from John Hopkins, the CDC and Harvard all focus on vaping, and so are irrelevant to the question of nicotine rather than the delivery methods.

            The first link has nothing wrong in it. It’s correct nicotine is toxic. So is caffeine - the LD50 of caffeine in humans is reasonably high, many grams. To the issue of ingestion, the issue is toxicity at doses people are likely to deal with.

            To the cancer links, again without looking at delivery methods, this is meaningless. To let me quote one small part:

            Thus, the induced activation of nAChRs in lung and other tissues by nicotine can promote carcinogenesis by causing DNA mutations[26] Through its tumor promoter effects, it acts synergistically with other carcinogens from automobile exhausts or wood burning and potentially shorten the induction period of cancers[43] [Table 2].

            This makes sense. Don’t inhale lots of particulates combined with nicotine in other words. There are also many other parts of the article that are useful. E.g. it’s perfectly reasonable to accept that e.g. if you are on chemo you should stay off nicotine, and if you breastfeed you should stay off nicotine.

            What the article does not show is that nicotine, as opposed to delivery methods like inhalation, is much worse than other drugs we’re perfectly fine with.

            I’ll note that the article also includes things in its conclusion that it has categorically not cites studies in support of. E.g. it just assumes the addiction potential is proven (it is, but putting that in the conclusion of a paper without citing sources is really poor form, especially in a paper claiming to set out the issues with nicotine in isolation rather than smoking).

            It also tried to drive up the scare factor by pointing out its toxicity at doses irrelevant for human consumption (e.g. as an insecticide; if wildly irrelevant doses should be considered, then we could write the same paper about how apples should be banned because they contain cyanide).

            The “Materials and methods” section also goes on to say “Studies that evaluated tobacco use and smoking were excluded” but then goes on to make multiple arguments on the basis of harm caused by smoking (e.g. “Nicotine plays a role in the development of emphysema in smokers, by decreasing elastin in the lung parenchyma and increasing the alveolar volume”) and cites a paper focused on smoking, in direct contradiction of the claim they made (“Endoh K, Leung FW. Effects of smoking and nicotine on the gastric mucosa: A review of clinical and experimental evidence. Gastroenterology. 1994;107:864–78.”)

            So, yes, if you make claims about how you’re going to address nicotine rather than smoking, and then go on to address smoking and other means of inhalation intermingled with the rest, and if you leap to conclusions you’ve not cited works in support of, and if you throw out risks without linking them causally to nicotine, you can make nicotine look very bad.

            They also end with subjective statements they’ve not even attempted to support properly. E.g. they’ve gone from “here is why it’s dangerous” to “it should be restricted”, but if that was valid logic, we should restrict sales of apples too, most cleaning agents, all caffeinated products, housepaint, paint thinners, and a host of other things, it’s a specious argument and fitting that such a badly argued paper ends with it. That this passed peer review is an incredible indictment of the journal which published it.

            That doesn’t mean nicotine is risk-free, but compared to other things we’re happy to ingest, I stand by my statement. But don’t inhale it.

            • affiliate@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              The links from John Hopkins, the CDC and Harvard all focus on vaping, and so are irrelevant to the question of nicotine rather than the delivery methods.

              they do focus on vaping, that does not mean they are irrelevant to the question of nicotine. from the cdc link:

              Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm adolescent brain development, which continues into the early to mid-20s.

              there are also sections of that page titled “Why Is Nicotine Unsafe for Kids, Teens, and Young Adults?” and “How Does Nicotine Addiction Affect Youth Mental Health?” that focus only on nicotine.

              from the harvard article:

              Nicotine is highly addictive and can affect the developing brain, potentially harming teens and young adults.

              from johns hopkins:

              Nicotine is the primary agent in regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and it is highly addictive. It causes you to crave a smoke and suffer withdrawal symptoms if you ignore the craving. Nicotine is a toxic substance. It raises your blood pressure and spikes your adrenaline, which increases your heart rate and the likelihood of having a heart attack.

              Both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes contain nicotine, which research suggests may be as addictive as heroin and cocaine.

              to your second point

              To the cancer links, again without looking at delivery methods, this is meaningless.

              i agree that it would be better to focus only on nicotine. i disagree that ignoring delivery methods is “meaningless”. form the johns hopkins article:

              And, getting hooked on nicotine often leads to using traditional tobacco products down the road.

              this is only to say that the cancer bit is not irrelevant.

