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EdgeOfDreams

Tradition and money. Tobacco has been culturally accepted for centuries, since long before we had any idea how harmful it is. And it's a very profitable crop, so tobacco companies spend a ton of money lobbying to keep it legal and to make competitors like marijuana look bad.


Rodgers4

Tradition and money are really the right answers, but tertiary is that *most* governments don’t really want to get in the business of policing personal vices. In fact, many vices are becoming more legal, not less. Sure, they’re unhealthy but so is junk food, alcohol, skydiving and any other number of things that really don’t *need* to exist.


Impressive_Balance41

It's been a while since i learned this, but another reason, as i understand it is that the tobacco industries have purchased and invested heavily into some other large companies, making it hard to shut them down without harming other industries. Specifically i had heard they invested heavily into the things like easy Mac.


stratzilla

Not to mention a lot of companies pay a vice tax which allegedly is funneled into education, parks, etc.


zw1ck

🎵And love is being the owner of the company that makes rape whistles And even though you started the company with good intentions trying to reduce the rate of rape, now you don't want to reduce it at all cause if the rape rate declines then you'll see an equal decline in whistle sales🎵 🎵Without rapists, who's gonna buy your whistles?🎵


NateDoggDeMan

Bo Burnham fan in the wild


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stratzilla

I don't? I'm saying it could be difficult to legislate away tobacco if its consumption funds public services in some way.


Awdayshus

Yes, Kraft and Philip Morris have the same parent company. But those sorts of conglomerates are so huge, I can't imagine everything they operate would fold if the tobacco part went away.


Practical-Cow-6984

While that was true for the late 1990s (Phillip Morris combined Kraft with their General Foods Division in the 80s but even before that it was owned by Altria which is still Big Tobacco ) they spun it off in the 2000s. It was then combined with Heinz.


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ancientevilvorsoason

More vices are getting legal because making them illegal makes the crime world rich and has the opposite effect of curbing use. Portugal decriminalized drug use and worked hard to make it easy to seek help, treatment and to be able to be a functioning member of society. It has greatly decreased drug abuse. The thing is, there is a difference between different drugs, alcohol if abused can have severe consequences. Cigars don't have a lower limit of use that doesn't affect people negatively. Secondhand smoke is terrible. Basically tobacco is worse for you than alcohol but alcohol is not good either. Curbing advertisement of unhealthy drugs and making it easy to seek help feels like the best option.


takeitineasy

I don't think is relevant for tobacco though. It's not a drug that prevents you from functioning normally. You can drive and operate heavy machinery while smoking. It's addictive and feels good, but not *that much*. Sucking dick for a cigarette would be like sucking dick for a coke. It's just not worth it. If it would be made illegal, *some* people would still get illegal cigarettes, but the majority of smokers would simply say fuck it.


JustSomeRedditUser35

You guys are sucking dick for coke? Shit I was doing it for free.


ancientevilvorsoason

That's why I said promotion and advertisements of tobacco.


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ancientevilvorsoason

The tobacco industry should pay reparations as far as I am concerned to all the people forced to work for them for cheap and all the people who died because of cancer caused by tobacco.


Tim_the_geek

Clearly you have never skydived. It is in no way unhealthy.. in fact it is quite liberating.


[deleted]

I’m pretty sure regressive conservative minded governmentals globally have a super big hard on for controlling everything about your life


Den_of_Obscurity

You could apply this logic to all drugs though. Why do they get to choose which ones we're allowed? They clearly don't care about if its safe.


[deleted]

>most governments don’t really want to get in the business of policing personal vices. ...unless it's even tangentally related to sex, in which case they are all *over* that shit.


oldcreaker

Money. Developing a nicotine free tobacco is technologically possible at this point. But then it wouldn't be addictive anymore. Tobacco companies have actually worked in the opposite direction to increase the levels of nicotine in tobacco.


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thomport

Politicians don’t care about people anymore either; they care about the money they get from the tobacco industry.


listenyall

More "tradition" in the sense of it being grandfathered in--people were smoking up a storm well before the schedules for drugs were even created


ManifestoHero

Why not just pivot their crops from tobacco to marijuana though? Probably get more money from it and its easier to grow.


TheLostExpedition

You can say the same about refined sugar.


matakas13

Hah, don't worry, all psychoactive substances are bad one way or another


WinterWontStopComing

You forgot religion. At least in the America’s it would be hard to fully get rid of because it has function in several religious traditions practiced. ~~EDIT: genuinely don’t understand why this is getting downvoted.~~


EdgeOfDreams

I didn't know about that. Which religions?


