Cigarettes are Banned!

Welcome to the Precious Metals Bug Forums

Welcome to the PMBug forums - a watering hole for folks interested in gold, silver, precious metals, sound money, investing, market and economic news, central bank monetary policies, politics and more.

Why not register an account and join the discussions? When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no Google ads, market data/charts, access to trade/barter with the community and much more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Maldives permanently bans smoking for anyone born after 2006​

The Maldives has become the first country in the world to ban tobacco use for an entire generation, after a new law took effect Saturday.

Under the rule, anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2007, is permanently banned from buying, using or being sold cigarettes or any other tobacco products in the country, the Maldives Health Ministry announced.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...-born-after-2006/ar-AA1PSP3e?ocid=socialshare
 
That addiction cost me a hell of a lot of money and maybe my health...
Unknown, is the value of relaxation that a nicotine hit gives you when you're in the middle of stress you can't fight.

Smoking, the habit, didn't come out of nowhere. It wasn't that Big Tobacco just arose like a monster and forced cigarettes on people. Native peoples (who didn't have much free-floating stress) used it ceremonially. European explorers and traders found it soothing; brought it back; and - again because it soothed, it caught on quickly.

Big Tobacco came out of smaller tobaccanists' businesses. THEY came about because people WANTED tobacco.

Harmful for health? Absolutely. When you're pulling double-shift at a 9-1-1 call center and you're just rubbed raw, a smoke break is (used to be) a welcome chance to decompress.

I don't smoke; but I chewed nicotine gum when working insane shifts on the ray-rode.
 
European explorers and traders found it soothing; brought it back; and - again because it soothed, it caught on quickly.
To be fair though, that's how addictive substances work.

Afterall, people don't start using and become addicted due to it making them feel worse than they already did.
 
Speaking of, are crews allowed to smoke on the train?
Officially, no.

In fact, it's just-about universal. For the same reasons - with 12-14 hour shifts (you work the job, terminal to terminal - not the timeclock) you are GONNA be tired. And fatigue can be a killer. Just about every train accident (discounting gay teen lovers on the cellphone) involving human error, can be traced back to fatigue.

Not officially, of course.

Conrail's middle-management came off the crafts; they knew what was up. Philadelphia would issue an insane order, like Smoking-Is-Forbidden, and they'd smirk and nod. And ignore it.

CSX's management came out of the Business-Management track of state schools. They had NO CLUE. So once they took over, smokers had to be careful not to let anyone in a terminal see them huffing on a stick.

It could be a problem when you had a "Check Ride" (six-month qualification review) with the Road Foreman. Some were cool. Some came off other Seaboard or Chessie properties, and HATED us Ex-Cons (former Conrail) with a demonic passion.

We made them look bad - they were farked up; we were the smallest Eastern Class 1 Road, but the most profitable. That's why CSX and Norfolk Southern had to double-team to buy us up and destroy us.
 

Bay Area town enacts total and complete tobacco ban​

The Tiburon town council made history on Wednesday when it passed the strictest and most comprehensive tobacco and nicotine sales ban in the country. The ordinance passed unanimously, with Vice Mayor Jon Welner absent, enacting a complete ban on all tobacco and nicotine products in the southern Marin County town — including cigarettes, cigars, vapes and other e-smoking devices — as well as deliveries of any tobacco goods.

More:

 
Some AH was smoking while I was.pumping gas today. Now I know why it was $2.32 a gallon.
 
Last edited:
Remember the 100's of billions the states sued the tobacco companies for? States all got paid and then took away our right to sue tobacco companies. WTF? Any smokers here ever get a cut of that cash?
I still smoke and have to pay insane taxes for that privilege. The billions the states got certainly didn't slow down their taxation of them.
 
Remember the 100's of billions the states sued the tobacco companies for? States all got paid and then took away our right to sue tobacco companies. WTF? Any smokers here ever get a cut of that cash?
I still smoke and have to pay insane taxes for that privilege. The billions the states got certainly didn't slow down their taxation of them.
Do you smoke cigarettes?
 
When I was a teen, one of my friend's dad (who smoked and had been in the military) told me once that virtually everyone (at least the enlisted ) smoked, because when it was smoke break, those that didn't smoke didn't get a break.

So everyone who didn't smoke prior to, started.
 
Had a girlfriend who smoked. That was pretty nasty. I just never had the urge. However, I do enjoy an occasional cigar. I like the large ring gauge Nubs with maduro wrappers.
 
Ex smoker here, I had a smoker sit near me at the doctor's office, she stank. I talked with a nurse there and she told me what funny was the number of people who said they didn't smoke while reeking of it. I never realized how bad I'd must of smelled.
 
Last edited:
When I was a teen, one of my friend's dad (who smoked and had been in the military) told me once that virtually everyone (at least the enlisted ) smoked, because when it was smoke break, those that didn't smoke didn't get a break.