              This makes sense. Don’t inhale lots of particulates combined with nicotine in other words.

              the part you quoted says that nicotine acts as an accelerator for the development of cancers from other sources, including things like car exhaust. these carcinogens are widespread in the modern world, so accelerating the development of cancer associated with them is a bad thing. eg, car exhaust fumes are everywhere.

              I’ll note that the article also includes things in its conclusion that it has categorically not cites studies in support of.

              i agree, this is bad. the problem you brought up with the “materials and methods” section is also bad. i’m not trying to defend the article holistically, i’m even particularly attached to that source (which is why i included a few different ones). the only reason i picked that article was that it explains some of the harmful effects of nicotine, and then backs them with citations. the article did this by reviewing “90 relevant articles” from PubMed and Medline, then discussing what those articles found - and these are the parts of the article i was interested in. i probably wouldn’t use this approach if i were writing an academic paper on the subject, but i think it’s fine for arguing on the internet that nicotine isn’t “one of the safest stimulants we know”. (i also included a few different sources to counteract the limitations of this approach.)

              That doesn’t mean nicotine is risk-free, but compared to other things we’re happy to ingest, I stand by my statement.

              your statements were

              Nicotine is one of the safest stimulants we know, up there with caffeine in terms of safety.

              and

              The addiction potential of nicotine alone is also far lower than people assume,

              i think the second statement was thoroughly debunked by the sources i’ve included: they all say nicotine is highly addictive, and one of them says it’s “as addictive as heroin and cocaine”. i think the sources i’ve shared also discredit the idea that nicotine is “up there with caffeine in terms of safety”. i’m not trying to say nicotine is extremely dangerous, but rather that its danger is underestimated.

              • V H@lemmy.stad.social
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                11 months ago

                they do focus on vaping, that does not mean they are irrelevant to the question of nicotine. from the cdc link:

                To this and your subsequent points, these claims are not backed up by sources in the pages you linked to, and as we’ve seen from the other paper as well, there’s good reason to be cautious about assuming their claims are separating the effects of nicotine from the effects of the delivery method, especially given every single source actually cited by the CDC article is about smoking. Neither the Johns Hopkins or Harvard article cites any sources on nicotine alone that I can see.

                i disagree that ignoring delivery methods is “meaningless”. form the johns hopkins article:

                And, getting hooked on nicotine often leads to using traditional tobacco products down the road.

                A claim that is not backed by sources, and has divorced this from delivery method. E.g. how many people starts with gum or a patch and goes on to tobacco? I can certainly see there being some transfer from vaping to tobacco, but that is very different from the blanket claim and illustrates the problem with these sources that fail to disambiguate and extrapolates very wide claim from sources that looks at specific modes of use.

                the part you quoted says that nicotine acts as an accelerator for the development of cancers from other sources, including things like car exhaust. these carcinogens are widespread in the modern world, so accelerating the development of cancer associated with them is a bad thing. eg, car exhaust fumes are everywhere.

                Yes, inhaling nicotine is bad. That we can agree on, and the source supports the limited claim that if you get nicotine in a way that binds to cites in your lungs, that is bad. The sources do not provide evidence that this risk is present for other modes of use. Maybe it is, but they’ve not shown that.

                i agree, this is bad. the problem you brought up with the “materials and methods” section is also bad. i’m not trying to defend the article holistically, i’m even particularly attached to that source (which is why i included a few different ones).

                But that article is the best of the sources you gave. The others cite nothing of relevance to the claim I made that I can see after going through their links.

                the article did this by reviewing “90 relevant articles” from PubMed and Medline, then discussing what those articles found

                But the problem is that not nearly all of those “90 relevant articles” are relevant to their claim, and so they start off by misrepresenting what they’re about to do. They then fail to quantify their claim in any way that supports their conclusion. They back up some specific claims without quantifying them (e.g. I can back up the claim that apples can be lethal, but you’d need vast quantities to get enough cyanide from an apple to harm you, so a claim they can be lethal in isolation is meaningless) or unpacking whether they are risks from nicotine in general, or nicotine via a specific delivery method. This is an ongoing problem with research on this subject.

                They have not provided an argument for how any of those “90 relevant articles” supports their conclusion.

                i think the second statement was thoroughly debunked by the sources i’ve included: they all say nicotine is highly addictive, and one of them says it’s “as addictive as heroin and cocaine”. i think the sources i’ve shared also discredit the idea that nicotine is “up there with caffeine in terms of safety”. i’m not trying to say nicotine is extremely dangerous, but rather that its danger is underestimated.