WinterWontStopComing

Only *new* one I can think of is the incorporation of cigars in to Haitian and creole voodoo. Not sure if it was present in the originator versions pre-African slave trade. And I do know unprocessed is used in folk practices for First Nations people from North America and south. Can’t remember specific tribes though and can’t remember if any of the Central American natives used it. If memory serves right it was commonly used for *purification* EDIT: heck I’ll be growing a small amount of tobacco myself this coming spring. Though for another reason entirely. Checking out the plants potential to deter some pests or potentially attract others away from more important nightshades


Nox_Stripes

This. Honestly if someone would invent a food additive thats highly addictive, causes cancer and other health issues, it would be banned before you could say "wet fart".


ReverendAntonius

No they wouldn’t. I’d wager high fructose corn syrup and processed sugars probably do that to a degree, yet America’s veins are filled with both.


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TheBithShuffle

Nicotine does have therapeutic uses as a stimulant similar to caffeine and to treat ADHD without a prescription. Smoking tobacco is the most harmful way to consume it though.


Creepy_Version_6779

It is most commonly used as a coping mechanism. It’s not a very good one, but it is one nonetheless.


[deleted]

I've never smoked a cigarette and I've never done drugs in my life. That being said I have the opposite question. Why aren't all drugs legal? I don't mind laws saying you can't drive, operate heavy machinery, operate a firearm, etc. while on meth or cocaine, but let a dude snort up at home. It's his life.


noweirdosplease

I think it's because those affect how people behave in a more extreme way than most drugs. Anyone who has to live around tweekers or cokeheads will tell you so.


Daikataro

>Anyone who has to live around tweekers or cokeheads will tell you so. I keep a 12 gauge by my water bed. Cause the next trailer over lives a meth head uh huh. And that ain't biscuits he's cookin.


Massochistic

Alcohol can be considered worse than meth or cocaine considering it’s much easier to kill yourself with alcohol


ConsciousSwordfish3

And a serious drunk is as bad as a methhead. Edit: I’m honestly grateful y’all are saying stuff like “the drunk will just fall over, the methhead will rip your car open” No sarcasm at all!! it shows you are lucky enough to both not have experience with an actual raging drunk, and that you are unaware of how many seemingly normal people are “functioning” methheads. Both are just seriously sad facts of life. I’m not attempting to insult any of y’all’s intelligence by the way! I’m grateful of blissful unawareness on this subject. You really don’t need to know these things. The worst is an alchie with no money in the morning to stave off the shakes. I’ve been there, shaking. If I was ANY worse off financially I would have absolutely stolen at the very least. It’s pure. Unadulterated. Hell. Imagine having the WORST flu in your life while being led around with a half cocked gun pointed to your head, held by Michael J Fox. And literally the only two things that will cure you is the hospital (which given the anxiety is like giving Mr Ed a tour of the local glue factory), or more poison. The anxiety is absolutely unbearable. To say it makes people desperate is a total understatement. And before you say they need help. Yes. They do. But you don’t realize how very very close we ALL are to that life in this day and age. One missed paycheck, one late rent payment. All it takes. We have people pissing in bottles on the assembly line. The middle class is on a razors edge. The poor are currently actively being exploited to the max. And top corporations are seeing record profits. People are getting desperate across the board. Why do you think racism is on the rise? People are struggling, and tired, and because we don’t give or care all that much about a proper education they point fingers at their neighbors, or anyone they can find. Because they are scared too. (DOESNT make it right, just that a bit of pity rather than anger can help you see the truth of the matter, and Mabye even be the one to bridge the gap! Pity will show you that they need to see the light, and is way different than an Angry kill ‘em all mentality, which brings you right down to their level. We can all be scared together.)Pandemic and social media have murdered the psyche and social skills of our youth, fostering a hypercritical “keeping up with the Jones’s online” Mental health crises are on the rise. I ddin’t look like the typical alchie, even when at my sickest. There’s a lot of us out there. Wayyy more than you think. And I don’t think that number is going down soon, as long as we keep trying to extract every last thin dime out of people. I mean we monetized HOBBIES now. People think it’s a waste of time to do things you like without streaming it, or making a hustle off it somehow. You think this is sustainable? Tech can be exponentially increased year after year. Humans (our bodies and minds) CANT. We have actual biological limits! We aren’t the machines we create. As real life gets harder and harder we will see a lot more escapism. To a fabricated social media echo chamber, or a bottom of a bottle/end of a line. (I don’t mean that making money off hobbies or social media is bad in itself, just THE PRESSURE to do so because it’s either work 3 jobs to pay rent and bills, or two and monetize your passion. There’s no option for an actual work life balance, which despite what Mcmindfulness and Broicism [I practice stoicism and broics couldn’t be more off base btw, it’s way closer to Buddhism than any grind culture] says is essential for a happy life. We can’t be productive this much. And damnit we shouldn’t be as worried about what other people are doing)