So everyone who didn't smoke prior to, started.
Was still that way, as of 35-40 years ago.

First thing a new recruit arriving, learned, was to take up smoking. Because that meant long breaks and other accommodation.
 
Here, in the proletariat of Washington, as of January 1, 2026, imposes a 95% tax on the sales price of most tobacco and nicotine products, including cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, e-cigarettes, and nicotine pouches. So now yer $3.50 a pack ciggys cost you seven bucks.
No need to ban cigarettes - heh.
 
Here, in the proletariat of Washington, as of January 1, 2026, imposes a 95% tax on the sales price of most tobacco and nicotine products, including cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, e-cigarettes, and nicotine pouches. So now yer $3.50 a pack ciggys cost you seven bucks.
No need to ban cigarettes - heh.
Don't you have Injun Reservations, in your People's Republic?

Don't the injuns have a franchise, to sell tobaccy tax-free?

I know they have in many other states.
 
Here, in the proletariat of Washington, as of January 1, 2026, imposes a 95% tax on the sales price of most tobacco and nicotine products, including cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, e-cigarettes, and nicotine pouches. So now yer $3.50 a pack ciggys cost you seven bucks.
No need to ban cigarettes - heh.
Cigarette prices in New York are the highest in the U.S., averaging around $14.55 per pack across the state. In New York City, prices are even higher, with standard packs often costing $18 or more due to combined state, city, and federal excise taxes, which total over $6.85 per pack.
If I ever fly back to New York I'll look into bringing some cartons.
 

Workers rally for smoke free casinos in Atlantic City on Wednesday​

Workers in Atlantic City are fired up for their ongoing push to eliminate second-hand smoke from the Jersey Shore town’s casinos.

They are so fired up they held a rally on Wednesday, April 15, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of New Jersey’s Smoke Free Air Act. The bill banned smoking inside workplaces, as well as most indoor public areas. But the bill had a carve out for Atlantic City casinos, which still allow smoking indoors in designated areas.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...ity-on-wednesday/ar-AA20YAJC?ocid=socialshare
 

Workers rally for smoke free casinos in Atlantic City on Wednesday​

Workers in Atlantic City are fired up for their ongoing push to eliminate second-hand smoke from the Jersey Shore town’s casinos.

They are so fired up they held a rally on Wednesday, April 15, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of New Jersey’s Smoke Free Air Act. The bill banned smoking inside workplaces, as well as most indoor public areas. But the bill had a carve out for Atlantic City casinos, which still allow smoking indoors in designated areas.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...ity-on-wednesday/ar-AA20YAJC?ocid=socialshare
One MOAR way to reduce paying attendance.

The gaming industry right now is on the rocks - Lost Vegas especially, and it's because corporate ownership of virtually all casino properties, with the Financialists running those corporations, has created a negative, dollar-squeezing experience for customers.

I KNOW. I was a Las Vegas regular, 1990-1997. In the Navy in San Diego, and then working for a rail contractor in the Mojave, with weekends off, and just a company hovel for a homebase...I'd drive 75 miles into Sin City, take a luxurious hi-rise hotel room...arriving at midnight Friday, going to the Golden Nugget for their Midnight Steak-and-Eggs Buffet ($4.95, all-you-can-eat) and then to a casino bar with video-blackjack terminals in the bar counter. I'd drink and play, and look at the lost lambs parading by. (No, not the pros; there was always some sort of convention or beauty pageant going on...teachers, or the adult daughters of Shriners, or presentation models at product launches...)

I'd spend about $75 on the games. That was my limit. What I won I'd add to my limit. My price on the floor show was about $100. CHEAP entertainment, something akin to social interaction...and in the morning, I could get up, get my coffee (I'd be egged out from the night before) and walk the Strip or downtown, watching the morning sun rise. The desert is beautiful, when you have food and water right at hand.

THAT experience has been completely erased. $75 buffets. Rooms are still $35; but now they come with $100/night "Resort Fees" and $40 parking costs. The free, open experience of Vegas, walking down the street with your last drink in a plastic cup...that's gone. With DemocRat takeover of local politics, comes a compleat curtailment of personal freedom. The IQ-75 types from Las Angeles or Chicago can't behave themselves with a beer in hand (or with a firearm on their hip) so those are not allowed. Cheap food, cheap lodging, a happy experience...all taken away, and in its place, $23.99 bottles of Evian to drink.

And no, no canteen.

So now the Atlantic City casinos, already a modeled failed experiment in duplicating Old Vegas...are gonna ban smoking.

Good luck...and FU.
 
Remember the 100's of billions the states sued the tobacco companies for? States all got paid and then took away our right to sue tobacco companies. WTF? Any smokers here ever get a cut of that cash?
I still smoke and have to pay insane taxes for that privilege. The billions the states got certainly didn't slow down their taxation of them.