                The say that, but they don’t back it up. Ironically, pointing to heroin is interesting, because the addiction potential of heroin has also been subject to a lot of fearmongering and notoriously exaggerated, and we’ve known this for nearly half a century – a seminal study of addiction in Vietnam war vets found the vast majority of those with extensive heroin use in Vietnam just stopped cold turkey when they returned to the US and the vast majority didn’t relapse, the opposite of what the authors assumed going into the study. A study that was commissioned as part of Nixons then-newly started politically motivated and racist War of Drugs with the intent of providing evidence of how bad it was.

                (see https://www.mayooshin.com/heroin-vietnam-war-veterans-addiction which gives a reasonable account of Robins study, and gives full reference to the paper)

                That’s also not to say that heroin isn’t dangerous or seriously addictive because it is. Nobody should use heroin. But it’s also frequently used as a means of exaggerating by implication because peoples idea of the addiction potential of heroin is largely way out of whack with reality and heavily context-dependent. So when someone drags out a heroin comparison without heavy caveats, that’s reason to assume there is a good chance they’re full of bullshit.

                In other words: It’s perfectly possible that some ways of taking nicotine can be as addictive as heroin, but that doesn’t tell us what most people think it does. E.g. UK hospitals sometimes use heroin (as diamorphine; its generic name) for post-op pain management because it’s far better than many alternatives.

                The sources you’ve given do not present any support for claims that nicotine considered separate from delivery methods is particularly risky. They do provide support for claims it’s dangerous when smoked, and possibly dangerous when inhaled even via vaping, and the takeaway that you should generally avoid inhaling stuff other than clean air without good reason is good. The other claims about nicotine in general do not appear to be backed up at all.

                i’m not trying to say nicotine is extremely dangerous, but rather that its danger is underestimated.

                I find the notion that the danger is underestimated hilarious when one of the claims used a comparison with heroin to fearmonger.

                Your source, if anything, is evidence to me of the opposite.

              • V H@lemmy.stad.social
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                “I haven’t read this, but let me misrepresent what the thing I didn’t read says”.

                I have not argued it isn’t unhealthy. I have argued it’s one of the safer stimulants we have, unless you ingest it in a way that is dangerous (e.g. inhalation). That does not mean it’s free of downsides, but neither are a whole lot of things we still decide it’s fine to use.

                Next time maybe try abstaining from replying to something you’ve not bothered to read.

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                  You just confirmed what I said. “One of the safest”

                  And yeah you wrote way more shit than you should ever expect people to read. Maybe abstain from writing 10,000 words ever but especially if you’re wrong

        • JWBananas@startrek.website
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          I tried to get used to nicotine via patches years back to use as a safe stimulant, and not only did I not get addicted, I couldn’t get used to it

          Well of course not. You weren’t getting the dopamine rush of a large acute dose rushing from your lungs directly to your brain in a matter of seconds.

          What the heck kind of hot take is this?

          Regardless, the dangers – including ease of addiction – are well-known and are scientifically proven. Your anecdata of one does not change that.

          • V H@lemmy.stad.social
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            11 months ago

            Well of course not. You weren’t getting the dopamine rush of a large acute dose rushing from your lungs directly to your brain in a matter of seconds.

            So in other words, you’re saying I didn’t pick the right delivery method to get me addicted. Which was my point.

            Regardless, the dangers – including ease of addiction – are well-known and are scientifically proven. Your anecdata of one does not change that.

            Missing the point: 1) a large part of the addiction for most people is down to delivery, not nicotine itself - something you yourself used as an argument against my anecdote above -, and most of the research focuses on that. 2) the remaining addiction potential of nicotine is real, and proven, but it’s also nothing particularly special compared to other things we’re fine with seeing the addiction to as ranging from a nuisance (e.g. caffeine) to a problem that doesn’t justify prohibition (any more), like alcohol.

            My point was not that it’s impossible to get addicted to nicotine, but that confusing nicotine vs. nicotine via a given delivery method is not helpful.

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You can go EU-way and say that all vapes should be rechargable(in both meanings), repairable and intercompatible. Basically opposite of what Big Tabacco does.

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Disposable vapes should be banned.

          Though even the reusable ones generate a decent amount of waste between coil assemblies that get replaced and the plastic bottles the juice comes in. I mean, I hope we eventually get to managing waste at that level, though I’m not holding my breath since it would require huge changes to the way we handle food logistics, which eclipses vape juice waste by a lot per person.

          But the disposable ones are ridiculous.

          • Dontfearthereaper123@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            You can build your own coils and mix your own liquid. Me and my mate both do it it’s far cheaper and better for the environment, not too hard either once uve learnt the basics of materials and ohms n all.