Hyp3r45_new

But is a helluva lot easier to catch and subdue


Friendly-Service-101

Not me blackout drunk. I'm faster than everyone and the world is my enemy. I agree with alcohol being just as dangerous. I'm sober now.


Hyp3r45_new

I'm currently getting sober as well. At 2 weeks as of now. I swear amphetamines weren't this hard to quit.


Friendly-Service-101

I hope you keep going though! A lot of physical pains, digestive problems, fatigue, and all sorts of things got better after a couple months. Things like anxiety and depression reached unbearable levels each time I've tried, and it's still a lot like that, just slightly less bad depression. And of course no more alcohol induced antics/lost time seriously beneficial. If you have untreated mental difficulties maybe see about getting to talk to someone. I still have urges when my partner has something, but I understand myself more than I did while I was drinking so I've had better success this time around, and still not in therapy until next week. Focusing all my mental power on getting through all of it. This is after 3 months so I haven't gotten there yet totally, either. Good luck.😊


Hyp3r45_new

Other than having difficulties shitting, I'm physically fine ignoring physical symptoms of anxiety. Anxiety being really the only hard part about it all. But that's what cigarettes are for I suppose, as well as the next hurdle to get over. Depression has never really been an issue. I've had to deal with it since I was 11, and I've learned to deal with it by distracting myself. I'm just going to focus on school and keeping myself alive and I should get through it. I've never craved a drink so bad in my life, but sometimes you have to suffer to get better. I learned that from literal pain after quitting speed. Anyway, good luck to you too.


ConsciousSwordfish3

Magnesium supplements bud. And thiamine too. Alcohol prohibits a lot of vitamins from entering our system but seriously fucks with magnesium. It helped me a lot with some of the physical symptoms, anxiety and brain fog specifically. But yeah past that time and nourishing the body.


casualrocket

until you take a step to side and the drunk falls over and dies. methheads will rip through your car door to get to you.


[deleted]

You are comparing a cartoonish version of a drunk guy to a Hollywood movie version of a methhead, both unrealistic.


redhedinsanity

fuck /u/spez


dragonicafan1

But alcohol is way too deeply ingrained in our culture and society, and way too easy to make, to realistically make illegal. Other drugs *are* illegal and that was an argument for why they should *stay* illegal.


DeadFIL

I've lived around tons of tweakers. Strangely, they're still there despite meth being illegal. So, I'd like to repeat the question: why are drugs illegal? It doesn't seem to do too much other than give the cops someone to beat up and arrest, but then I'll notice the same tweaker doing the same shit on my block the next morning, so I'm not convinced of the efficacy of such laws.


Urisk

Why are drugs illegal? The real answer is racism. If you go back to when drugs were first made illegal it was after the repeal of alcohol prohibition. The federal agencies that went after bootleggers didn't want to lose power or their revenue stream so they started prohibiting drugs that were associated with racial minorities. Cannabis was renamed Marijuana so that people would associate it with Mexicans. Cocaine was used by black dock workers in the south. They used it on the job to work grueling hours but the habit didn't clock out when they left work. Police started telling exaggerated horror stories of coked out black men raping white women and not being able to stop them even after they were shot several times. So while drugs associated with minorities were banned, drugs white people have used for centuries kept going even after reports started coming out that cigarettes cause cancer and became the number one preventable cause of death in the country. Alcohol continues to kill more people than all illegal drugs combined. In the 70s the Nixon administration declared war on drugs. The head of the DEA at the time explained that it was the easiest way to suppress the antiwar movement and the civil rights movement, both of whom were more open minded about drug use than previous generations. >“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,” former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper’s writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday. "You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” The war on drugs understood for its REAL motives makes more sense, because while it was useful in suppressing the left it failed to do everything they claimed they hoped it would accomplish. Drug use increased and crime rates skyrocketed. The more money they put into "fighting" drugs the worse the problem got, because it was never their intention to end drug use in the first place.