I started smoking in the late '60's. Non filter Pall Mall forced to switch to Camel non filter because Pall Mall basically became unavailable in my area. In the early '60's I used to buy Lucky Strike for the old man. 28 cents and they gave you 2 pennies on the back of the pack. Cost went from well under a dollar a pack when I started. Even as recently as the mid aughts you could take a ride down to Delaware and buy a carton for less than 30 bucks. In my low tax state of NC Camels now cost over 13 bucks a pack. Cut back severely the last few years got an XRay last year lungs still clean. The govt will kill me before smokes do the deed.
 
A jingle from the 60's: Winston tastes bad, like the one I just had, no filter, no taste, just a 30 cent waste!
That's 30 cents a pack of 20.
 
I started smoking in the late '60's. Non filter Pall Mall forced to switch to Camel non filter because Pall Mall basically became unavailable in my area. In the early '60's I used to buy Lucky Strike for the old man. 28 cents and they gave you 2 pennies on the back of the pack. Cost went from well under a dollar a pack when I started. Even as recently as the mid aughts you could take a ride down to Delaware and buy a carton for less than 30 bucks. In my low tax state of NC Camels now cost over 13 bucks a pack. Cut back severely the last few years got an XRay last year lungs still clean. The govt will kill me before smokes do the deed.

The last time I was in Mx I was coming back and grabbed a couple cartons of the American spirit I smoke. 30 bucks a carton at the duty free. That was 2017 or 18. At home they were 90 or so at the time. Now 125.

I like watching interviews with Marc faber. He's still one that smokes when interviewed. He's trying to make smoking great again.
I remember when you could smoke in elelvators, in airplanes and at the movies.
You still can but the fines are outrageous. I remember flying to Honk Kong, like 15 hrs. After about 5 hrs I was contemplating paying the 5k fine and just hanging out in the bathroom with the smoke detector disabled the rest of the flight. LOL.

I do remember smoking on planes too. Imagine being one of the people who paid to be in the non smoking section? LMAO..

Now you cant even bring a lighter on the plane with you.
 
The Untied Kingdom is dead.

It'll take a century for things to reverse...so I'll never get there. Didn't have a chance, when things were good (1960s and again 1980s). Now I don't need to go to Londonistan to see Ollie Snackbar crapping in the gutter. That's available for me in Seattle, just a two-hour drive.
 
Come on down, casey, got a place ya can park yer trailer.
BF
The ever-present stench of stale urine, would just get my sinuses riled.

Seriously. Was just talking with a pawnbroker - I'm selling crap, reduce my storage-space need. He was a Seattle native, but has been here 30 years. Took his grade-school-aged boy with him to visit his folks, and when on Pioneer Square, the boy said, "Why does everything smell like piss?"

That's the perfume of the Third World, and now Seattle has that progressive atmosphere, too.
 
Imagine being 18 and told no smoking or drinking for you but here's your draft notice. Here's a gun. Now go kill some people that never did nuthin to you. Why? Because we said they are evil.
 
Worse, we'll chop your dick off if you feel it interferes with your "identity"
You sum it up right there. It's all one giant head game run on the kids in the goobermint skeulz.

We can't seem to rationalize smoking and alcohol - never MIND that people have smoked for ten centuries, and it contributed more to societies than it took. Yeah, we know more. Well, allow PARENTS to exercise their prerogative - and if a stupid parent wants to let his kid smoke, it's not our concern.

Shouldn't be. Because it shouldn't be part of "public health" to pay for anyone's cancer surgery. That's for individuals, insurance plans, and private charities.

Alcohol. Yeah, there's a lot of Joo hate around here - right now, much of it is deserved. But, do you know, the rates of abusive drinking is very low in Joo families and communities? Yeah...for all they're into, they don't get sloppy drunk themselves.

Yet they drink. Regularly. INCLUDING THE CHILDREN - wine is a regular table beverage at holiday dinners, and the children also have it.

Kids in that world learn, drinking alcohol is not an "adult" thing but a FAMILY thing. And while drinking alcohol is a social thing, drinking alcohol to excess is shameful. Not unlike the difference between going to the bathroom, and defecating your pants.

Their kids learn it. Surely our kids could, too...and they could be taught that someone who gets plastered, is a fool to be laughed at. And someone who does it and drives, is someone to be publicly humiliated and punished.

As for fighting wars...keep the troops all-volunteer. When volunteer rates fall, when re-enlist rates crash...in marketing, that's known as a "signal." That's telling the Pentagon fruit-salad types, that they're losing the support of the patriots actually standing a post, committing to enlistment; and they'd better re-appraise what they're doing, or communicate it better.
 
I don't smoke or get drunk, but I did sheet.my.pants once.
 
Back
Top Bottom