            • uis@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You can build your own coils

              But you cannot use them in disposable shit. Selling and producing disposable shit should be banned.

              Glycerin costs 2.5$ for 1 liter bottle. And food flavoring about 6-10$ for 0.1 liter bottle.

              • Dontfearthereaper123@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                Disposables could have a use assuming they were more like pods but made from biodegradable materials that are sustainably sources I,e wood or something but that wouldnt solve the coke bottles everywhere and those r worse. The problem isn’t smoking or vaping and it never was the problem is companies knowing they could get away with not being ecologically responsible and by putting the blame on disposables bring used, all you do is help them shift the blame away.

                • uis@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  but made from biodegradable materials that are sustainably sources

                  Greenwashing.

        • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Halp! I have no idea how to recharge my cigar! Beyond that, i really have no idea how Big Tobacco would comply with these regulations.

          • uis@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            At all or while making insane profit and producing a lot of waste? At all simple: just look how vapes looked like before Big Tabacco came and enshittified them.

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      11 months ago

      That isn’t always the case though. Just look at climate scientists.

      Some just want to ban smoking because they see how much damage it has done in their community.

      But I’d also like to know if there was any vested interests.

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        I’m not sure what this has to do with climate scientists. What am I supposed to be looking at?

        Rishi has a history of making legislation to benefit the companies run or owned by friends and family. I would be extremely surprised if this didn’t also have a similar angle.

        • ours@lemmy.film
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          11 months ago

          Just some good old “whataboutism”. Maybe he sprinkles some climate-change denial into some prohibition discussion to distract us?

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Climate activists want to, among other things, pass extremely unpopular carbon taxes as they’re the most serious effort toward cutting fossil fuels usage

          Extremely unpopular ideas that inevitably favor certain products are not always moves to sell those products, is the point

          It’s pretty reasonable to assume no one outside the UK knows much about Sunak’s history with handouts to friends.

          • Risk@feddit.uk
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            11 months ago

            Who are carbon taxes unpopular with? Aside from politicians?

              • HikingVet@lemmy.sdf.org
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                People who don’t understand we need to break our addiction to petroleum based fuel. Also People who make money off of petroleum based products.

                • WhiteHawk@lemmy.world
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                  I think you overestimate the size of these two groups. The group of people who care more about their own financials is likely a lot larger.

              • Spzi@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                That’s a matter of proper implementation. Tax & dividend! Distribute the tax revenue to the population per capita.

                That means:

                • If your emissions are average, you pay/earn net zero.
                • If you emit more than average, you pay. This will affect mostly rich people, since emissions strongly correlate with available money.
                • If you emit less than average, you net earn. This effectively rewards people with money gained for emissions prevented.

                Since money is distributed unequally in society, this means most people will have to pay less in such a system.

                The beautiful thing is, the financial incentive to emit less remains even for people who gain more than they pay. It’s also an incentive both for buyers and sellers, researchers and investors.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It’s Rishi Sunak. Of course he has a financial interest somewhere.

        It won’t work, though. Hell. He might be getting paid off by big Tabacco- make smoking edgy and rebellious again so more kids start up.

        It’s the kind of thing those ghouls would try.

      • Lazylazycat@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Rishi Sunak also just promised to ensure cars will be able to drive through heavily populated areas indefinitely and has pushed back plans to introduce electric-only cars. He absolutely does not care about peoples’ health.

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    I see angry wankers want to moan for the sake of moaning.

    Eliminating smoking is a goos thing! I’ll take my wins whenever possible, doesn’t happen all that often.

    • evatronic@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      But but there are other things that are also bad and if one proposal doesn’t solve everything it is complete trash!!!

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
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      Yea not everything is a partisan issue, and this seems like a good thing? Antismoking efforts have largely been successful in a lot of places.

      It’s not one of those things where someone is choosing to harm themselves only. Smoking affects the people around you

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        So many people like to portray everything as a ‘personal choice’ while ignoring all said implications to others. Very rarely does something only actually impact you.

          • ThePenitentOne@discuss.online
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            Too many people use it as a cop-out to avoid being accountable. It’s like when meat eaters say it’s a ‘personal choice.’ Like yeah, it is a choice you mean, but it also implicates other things not only you.

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      It’s gobsmacking what people will argue for. Shines a light in the general dimness of people.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        The difference being that cigarettes are always unhealthy, no matter how many you smoke, they procure zero benefits. McDonald’s is just a meal and becomes an issue if you eat too much of it, once every now and then won’t have any consequences.