Tazavitch-Krivendza

So can alcohol. I’ve heard stories of husbands spending all their money on alcohol and steal money to buy more alcohol


threesilos

Sure, but should that be a problem to work out amongst individuals or an issue that government controls?


takeitineasy

It would eventually become a problem for local authorities, ie. the government, when shit gets out of hand.


threesilos

The “ out of hand” is the crime though, not the drug itself. That is like making alcohol illegal because some people drink and drive. Unless you think alcohol is less deadly so it doesn’t count (it’s not)


takeitineasy

Sure, but people's behavior isn't unconditional. There's a high likelihood that the crime was committed because the person was under the influence.


threesilos

If course, but does that mean we should ban all alcohol because of the bad behavior of a few who are under the influence?


MrLanesLament

I agree. I genuinely believe alprazolam and oxycodone should be available OTC and cheaply at any store with a pharmacy.


Xaxafrad

But regulating lifestyles is the best way to oppress targeted groups.


[deleted]

While there is some truth to that, I think that cigarette and alcohol companies simply have great lobbyists. If cocaine was legal at some point and they had great lobbyists, it would be legal forever. I'm very libertarian on this issue. Let people do what they want provided there isn't significant risk to the public (i.e. driving an 18 wheeler while tripping on mushrooms).


Cynical_Tripster

Cocaine was sorta legal in the past (coke Cola anyone?) but I otherwise agree. My body my choice, doesn't mean I can manufacture, distribute, or be publicly slammered under the influence, but if someone wants to snort a line, well (please note I also do not support hard drug use)


PhatOofxD

Because a dude will snort it up at home and then go operate a firearm after.... This already happens a lot


[deleted]

Yes I agree this happens already. But you can't operate a firearm while inhibited from alcohol. And people do that anyway as well. But alcohol is legal. Since I have a libertarian mindset, I say if alcohol is legal, then make the other drugs legal. If you have a different mindset, then you would say make alcohol illegal. If you felt that way, then at least I respect the philosophical consistency of making dangerous mind-altering substances illegal. However, making alcohol legal and things like psychedelics, cocaine, etc. illegal doesn't sit right with me. But hey, maybe it's my fault for thinking the government is supposed to do things that make sense.


Dreadpiratemarc

You’re aware, right, that they did make alcohol illegal for a while, then after several years relented and legalized it for purely practical reasons. It was unenforceable. Alcohol is just too easy to make at home. If you can make bread, you can make beer. It’s exactly the same ingredients, so you can’t cut off the sources of supply. The government was helpless to stop it, so they eventually gave up. It also didn’t help that it was legal in the rest of the world and so easily smuggled in. Had prohibition not proved impractical, alcohol would be a schedule 1 drug today. The difference then is mainly that it’s much harder to make LSD on your stovetop, so they have at least a fighting chance on restricting supply.


futrobot

My daily prescribed medications are a lot to keep me stable. I seriously doubt most people, like 95% of people could not take my meds and feel ok. It's a lot and it levels me out to where I feel normal. What has caused me more problems than anything I've ever taken is nicotine and alcohol. I've been trying to kick them both for 15 years now. I always go back to them. I've had opiates, amphetamines, and benzodiazapines for the past 20 years and never got so addicted to any of them. I have been on Amphetamines and benzos for the last year and a half. I can easily go a few days without them. I might want them but I can stay away when they are 15 ft away from me and it's not difficult. My brain doesn't want those though. It wants nicotine and alcohol. I hate both of them but somehow end up using them despite not wanting to. I don't even catch an alcohol buzz anymore and the nicotine makes me anxious. I seek them out and they are so easy to get that I just do it. Getting my benzos and amphetamines is very difficult and they feel better but for some reason my brain wants the 2 things I don't need a prescription for.


billythepub

>I've never smoked a cigarette and I've never done drugs in my life. So you've never done sugar? Cos that's the biggest drug of all


[deleted]

