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Green Maned Lion

Green Maned Lion

Der Unverbesserliche.
ECU said:
There are still people who smoke today, knowing the harm.
You voted knowing the harm.
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Given the choices offered me, I went with what I considered to be the lesser of two evils. Ultimately, she would have been a weaker president, letting the system continue on as it had been. That was preferable to me.
 
elemental

elemental

Wherever you go, there you are.
Lagom said:
Everyone I knew realized that cigarettes were bad for you. There has always been a tendency for people to think that they are smarter than people 100 or more years ago, but even the dumbest recognized smokers’ cough as a sign of harm, knew smokers that died of lung cancer, etc.
From Wikipedia:
“By the late 19th century cigarettes were known as coffin nails but the link between lung cancer and smoking was not established until the 20th century. German doctors were the first to make the link, and it led to the first antitobacco movement in Nazi Germany.”

Advertisers influence media, of course, so acknowledging harm was something spread by word of mouth. “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette” was a rationalization that was laughable to most.

Despite obvious harm, smoking had attractions. Just yesterday, I was talking to my daughter about the recent assertion that ~20% of American women use the GLP-1 drugs and she laughed, saying “no doubt! They are the replacement for cigarettes in keeping weight down.”

IMO, the accuracy of “modern perception” is vastly overrated.
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All these things are true (to varying degrees):
  • Red meat isn't good for you
  • Highly-processed food isn't good for you
  • Soda isn't good for you
  • Alcohol isn't good for you
  • Cigarettes are not good for you
  • Vaping is not good for you
  • Methamphetamines are not good for you
  • Fentanyl isn't good for you
  • Heroin isn't good for you
But there is a trade-off to consuming each - risk versus benefit - that keeps all of these going, but with the ones on the bottom of the list much more likely to be abstained from by most than the ones at the top of the list.

There was a big perceptual shift in cigarettes from say, the early 1980s to mid 1990s. For example, smoking was fairly ubiquitous on campus when I started college in 1980; but had been marginalized by the end of the 1980s. I still remember people lighting up in restaurants in the mid 1980s. In the early 1990s I was working at a large high-tech firm in San Diego and cigarette smoke was officially banned in offices but still practiced by some, especially working late at night. By the end of the 1990s anyone caught smoking inside the building was in deep doo-doo. Bars were a big battleground - at first smoking was A-OK because, well, it was a bar... then there was a "smoking area" in the bar, then there was "no smoking" in bars but people still did, then it was gone. Eventually there were lawsuits in condos and apartments because the people next door were smoking in their own home or on their balcony.

Alcohol may be going through its own distancing now; people below a certain age have apparently significantly cut back, much to the chagrin of the purveyors.

I left pot off of the list... it seems to have enjoyed a steady support level even when it was illegal, and now it is legalized in many states. I think of it as being a lot like alcohol in its level of risk/reward, but my wife thinks it is the devil's lettuce (not that she would use that phrase).
 
Green Maned Lion

Green Maned Lion

Der Unverbesserliche.
elemental said:
All these things are true (to varying degrees):
  • Red meat isn't good for you
  • Highly-processed food isn't good for you
  • Soda isn't good for you
  • Alcohol isn't good for you
  • Cigarettes are not good for you
  • Vaping is not good for you
  • Methamphetamines are not good for you
  • Fentanyl isn't good for you
  • Heroin isn't good for you
But there is a trade-off to consuming each - risk versus benefit - that keeps all of these going, but with the ones on the bottom of the list much more likely to be abstained from by most than the ones at the top of the list.

There was a big perceptual shift in cigarettes from say, the early 1980s to mid 1990s. For example, smoking was fairly ubiquitous on campus when I started college in 1980; but had been marginalized by the end of the 1980s. I still remember people lighting up in restaurants in the mid 1980s. In the early 1990s I was working at a large high-tech firm in San Diego and cigarette smoke was officially banned in offices but still practiced by some, especially working late at night. By the end of the 1990s anyone caught smoking inside the building was in deep doo-doo. Bars were a big battleground - at first smoking was A-OK because, well, it was a bar... then there was a "smoking area" in the bar, then there was "no smoking" in bars but people still did, then it was gone. Eventually there were lawsuits in condos and apartments because the people next door were smoking in their own home or on their balcony.

Alcohol may be going through its own distancing now; people below a certain age have apparently significantly cut back, much to the chagrin of the purveyors.

I left pot off of the list... it seems to have enjoyed a steady support level even when it was illegal, and now it is legalized in many states. I think of it as being a lot like alcohol in its level of risk/reward, but my wife thinks it is the devil's lettuce (not that she would use that phrase).
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I think Pot is not treated like what it is, enough, which is a drug. What is the difference between a drug and a medication? Answer: nothing, they are synonyms. They chemically effect your body, and do so in proportion to the dose you take. Nicotine, cigarettes, meth, fentanyl, heroin, alcohol, they are all drugs (as is caffeine, which you didn't mention). They all provide benefits of one kind or another, as well as negative effects. Depending on amounts and circumstances, they all can be medically beneficial (although I would say meth's negatives far outweigh any benefits), but some of them only, really, at the very end of one's life. And they should all be used with understanding and care taken to meter their dosage, as well as avoiding excessive dependence and dosage creep.

Understanding and consideration to circumstances and quantities applies to the other, non-drug items on that list, and avoiding 'dosage' creep and dependence.
 
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