So we should ban smoking? Should we also ban fast food, which kills more people in America? How about driving a car, since tens of thousands of car accidents happen each year? How about alcohol and alcohol-related accidents? Should we ban that and sue Guinness, Jack Daniels, Jameson, Crown Royal, etc. because someone becomes an alcoholic and destroys his/her liver? It's all about personal responsibility. It's not the companies' fault that you got fat eating too much McDonald's or that you got lung cancer from smoking two packs a day for 50 years, or that you had complete liver failure because you became an alcoholic and can't control yourself.
I understand that the tobacco companies have always been evil bastards, but I never understood how they could be responsible for forcing someone to smoke. You're inhaling fumes into your lungs...that can't be good for you.
People here drink and smoke from an early age and continue with it all their lives, and yet we have one of the highest longevity rates in the world. It's a societal problem, not Marlboro's. "I broke my face pounding myself with your hammer product, so I'm going to sue you and denounce you because your hammer broke my face." It's ludicrous and self-inflicted. They didn't hand out cigarettes to kids in school. No one forced you to buy their product and start smoking, and now you want to sue them because you started using a harmful product and got sick? It's a cop-out for personal responsibility.
And people say, "Oh the tobacco companies swayed the people's opinion with their advertising!" Well duh! That's what advertisers are supposed to do! As long as they're not saying it's full of sunshine and Vitamin C and have the health disclaimer on it, I don't see the problem. The ONLY problem is that American consumers feel they shouldn't take any responsibility for getting sick, that it's all the cigarette companies' fault. Bullshit. Complete bullshit.