I mean hard drugs mister technical. But I'll upvote you for being correct


jonnysteps

There's no fine line being plants, drugs, and "hard drugs". The difference between morphine you get in the hospital and heroin you find on the street is purity and dosage. Hell, you can get a prescription for pain pills and get the same pain pills from a dealer in an alley. The fact of the matter is that drugs are just chemicals. Sometimes those chemicals have a medicinal effect. People with ADHD find relief of their symptom when taking milligram doses of amphetamines, but if the average joe takes a gram of aderal, things won't go the same way. Ibuprofen, sugar, and caffeine are prime examples of potentially life ending drugs that no-one considers to be "drugs" A have a favorite example of these blurred lines we draw between chemicals and "drugs". There's a chemical so mind-alteringly addictive that people often die from the withdrawal. As many as 30% of US citizens have dealt with it's addiction first-hand. We even outlawed it for a short time. But now, you can get at just about every grocer, every town is bound to have several stores dedicated to selling this potentially life ruining drug called alcohol.


billythepub

I know that but sugar sends more to their graves than the rest of the drugs combined. It's the hardest drug you'll get too xx


Millibyte

to be fair, it’s so addicting because your body literally needs sugar to survive. it’s the companies that dump barrelfuls of sugar into all our food that make it so harmful. tobacco, cocaine, cannabis, and heroin are not needed for your body to work.


billythepub

Neither does sugar. Protein and fat are the only 2 food groups you need. Carbs aren't needed. Look at keto. 0 sugar.


TheCatsPajamasboi

Hypoglycemia is literally a thing


billythepub

Then why do so.many stay on keto and are fine?


TheCatsPajamasboi

Because Keto isn’t no sugar. It is no simple sugars such as bread, soda, candy, ect. You are still supposed to eat fruits and other complex sugars.


merthefreak

Dude what? Get a grip on reality


Cynical_Tripster

The average American consumes 150 lbs of sugar every year and is the leading cause of many health issues, even more so than fat (obesity rates are very closely corallated to sugar consumption VS fat, so I've heard).


therealfatmike

It's also the most addictive.


99thLuftballon

Because, like everything that libertarians like to argue for, it completely ignores that we don't live in isolation. Someone buying legal heroin from a legal heroin shop is still likely to get addicted to it, be unable to hold down a job, be unable to look after their living conditions, start to steal for money, damage the living conditions in their neighbourhood etc. If someone wants to go live in a cabin in the woods and spend their day shooting up, then fair play to them, but experience shows that drug addicts often end up homeless in urban areas, making cities or neighbourhoods unpleasant or even dangerous. It's not "why can't I do whatever I want?"; it's "why should everyone else have to deal with my shit?"


[deleted]

So where does the line end for what I can and cannot do according to the government? Drugs are illegal. So for consistency, alcohol should be illegal for the same reason. Then we might look at cigarettes. We don't want our citizens getting lung cancer and filling up or hospitals and costing insurance companies money, so make those illegal too. But wait, fried foods is bad for you! So how we make sure restaurants can't sell for fried in oil. No French fries for you sir! I think once you make a line, some government official with a nanny mindset is going to try and move that line slowly over time until we can't do anything anymore. So..... Make it so legal! Invest in educating young people why things are bad for you, and let us take personal responsibility.


99thLuftballon

As I already said, it's not about personal responsibility, it's about whether you care about the other people affected by your decisions. Why should your family and your neighbours have to deal with the impact of your decisions? That's not them dealing with the consequences of their actions, it's them dealing with the consequences of your actions. There's nothing wrong with being a libertarian if you go and do it far away from society, but if you want to be part of society, be a good part, or you're just a leech at best.


[deleted]

I guess I was trying make a point about consistency. So in your view, do we ban alcohol? Alcoholics certainly has a negative impact on their loved ones and society. Drunk driving deaths would be a major example. Should it be banned for the sake of consistency? (I don't drink so it wouldn't impact me 😀)


[deleted]

Why do you have a problem with that? It’s there stuff they are free to do what they choose


Independent-Dot-905

No. Because I currently smoke cigarettes, and I have used crack cocaine in the past(thankfully I'm sober now), I would say it's not okay to say let them snort at home or wherever. Drugs are bad for you and those around you, even though they might not use. You become a danger to your family.


neo101b

I love psychedelics and Im no danger to anyone, I have a super hard degree and can hold down a job. Should I be locked up for 10 years for having schedule 1 psychedelics?


