Corporations, as they are currently structured, are pretty amoral constructs. First of all, they remove liability from the people themselves to the corporation. Remove liability and you also remove moral accountability.

There is still an accountability for the board of directors, but it is not to God, the government, or society at large; it is to its shareholders. For real. The responsibility of the board, for which boards are held liable, is to make the decisions that will make their shareholders the most dollars–end of story.

Profit-driven amoral decisionmaking in the hands of men and women in command of billions of dollars’ worth of the marketing machine…think on that long enough and it’ll make your blood run cold.

another thing i find quite funny is how phillip morris has like a whole site dedicated to help people quit and shows those commercials and stuff. yet every day they continue to sell drugs..
is it just me or is that a little absurd?

In other words, yes, cigarettes are much more dangerous than many foods and drugs that the FDA regulates, but a powerful tobacco lobby has successfully convinced Congress to limit regulations on cigarettes and tobacco products. It is truly all about the money in the case of tobacco.

Wait… that doesn’t help any. :)

Spinach gets pulled off the market immediately when it kills one person. I don’t think Green Peppers would stay on the shelves long at the local grocery store. There’s just not a strong enough Green Pepper lobby.

If every smoker just carried a ziploc baggie in their opcket, there’d be no trouble—from the butts, but, of course as Parker pointed out there’s still second-hand smoke to contend with.

Here in Washington, they’ve dealt with the smoke-blowing-in-the-door problem with the new 25 foot law that was passed last year.

It would be best if everyone woudl just quit. If the industry driving it would just quit. With so many dollars ont he line, I just don’t see a way to make that happen.

I’d suggest smokers carry around some sort of container that they can put their butts into to dispose of later. It’s similar to when you take your dog for a walk, and he takes a dump on your neighbor’s lawn. The proper thing to do is clean up after yourself (and your dog), so it’s best to bring a bag with you. Smokers should carry something with them to dispose of their trash when there isn’t an ash tray/can available to them. It’s only proper, people!

— And now, a brief word from one of our sponsors —

I used to smoke (*gasp*–uh, I didn’t grow up in the church, and I did kinda go inactive for three years…), and the littering thing always tweaked me. I was more of a scrub it on the ground until I’m really sure it’s out and then place it in a trash can.

Many smokers don’t do that because the butts make a huge amount of smell when they do that–especially if the trash can is indoors or inside any type of enclosure. So, for those amokers who bother to think about it, it is kind of a lesser of two evils choice.

Really, though, for most of them it’s just cultural norm. You’re done; you flick your butt; end of story.

Ok, time to be productive. What would you suggest as an alternate behavior for smokers when there are not ash tray cans around?

(Of course there’s always getting everyone to quit smoking, but, in the meantime…)

I have long held that smoking is an act of almost sociopathic irresponsibility. It goes beyond ‘bad habit’ and into ‘character flaw’.

But then I suppose my lack of charity on this matter may be because I’ve never been addicted to nicotine.