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      11 months ago

      Banning it for everyone is OK, telling some people that they can’t ever because they were born too late is silly, discriminatory and will inevitably create a flourishing black market.

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      11 months ago

      “If I don’t like it, then neither should anyone else!” - you

      • PixxlMan@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        “If it harms the people using it (and makes them addicted and unable to stop even if they wish to), the people around them, and the planet, I don’t like it”

        • actually me
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        11 months ago

        If I never have to smell cigarette smoke again and also no one ever uses the medical system to cure the consequences of smoking then I don’t care. Otherwise I am all for this.

    • 000999@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      First and foremost, people have the right to slowly kill themselves with cigarettes as long as it isn’t harming innocent bystanders.

      Arguably more importantly, the proposed ban is worryingly dystopian.

      Finally, agreeing with anything Sunak does is unforgivable. And in this case would reflect neo-liberal sympathies.

      • Alto@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        as long as it isn’t harming innocent bystanders.

        Considering that’s exactly what second hand smoke does, I really don’t see what point you’re trying to make.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          11 months ago

          What they are trying to say is to ban it in public areas, but not at home.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          Except it doesn’t, less than 9% of the population in the USA uses tobacco in any form, including in that group is past smokers and vapers so it’s probably around 7% or less. Continually attacking a vice that’s basically done is just virtue signaling bullshit. Alcoholism has skyrocketed and kills way more people a year, and obesity is now our number one killer by miles. No one is dying from second hand smoke…you sitting in traffic is doing way more damage to your body than getting a random breeze of smoke from someone outside.

      • Otter@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        First and foremost, people have the right to slowly kill themselves with cigarettes as long as it isn’t harming innocent bystanders.

        That’s the thing with smoking though, second hand smoke is a big problem, especially for vulnerable people

        • Mchugho@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Indoors maybe. People really have a warped idea of how much smoke they’re inhaling in outdoor scenarios, unless they’re literally blowing it in your face from centimetres away it’s not doing anything.

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            11 months ago

            I’m surprised they can still walk around outside, when there are literally cars everywhere. Those are killing way more people on ‘second hand’ exposure than tobacco.

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        11 months ago

        Except smokers always insist on slowly murdering everyone around them and littering everything in their path. If you want to smoke in a hermetically sealed room and not get close to me for at least 6 hours after, fine by me.

        • Mchugho@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Rolling my eyes at “slowly murdering everyone around them”. Why do people think they’re inhaling a non negligible amount of smoke outdoors? It barely registers compared to traffic fumes. Stop with the over exaggerating pseudo scientific moralising.

        • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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          11 months ago

          I mean, I understand that it smells really bad to non smokers. On the other hand, statements like this seem so ridiculously over the top that it makes me question you as a person.

          We live in car country - assuming you are German as well -, with a wide variety of unhealthy crap that you have to inhale on a daily basis. Smog, exhaust fumes, half the food we can buy is unhealthy.

          Honestly I don’t understand how people can be so worked up about smokers in that context. Is it because those are people you can bitch at and boss around, instead of nebulous corps and governments who ignore your calls for climate action and environment protection?

          Otherwise it makes no sense. Smokers are already segregated away from non smokers nowadays, what about their freedom to live (or die) as they want? Your freedom not to smell unpleasant things doesn’t trump that. Me farting in your vicinity doesn’t constitute harm to your individual rights.

          • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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            11 months ago

            Your freedom ends where mine begins. You are free to kill yourself, but not to blow cancerous substances on top of me - and yes, that should include cars.

            • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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              11 months ago

              I generally agree, just that it seems cheap to pile on smokers like they are some sort of lepers. Also you are free to go somewhere else when around a smoker. Their habit doesn’t make them second class citizens, or should I say your freedom ends where theirs begins?

              If we want clean air we have to start with the actual polluters, not the easy pickings who are just random people. That’s like, obsessively worrying about your personal climate impact when the vast, vast majority of climate change is caused by just a handful of corporations.

              • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Also you are free to go somewhere else when around a smoker.

                That’s not how it works.

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        11 months ago

        They’re literally cancer sticks…

        I guess we should allow people to sell antifreeze as both an industrial chemical and a soft drink. Arguably, people have the right to quickly and painfully kill themselves as well.

        • 000999@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 months ago

          Humans have been smoking tobacco for thousands of years. Banning it will only allow the black market to swell to an unimaginable size

          • mriormro@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            These are cigarettes. Engineered to be as addictive as possible. We aren’t talking about hand rolled stogies here

            • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              They absolutely are talking about any form of tobacco…hell track and trace in the EU has effectively destroyed the nasal snuff industry in Germany…a form of tobacco that has no deaths on its hands… literally. This is just ignorance being used in the name of “think of the children” hell that’s one of the main things everyone keeps bringing up in this thread.