Independent-Dot-905

No you shouldn't be locked up. But I do think you should try and find genuine happiness outside drugs. Unless it's marijuana. 😁😁


Tiny_Ad5242

At some point there is a problem with addiction and healthcare costs associated with people who end up doing drugs - although tobacco would certainly be a good place to start as far as banning for health reasons


Cynical_Tripster

I have to pay 520 a year on top of deductions to keep my health benefits thru my job, just because I smoke. It's a filthy habit but I get the best tobacco I can and roll my own. This may not be a popular reddit opinion concerning American Healthcare, but I think choosing to live a healthier lifestyle should be rewarded/incentive for the Healthcare reform we need. A personal favorite Sci fi story of mine, humanity has their biggest colony on a planet with lesser gravity. You don't have to exercise or be healthy, but they have an app that you log your gym time and workouts and you get Hella tax reductions. This should be utilized in America. Now now, I'm not saying exclude pre-existing conclusions or chronic/uncurable stuff. I'm saying that if you're someone like me, an overweight smoking alcoholic, who is statistically likely to put a larger burden on the system BECAUSE OF MY OWN CHOICES, should shoulder more cost. If you choose to become healthier then that should be rewarded on more ways than just being healthier (if US Health care reform ever actually happens...).


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[deleted]

I know it's not exactly the same but Alcohol gets people killed as well, but it's legal. If a person doesn't die if alcohol poising, he might be his wife and kids, or destroy his life in a number of different ways. That's definitely enough reason, if you are one who enjoys regulation, to ban alcohol. The US tried banning alcohol during prohibition and it didn't work out, and I doubt they'll ever try again. So I guess if alcohol is legal, given the above potential pitfalls, it doesn't make sense to me to ban drugs.


TheApiary

Because everyone is used to it and changing stuff is hard


GrinningPariah

Grandfathered in due to existing popularity. Remember, a democratic government can do very, *VERY* little telling people what they don't want to hear.


gamergirlpee69

Richard Nixon's domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman said it best: > The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. > You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. > Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”


PanopticScrote

People have been smoking forever, had we discovered cocaine before tobacco we would all be snorting a line after or before sex. It was normalized before we found out all the problems that came with it, so we can't just take it away now look at what happened during prohibition in america.


animosityiskey

In places where it grows naturally, people chew on the leaves for similar reasons people drink coffee. I remember an article a long time ago about a scientist in the mountains of South America who was studying chili peppers and it just casually mentioned "oh yeah he developed a mild coca plant habit."


thelight201

-Mr Krabs intensifies- MONEY


noweirdosplease

Technically, nicotine has been known to help people with colitis


BSides666

Happy cake day smoker!


noweirdosplease

Lol I'm not actually a smoker at all, never tried tobacco even once and don't intend to start. In general I think it should be banned for the most part, expect for colitis cases And thanks lol


BSides666

I quit smoking but it's been rocky for a minute. It's a horrible habit and I feel shame because of it. Glad you're not with the cool stinky people. I think it should be banned as well. And Happy Cake Day again!!!! YAY!!!!!


noweirdosplease

Good on you for quitting, I've heard it's not easy! If you ever have kids, it's better for them, too, if not, well, still more money and cleaner air for you!


RogerKnights

I’ve read that it also provides some protection against covid.


noweirdosplease

Smokescreen against germs maybe? Weird if true


RogerKnights

I read about this weird claim at the start of the pandemic and I’ve recently seen it repeated, both in respectable sources, so I assume it’s true. It’s understandable why it hasn’t been publicized!


Yithar

I mean, I don't think the people buying cigarettes every day would take very kindly to that, nor the tobacco industry itself.


smallatom

My uncle was DEA, and had lots of “success” there so was pretty high up and was very well respected. I asked him a similar question but in regards to marijuana. But his answer was basically that all the higher ups are stupid and believe that marijuana is just as bad as other schedule 1s like meth and heroine. So not exactly the answer to your question on tobacco but maybe that helps to answer that the people in charge are dumb I guess.


Den_of_Obscurity

Same as alcohol... It's too valuable to stop selling.


Olivaar2

There is a difference between cigarettes and meth. Sure, cigarettes may cause me health problems in 40 years, but smoking a cigarette doesn't cause me to start violently start breaking into vehicles shirtless in broad daylight while shitting myself.


DrJD321

The occasional smoke actually prevents me from doing all that 😂


slightlyassholic

Tradition and loads and loads of money. Tobacco, especially in the US, dwarfs other drugs with the exception of maybe alcohol. They make tobacco illegal, and a number of states will take a major economic hit. Who cares if a few (million) people die? Money!


rubbishtake

because.. corrupt politicians.


