This was my reaction also even though tobacco sucks. The article says that the FDA isn't banning possession, just buying or selling I guess. Eric Garner was already killed in 2014 for selling cheap cigarettes while black.
I honestly don't know what to make of this. Prohibition bad, but also cigarettes bad. A socialist society would probably not devote any labor power to producing poison sticks. But we don't live in a socialist society, of course. It does look like yet another excuse to target black people, but the last few years have shown us that the cops don't need an excuse and can execute almost anyone and then just invent a rationale for it that the media will swallow. 30% of the USA will defend the cops regardless of what they do, and 99% of the people in power will basically twiddle their fingers in response to any crime the police commit. So it's basically a really bad situation here all around, as usual.
I don't think tobacco products are inherently bad. I think the largest share of the problem is the wild lengths cigarette companies have gone to throughout history to get millions upon millions addicted to them. They manufactured them to be as addictive as possible and proceeded to market them with amazing efficiency.
I think the way we square that contradiction of prohibition being bad but cigarettes also being bad is by targeting the cigarette companies directly. Force them to pay restitutions to people and families affected negatively by cigarettes. Seize their companies and sell off their assets, use that money to fund programs for people looking to quit smoking. But please don't go out arresting small time dealers and manufacturers who are probably just trying to pay rent. And for the love of god please don't go out arresting the people buying from said dealers. Trying to enforce prohibition at that level is just a blank check for more police violence. You say they don't need an excuse, and I think that's mostly correct, but I'd rather not give them any pretense at all. Force the police to show their ass to the whole world by not giving them any legal justifications whatsoever.
I believe a socialist society could totally devote some small amount of labor towards producing tobacco products at more reasonable scales. Cuba is widely known for cigars, after all. If a community wanted to set up their own tobacco farm for their own enjoyment, I don't see why we should stop them. It would be almost like a community wide hobby. At a certain point we need to recognize people's bodily autonomy. Large cigarette companies bypassed that autonomy through the magic of marketing. Smaller, community run operations could act much more ethically through their accountability to the community they exist within.
I think such small operations should be encouraged even, so that cigarettes are not totally relegated to black markets where there is zero regulation at all. Black market cigarettes are something we really want to avoid taking off. If you think cigarettes are deadly now, just wait until they are produced illegally with absolutely zero oversight. See the ubiquity of Fentanyl laced Heroin as an analogous example in the opioid epidemic. Prohibition leads to extremely dangerous products.
The biggest problem was allowing for the existence of large, profit motivated companies that depend on mass cigarette addiction for business. If they never existed, cigarette addiction would never have become such a massive problem in the first place.
Thanks for understanding! I'm not a smoker, but the opioid epidemic is something that has impacted my life so severely that I end up getting extremely passionate when the topic of prohibition comes up at all lol
This was my reaction also even though tobacco sucks. The article says that the FDA isn't banning possession, just buying or selling I guess. Eric Garner was already killed in 2014 for selling cheap cigarettes while black.
I honestly don't know what to make of this. Prohibition bad, but also cigarettes bad. A socialist society would probably not devote any labor power to producing poison sticks. But we don't live in a socialist society, of course. It does look like yet another excuse to target black people, but the last few years have shown us that the cops don't need an excuse and can execute almost anyone and then just invent a rationale for it that the media will swallow. 30% of the USA will defend the cops regardless of what they do, and 99% of the people in power will basically twiddle their fingers in response to any crime the police commit. So it's basically a really bad situation here all around, as usual.
I don't think tobacco products are inherently bad. I think the largest share of the problem is the wild lengths cigarette companies have gone to throughout history to get millions upon millions addicted to them. They manufactured them to be as addictive as possible and proceeded to market them with amazing efficiency.
I think the way we square that contradiction of prohibition being bad but cigarettes also being bad is by targeting the cigarette companies directly. Force them to pay restitutions to people and families affected negatively by cigarettes. Seize their companies and sell off their assets, use that money to fund programs for people looking to quit smoking. But please don't go out arresting small time dealers and manufacturers who are probably just trying to pay rent. And for the love of god please don't go out arresting the people buying from said dealers. Trying to enforce prohibition at that level is just a blank check for more police violence. You say they don't need an excuse, and I think that's mostly correct, but I'd rather not give them any pretense at all. Force the police to show their ass to the whole world by not giving them any legal justifications whatsoever.
I believe a socialist society could totally devote some small amount of labor towards producing tobacco products at more reasonable scales. Cuba is widely known for cigars, after all. If a community wanted to set up their own tobacco farm for their own enjoyment, I don't see why we should stop them. It would be almost like a community wide hobby. At a certain point we need to recognize people's bodily autonomy. Large cigarette companies bypassed that autonomy through the magic of marketing. Smaller, community run operations could act much more ethically through their accountability to the community they exist within.
I think such small operations should be encouraged even, so that cigarettes are not totally relegated to black markets where there is zero regulation at all. Black market cigarettes are something we really want to avoid taking off. If you think cigarettes are deadly now, just wait until they are produced illegally with absolutely zero oversight. See the ubiquity of Fentanyl laced Heroin as an analogous example in the opioid epidemic. Prohibition leads to extremely dangerous products.
The biggest problem was allowing for the existence of large, profit motivated companies that depend on mass cigarette addiction for business. If they never existed, cigarette addiction would never have become such a massive problem in the first place.
lol you make a pretty convincing case. Consider my mind changed.
Thanks for understanding! I'm not a smoker, but the opioid epidemic is something that has impacted my life so severely that I end up getting extremely passionate when the topic of prohibition comes up at all lol