              Meanwhile, smoking has been on a sharp decline for decades, is no longer a mass killer…while obesity is and alcoholism has grown 10 fold, so much so that they created a new label called social drinkers because it would put a massive amount of the population into alcoholic territory.

          • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            You can imagine it, it would be less than the amount that is currently being smoked.

            • 000999@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              11 months ago

              Not necessarily. People could actually start smoking more because tax free cigarettes are astronomically cheaper

              • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Are people smoking less weed now it’s legal in many US states?

                Where do you think tax free cigarettes are going to come from?

                • 000999@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  11 months ago

                  They are either domestic bootlegs or imports. If cigarettes were actually fully banned, organized crime groups would begin mass cigarette smuggling and manufacturing operations. Sounds ridiculous, but it’s true

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            By that logic we should continue slavery. Aren’t you worried someone’s going to purchase one of your children on the black market!?

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    11 months ago

    to create ‘smoke-free’ generation

    Of course, not counting the smoke, ash, and other toxic oxidized chemicals that will be kicked up by gas and diesel vehicles with his scrapping the HS2 Manchester line. What a fucking idiot. “Oh no, we brexited ourselves so hard that we’re poor now and can’t afford to build infrastructure that would stand to enrich multiple cities for hundreds of years!”

    Such classic smooth brained thatcherite conservatives. It’s mind numbing that people keep voting for them.

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      11 months ago

      Calling him smooth brained is looking past the fact that it’s just plain corruption. He has interests in the oil industry, and they are against public rail. Hold him to account for what he is, a criminal.

    • bob_lemon@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      I mean, Sunak is a complete and utter bellend and cancelling half of HS2 is a ridiculous and nonsensical move.

      But I think that the good old idiom about broken clocks might just apply here. Smoking bans are a good thing.

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        11 months ago

        Yep, arresting a 47yo for smoking will be very on point for a broken clock.

        Keep in mind, this will be policed only on poor ethnic minorities. Rich white guys in their private club s will still smoke with impunity.

        • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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          Keep in mind, this will be policed only on poor ethnic minorities. Rich white guys in their private club s will still smoke with impunity.

          This is the real answer right here - this is just another poverty tax/punishment.

          I don’t smoke, never have, but I know why people smoke, and it’s now (that it’s no longer seen as “cool”) almost exclusively to try and relieve a tiny bit of the mountain of stress that existing in the world today (especially as part of a marginalised group) brings, and there are a million better ways to reduce the need to smoke, and improve the health outcomes of smokers (eventually, hopefully, to the point where they are able to reduce smoking or stop altogether).

          Sunak is looking for a quick “win” for headlines and distraction, not to actually help people live healthier better lives (E: just seen his transphobic comments, which only reinforce this point). Why target the source of the problem when you can slap a band aid on it and bask in your own glory for a couple of days before your next bit of corruption is exposed?

          • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Counterpoint: A lot of people that smoke want to stop smoking. A lot of people would more easily stop smoking if it was banned or not so easily available.

            Also from the title of the article it seems that this would never apply to people that already smoke legally. The idea is that you set a minimum age and then you increase it every year. Meaning that in 100 years smoking is banned for everyone. But nobody was never banned from smoking when they were legal before. They were just never allowed to. So it prevents young people from picking up the habit.

            • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              So it prevents young people from picking up the habit.

              right, just like how it being illegal prevents young people from drinking and smoking weed… 🙄🙄🙄

              • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Do you really disagree that it reduces the amount of young people consuming those substances?

                • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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                  11 months ago

                  Yes, For example, youth cannabis use halved in Canada after legalization. Also, when I was in HS, people were smoking even though it’s illegal under the age of 18. People would just buy cigarettes from reserves and sell them to each other. If made illegal, people will just find other means to get it.

                  Prohibition doesn’t work but better education does.

        • Jaarsh119@lemmy.world
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          The proposal is to raise the legal smoking age every year. Meaning each yearly increase, this hypothetical 47yo will also age a year and so will be able to smoke forever

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            11 months ago

            Not if he wanted to pick up smoking one year before legal age. So he will be chasing that legal age forever and can’t smoke even if he’s 68

            • ////Edit: it seems like I need to give an example to explain this apparently very difficult problem: Person A is 17 , smoking is allowed from 18 Next year Person A is 18, he could under normal circumstances smoke with 18, but now smoking is legal with 19. Continue to age 68 but smoking is now allowed from 69.
      • Gamoc@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yes, I love it when people buy things from black markets too.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      11 months ago

      It’s mind numbing that people keep voting for them.

