tobacco vs alcohol

I am very confused. Can anyone please tell me how it is that our governments both municipal and federal have the any business trying to dictate to us how we should live our lives. The are pushing their way into places they have no business to be in. I know they are driven by lobbyists, putting pressure on them to legislate law to make our society safer from chemicals and other harmful substances, but really if they are going to do this then lets go all the way and not pick and choose which chemicals and substances are most dangerous.

How is it possible that smoking tobacco is more dangerous than drinking alcohol? Ever since the announcement came a few years ago stating that it would be illegal to display tobacco products in stores as a way to deter our kids from smoking I have been had some serious misgivings about this entire process. I know that smoking is harmful to the individual as well as people that are around smokers BUT can the same not be said for alcohol? Tell me does drinking alcohol not kill as many people each year as tobacco smoke?

I would think and I am no expert. But I think there is a piece of this puzzle that has either been completely missed by everyone or just simply ignored. Tobacco smoke does kill both the users as well as others that are exposed to second hand smoke by being around a smoker, but the people that are subjected to that second hand smoke have a choice not be around it. People that are killed as a result of alcohol are most of the time innocent and were not given the chance to choose. This is because they were just driving down the road minding their own business and they are hit by another driver who had spent the evening consuming alcohol at a local bar or night spot.

Tell me who is speaking out for these individuals and their families? Everyone in the business of dispensing liquor wants to sue their employers for not providing a safe working environment by allowing patrons to smoke while enjoying their beer or favorite cocktail.

Think about this…MADD (Mothers against drunk driving) is an organization of individuals that have lost someone close to them as a result of driving drunk. The members of MADD are not family members of the person that was driving drunk, they are the family members of the innocent ones that were either in the wrong place at the wrong time and were hit by the drunk driver, or, they happened to be in the vehicle that was being driven by an individual that was drunk.

         You are probably wondering where I am possibly going with all of this? Well I am going to tell you. If the government can take everything that the Heart and Lung Association tells them about the harmful effects that tabacoo smoke can cause.  and if they can impose rules about how tabbacco must be displayed in stores, and insists that the tabacco companies put disgusting pictures of how tabacco smoking can affect you then the government should also take what MADD says about alcohol  as seriously and start implementing the very same rules to liquor vendors and producers.

         I am not trying to support the tobacco industry, don’t get me wrong, all I am saying is there is too much emphasis being put on the harmful effects of tobacco,  when there is an equally harmful substance around our kids that has the potential to kill as many if not more innocent people. Smoking to my knowledge has not caused family abuse, nor has it caused an outbreak in senseless crimes. There are no rehabilitation centers for smokers, there are no dry out clinics to help smokers kick the habit.

         I think that we would have fewer social issues if alcohol was not as easy to access. Tobacco vendors cannot display the product because parents do not want their children to see the cigarettes on the shelf as it might entice them to start smoking, however it is ok to take your children into the liquor store and expose them to thousands of bottles of booze? I am a parent and personally I do not want my children to smoke or drink alcohol but I am not stupid, I know that the only way to prevent them from doing that is to educate them, talk to them about how dangerous it is. My kids are not going to start smoking just because they see a shiny red package behind the counter at a gas station. I give my kids more credit than that. My kids will start smoking because they see me doing it, or they will be pressured into doing it at a party. It does not matter how much interference the government has, at the end of the day the responsibility falls souley on the parents and educators. The government has absolutely No interest whatsoever in imposing a ban on tobacco products or alcohol  because they know how much destruction that would cause to the economy in this country. Loss of tax money yearly would be in the billions, job losses causing higher unemployment rates. The government may seem like they are doing everything to prevent people from smoking but really do you seriously think they are. This is my point, in some of our Canadian provinces the government still operates the liquor stores. If they went after liquor producers and vendors the same way they have gone after tobacco companies and retailers that sell the product, they know the expense that goes into enforcing that would be their financial responsibility just as it has been for tobacco retailers and producers. This is why you do not see the ugly pictures on every bottle of alcohol showing someone’s head smeared into the windshield of their car, or what your liver looks like after years of alcohol abuse,  or the picture of the woman and children that were just beaten by their husband/father who just came home from a night of drinking.

         You will also not see ugly shower curtains or unappealing other contraptions errected in their stores to cover up the product they are so eagerly trying to sell to make money. You do not see tobacco commercials on television anymore or advertising of tobacco at any sports events anymore but you still see all of these commercials and advertisments on most major sports center walls promoting alcohol.

         How does this work? I just don’t understand, am I the only one that sees this as a problem?
I would like to see the government make a serious decision here. Ai would like MADD to be taken as seriously as Heart and Lung Associating. How can we as a society support one group so heavily and barely listen to another group that is so strongly against their cause and for good reason. I look at it this way, smoking causes cancer yes there is no disputing that, but medical advances have come up with treatments that can cure some cancers, some cancers cannot be cured and we lose loved ones. Most cancers come on slowly, and are usually diagnosed and treated over a period of time. Automobile accidents are usually sudden,  and come with no warning and in a lot cases there is no treatment or cure for the victims, the result is immediate death, there is no chance for family members to say good-bye one last time, there is no time for the victims to settle their affairs, to make arrangements for their childrens care after they are gone. 


         Alcohol, is dangerous, every minute of every day it is changing peoples lives forever, as you read this someone is being affected by alcohol, someone is being beaten by a drunk spouse or parent, someone’s child has just been hit by a drunk driver while walking home from school. There is a mother about to get the worst phone call she will ever get saying her child has died as a result of a drunk driver.

         As a society are we really that oblivious to this growing concern? Do we really need to have studies done and statistics thrown into our faces telling us what we already know and just don’t want to accept? Killing is wrong, it doesn’t matter how it is done. We don’t prosecute murderers based on how they do the act, we base it on whether they are guilty or not, we base it on evidence. Tobacco kills, alcohol kills. We have the evidence so why are we only prosecuting the tobacco industry? Regulate them equally or don’t regulate them at all……