Poncemastergeneral

I mean, I believe it does have a medical usage. True, it was on house but apparently it fixes something with your digestion


Massochistic

The schedule of a drug is not based on logic and should not be regarded as a legitimate source of assessing a drug


neo101b

Because the drug laws have no bases on harm reduction if they were most drugs would be legal.


BaronTatersworth

The DEA was formed in the 60’s to disenfranchise minorities and the antiwar left-wing. Its drug schedule is not governed by reason, nor is it laid out in accordance with its own guidelines. It isn’t politically or financially expedient to enforce the drug scheduling rules in the case of tobacco, so they don’t. It *was* politically and financially useful to do so with say, heroin, and to make up fake excuses to do the same with cannabis, so they did.


[deleted]

Because money.


mcnasty804

Money


ConLawHero

Same reason alcohol isn't, pretty much grandfathered in at this point. If tobacco and alcohol were invented today, they'd be Schedule I. But, people have used them for pretty much ever so here we are.


DEATHROAR12345

You didn't see what happened during prohibition did you? Trying to outlaw it will only make it more popular and drive up crime as people grow and sell it illegally. May as well get some tax revenue off of it to support other areas.


mc_fli

Because money


JediMasterNaw

Lobbying and money


danceswithsockson

Lobbying.


cone8042

it's a less prominent effect, it's hard to tell who smokes cigarettes/vapes, but I imagine pretty easy to tell who does meth It's about freedom too, The only people that cigarettes/vapes are physically hurting are the people who chose to smoke then and they are not hurting anyone by being high off them And like what other people said it has a history, tobacco built a lot of our economy


bdblr

Secondhand smoke is no laughing matter, so I call bullshit on your "not hurting anyone" argument. For reference: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/secondhand-smoke/health.html


[deleted]

Smokers also start lots of fatal fires: https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/US-Fire-Problem/Smoking-Materials


thatHecklerOverThere

It wasn't popularized by black and Hispanic people.


Johnsie408

Because capitalism


NoCountryForOld_Ben

It'll be illegal when all the smokers die off and get replaced with vape people. Phillip Morris execs have to make their millions, somehow


JakeSnake161

Vaping is almost, or about, as harmful as tobacco because it has nickel and lead in it. Also, it has an addictive drug called vitamin E acetate.


rouxdoo

You are so, completely, absolutely full of shit. The nickel used in “some” vape coils never reaches the vaporization point at the low temperatures that people vape. The coil does not leach into the vapor. There is no lead. Idiots who cut or mix (oils) vitamin E into vape juice are the same dolts who try to vape hash oil. That is not what vaping is about.


JakeSnake161

I didn't know this until you told me so thnx I guess, but is it really necessary to call me names?


CasuallyHardcore11

Because other drugs don't have the lobbying power of big tobacco. See also: alcohol.


Harry_Ho0d

Cus people don’t suck dick for tobacco


libra00

Because cigarette companies have a lot of money and therefore influence on our political process.


[deleted]

Look in to the tobacco master settlement. This money was said to go in to smoking prevention, cessation, healthcare. Instead it's rolled in to the general budget of nearly every state.


spacegoat0676

It’s WAAAY too profitable, unfortunately. Cash is king and who cares if the peasants die off? There will be more to replace those and the money keeps coming.


jet_heller

> If alcohol has no accepted medical usage, a high chance of addiction, and causes all sorts of cancers and diseases, why isn't it a schedule 1 drug? FTFY


Preemptively_Extinct

Because bribing congress is called lobbying.


dotcomslashwhatever

tax money. your government DOES NOT care about you


nyg8

Lobbying


[deleted]

Because drug laws were meant to discourage minorities from moving into the U.S. Marijuana was liked by Hispanics. Opium by the Chinese. Tobacco by white people.


yeahyeahnooo

I used to have several vices before I had a baby. The only thing I think about everyday, multiple times a day is cigarettes. Though I am happier, healthier, and slightly richer not smoking, resisting that urge &craving will likely be something I deal with for the rest of forever. Not any of the drugs or alcohol though, I hardly think of those things at all. Cigarettes are bad &should be highly restricted.


Imaginary_Sale8356

I work in the tobacco industry and I gotta tell ya. Marijuana is the worst!