      Well recent polling would suggest that they no longer will be voting for them.

        • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          He’s still an MP, so those in his riding would have voted for him, and the Tory party members voted for him, and the rest of the country voted for members of his party that include Lettuce Head and BoJo, so they did vote for a numbskull from his party to be in power.

          • shuzuko@midwest.social
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            11 months ago

            The fact that I have no idea what her name is but still know exactly who you’re talking about when you say Lettuce Head is endlessly amusing to me.

  • superkret@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Ah yes, because making drugs illegal has worked so well in the past.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Setting age limits on substance use is a little different from criminalizing possession/use. In the case of smoking, it has helped reduce rates. This is something backed by people working in public health, who also support decriminalization for possession and bringing in safe consumption sites. It’s all about finding the right approach for an issue.

      I’d rather focus on calling out the OTHER bad stuff his government is doing, instead of turning this one partisan based on which party introduced it

      • Bumblefumble@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        It’s not really an age limit when you’ll never reach it, it’s just gradual criminalization.

        • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          That’s not true. It’s a ban on the sale not possession or consumption. The end user is not being criminalized.

          Theoretically there’s nothing stopping from importation (barring implementation of another law).

      • betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com
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        11 months ago

        But this isn’t am age limit, its using an age limit as a hack to basically grandfather in a smoking ban. It is about finding the right approach, and this ain’t it.

          • betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com
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            11 months ago

            For the same reason prohibition of alcohol didn’t work, for the same reason the drug war didn’t work, for the same reason prescription requirements for medically useful narcotics doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter what the law is, people will make their own choices, and if the things are available, legally or not, people that want to use them will use them.

            Look at the US. For all it’s faults, it has handled smoking very very well. The younger generation basically doesn’t smoke cigarettes. They’re not banned from it for life, they just were informed about it and so they find it disgusting and don’t really do it. You can’t even really get a date anymore with someone if you smoke cigarettes and you’re under like 40.

            • Risk@feddit.uk
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              11 months ago

              Whilst I agree with you in that I don’t think this is an optimal approach, at the same time I’m curious as to whether this would create a significant black market for cigarettes.

              Anybody already addicted will continue to have access. Anyone not addicted has to overcome the barrier of acquiring it illicitly, which works in tandem with education about the harm it does.

              Considering how bulky cigarettes are compared to most other drugs, I wonder whether most dealers would carry around loads of cigarettes - particularly if they’d be at risk of being prosecuted for having them (which I don’t think is the case here, though).

              However, it would probably increase the rate at which weed is cut with tobacco as it increases the addictiveness and ensures customer dependency for the dealers.

      • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Raising age limits on smoking has not reduced rates, making tobacco use taboo in society and knowing how dangerous it is for you has. In the US like 9% use any form of tobacco (which it’s more likely around 7% or less because they include people who have smoked in their lives and quit as well). At this point no one is really smoking… going after tobacco still is just stupid.

    • gmtom@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Read the article for fucks sake.

      They’re not making the drug illegal, just cigarettes. People who want nicotine still have other options.

      It’s like how no one goes out of their way to make/sell pure ethanol, because you can still buy beer or vodka.

      • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That’s still prohibition… it’s flat out dumb. A kid isn’t smoking a $10 cigar…

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    11 months ago

    Smoking is redundant today. Kids are getting enough cancer from the environment already.

    • smellythief@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s not redundant. Harms compound. It’s not like people max out their carcinogenic index or something. 🙄

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That law is an excellent example of knowledge vs wisdom. Knowledge is knowing that some substances may be carcinogenic. Wisdom is knowing that the dosage of a carcinogen is so low it hardly poses any risk.

        To be fair though that’s hard to put on a warning label and harder to explain.

        • bobman@unilem.org
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          11 months ago

          It’s not a fact though, but I’m glad we can both agree it wasn’t funny or clever.

          Just hyperbole.

        • bobman@unilem.org
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          11 months ago

          Lol, why do you people always get upset when someone says something isn’t funny?

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            It was just a rude and aggressive thing to say intended to make someone feel bad about IMO a valid (or at worst innocuous) comment.

            • bobman@unilem.org
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              11 months ago

              Not really. It’s to show them the reality that some people think what they said wasn’t funny.

              You seem to think that it’s only acceptable to say a joke is funny, but not that it isn’t.

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        11 months ago

        Unfortunately these days, you’ll find that reality is neither

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    11 months ago

    Great goal but like with all other narcotics, wouldn’t this just create a huge black market and thus massively fund criminal organizations?

  • DigitalFrank@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    So we would eliminate smoking the same way we eliminated drug use…by making it illegal.

    /S if necessary

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    11 months ago

    Smoking’s already dramatically fallen out of popularity with younger people, being replaced by vaping. So I don’t think it really matters what they do at this point - smoking’s a dinosaur waiting to die.

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    11 months ago

    From someone who has smoked and quit, I was really blind sided by how addictive nicotine was. People talk about adults and what they put in there body but nicotine really is a different monster

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    11 months ago

    Or do it like Germany: make vaping extremely expensive so people go back to smoking. Stupid.

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    11 months ago

    One problem: most smokers start as teens, all while it’s forbidden to sell kids the cancer sticks.

    Addition: I would punish the selling of tobbaco products to kids even more, including the ability of suing the adults for damages in the future (If it won’t cause a cobra problem later on), and also give the ability to non-smoking workers to sue their employers if they give smokers more breaks.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      11 months ago

      My 13-year-old daughter already has friends who vape. That’s how insidious it is and how deeply embedded in the public consciousness nicotine-based products are.

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      11 months ago

      Yeah, but then ultimately it becomes illegal for everyone to own them. Meaning shops cant sell them.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      11 months ago

      I think New Zealand implemented a similar measure some years back, it should probably be good to see how well it works there. Hopefully this doesn’t create a black market for tobacco.

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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        11 months ago

        Yes we did. Have not heard anything about it since… so it’s probably working as intended.

        We’re currently freaking out about vape shops springing up every ten feet.

        • Dontfearthereaper123@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          My first cig was illegally imported and sold by a dealer involved with gangs. All its done is make people get tobacco from their dealer rather than the guy outside the shop.

      • Risk@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, honestly I think it would make more sense to increase the age at which it’s legal to sell to 25 (under the justification that supposedly that’s when your brain has finished developing), and then allow it from there on to prevent it becoming a way to support illegal activity.

    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      And where does teens get the idea to smoke from? Is it from grandpa that coughs louder than a jet engine? Or is it the older cooler teens who got the idea from older teens, who got the…

      You get the point.

      I smoked as a teen because some of my friends did, they smoked because some of their friends did. And you don’t have to look very far to find the 18-20 year olds who provided them.

      Luckily, I never smoked much and mostly kept it to social smoking which made it very easy for me to quit once I grew up and developed some brain-cells that enjoyed co-operating with eachother.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      11 months ago

      also give the ability to non-smoking workers to sue their employers if they give smokers more breaks.

      Yeah, one of the best bits of WFH is that I can take as many breaks as my nicotine obsessed colleagues.

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    11 months ago

    Finally something sensible from this guy. Last week it was all big auto lobby nonsense.

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    11 months ago

    I feel we’ve done a good enough job at making smoking undesirable, effectively banning it is excessive. It would be better to focus on doing what was done to cigarettes to vapes. Kids arent smoking nearly as much but theyre vaping like mad. I see kids as young as 13-14 doing it. Vapes are allowed to look appealing, combine that with their nice smell and flavour, ofc young people are going to gravitate toward them instead.

    Make it so vape packaging is bland and has similar warnings as cigarretes, and actually teach kids about addiction instead of just a hard “dont touch these”. Everyone with a braincell knows that if you ban something from young people, theyre gonna do it more

    • yesdogishere@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      the problem is there’s actually zero evidence vapes alone (without nicotine etc) do any harm. The vapes which the industry is moving towards is just largely the same as steamed and cooling water vapour. It’s totally harmless.

      • Sharp312@lemmy.one
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        11 months ago

        Sadly though, vaping is associated almost entirely with nicotine. I know plenty who vape, but no one who vapes 0% juice. I havent personally done much research about them but inhaling any fumes is a net negative. Although vapes are far less harmful tham cigarettes, nicotine addiction is still there, and these kids are getting it. Im one of the few of my generation that used vapes for their original purpose, quitting smoking and they work great, but its depressing af seeing kids caning vapes just knowing its already an addiction for them

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        There’s plenty of evidence that vapes are harmful not as harmful as cigarettes but still.

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          11 months ago

          There’s zero evidence! (just ignore the mounds of evidence saying that it’s still fucking awful for you)

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    11 months ago

    He should also star making crimes illegal so that they can live in a society without crime /s.