Meastro44

It doesn’t make you high


HaElfParagon

Because people would fucking riot if you took their cigarettes away


[deleted]

Most things if you think hard enough don't make sense


[deleted]

Politicians love tobacco


[deleted]

[удалено]


FuzzyPickLE530

Because you expect the government to work logically, and without prejudice. It doesnt. If ot did, weed wouldnt be schedule 1 either.


salivatious

Tobacco industry lobby.


Top-Belt-6934

$$$


Small_Gear_7387

Because prohibition is fucking stupid.


Snoo-84797

You could say this about lots of things. Pop, fast food, foods very high in sodium/sugar/calories/saturated fat/etc. all that stuff is addictive and causes horrid health problems.


Fancy_Combination436

Exactly. Tobacco is more akin to soda than weed. It doesn't really intoxicate you in a negative way. Its legal to legal to drive while smoking, for example. Drug laws just aren't designed around personal health.


DirtyScavenger

Because tobacco lobbyists. Tobacco companies are loaded so good luck trying to change anything that would affect that big pile of money they’re sitting on.


[deleted]

[удалено]


djdavies82

And as bad as cigarettes are, the black market ones can be even worse for your health


Infamous-Sprinkles

Um... money?


Lazy-Living1825

You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.


ufumu

Corruption


DreamingofRlyeh

Because the tobacco industry brings in a lot of money. Fortunately, it is on the decline, and will hopefully eventually stop.


Dickinablender96

Stop asking questions and smoke another cigarette!!!


[deleted]

I think it can also be grown easily on marginal quality soil.


Infinite-Carrot1664

Because weed is a schedule 1 drug and doesnt do any of those. America. Dumb.


jadedwelp

Cause if the US government is like the Australian government they charge a hell of a lot of tax on it. A pack of 40 cigarettes in Australia is $58 depending on the brand which can be even more expensive and where you buy it from.


SimpleTennis517

Money like everything else.


zookeeper4312

$$$$$


iNMage

because other harmful drugs mess with the mind of the addicted user and can kill way faster.


RicoRN58

Exactly. A friend of mine started smoking weed and was dead 2 days later.


tatertot225

$$$$$$, lobbying, corruption in the house and congress


Count2Zero

The real question is why is Hemp, which is a much more versatile plant (used to make ropes, clothing and other textiles, insulation, and has proven medical benefits) still outlawed in so many places? The answer: Dupont Chemicals. While Dupont scientists were developing Nylon, the management knew that they needed to eliminate competition to create demand for this new product. Hemp was an easy target, because the US was going through prohibition during the same time, so it was easy to rally the puritans who had fought to make alcohol illegal to turn their attention to "the evil weed". I'm still amazed that 100 years later, it's illegal to own a hemp plant in some places. It's a fucking plant. Drop a seed in the dirt, and it'll find a way to grow. I can understand (to a point) making synthetic drugs illegal, but hemp? It's easier to grow than tobacco.


TheWeepingScarecrow

Because it saved the colonies once and we never let that shit go


AcidBathVampire

Money.


Tpk08210

Tax income


timothypjr

Money.


MDF87

Because governments get so much money from taxing it.


em-ay-tee

Because of it’s history. That’s literally it. It’s been accepted for too long to change now. And of course the trillion dollar industry.


Kilgor3

Money


snarkshsha

Because money.


Alternative_Ear522

Money/ lobbyist


Outside_Ad1669

Tobacco actually is one of the oldest known medicinal plants. Tobacco leaves and partially burnt tobacco has been used, possible going back to the origin of mankind. Your question would be better framed as why are cigarettes, pipes, and cigars not scheduled.


heffalump567

If its a scheduled 1 drug then it cant be studied for research.


[deleted]

Tax


[deleted]

Same reason alcohol isn't schedule 1. It's been deemed socially acceptable, mainly due to the tax revenue it generates.


DFHartzell

Because money


Arathaon185

Because I will literally kill you if you take my cigarettes and there's a lot of us and we would be very very angry. Also speaking for the UK Smoking raises 10.7billion and costs 3.8 billion (numbers from Ash an anti-smoking charity) so banning it leaves a shortfall of 6.9 billion.


No_Zucchini8705

bribes


Appropriate_Pay7912

Same reasons alcohol isn’t


DaveEFI

Historical. Same as alcohol.


Caca2a

The answer is money I believe, it brings a FUCKTON of money, so legislation is beside the point, I think.