Michelle I don't think bigger warnings on the packages are going to stop anyone from smoking. Smokers already know the danger. Kids that smoke already know the danger. Most young adults that smoke grew up with a family member that smoked. I think it is our communities job to make our environment that we life in better. That would be doing away with smoking in any public place. Not sure how it is here in this area. But in Kenosha you can't smoke in any restaurant.

The same does with drinking. Should we create bigger warning labels on beer or alchol bottles?

Jessica

They "know" the danger but do they really know the danger? I don't know. There's something different about reading a blurb that says "may cause cancer" and looking at a photo of a diseased lung. There's that shock value there. Then again, kids these days see so much graphic stuff everywhere they look that maybe even that isn't shocking enough.

Michelle

Most civilized places in the US are smoke free in restaurants and most bars. Why we're not is up to the Tavern League bullying. Non-smokers have just as much right to these public spaces as smokers do, and when the smokers' habit infringes on the health of the non-smokers also entitled to use of a public space, they should be happily stepping outside to puff away. Bars and restaurants are places where the public gathers - their property is not technically so private as to constitute private property like a house is. Smokers, being in the public minority, should be courteous and smoke outside. Its not like a racial or religious minority - being of one race isn't hazardous to anyone's health, neither is being a certain religion. But being a smoker is. go ahead and be free to smoke, I have no problem with that, but keep it outside.
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I agree that people all know the risks by now. no need for larger labels, just more taxes, less access, and a ban on indoor public spaces and outdoors where food is served.

and if I see one more $#%&ing driver flick butts out their window, I've had it. Use your ashtry, you selfish, lazy slob. >:-o

Oh, that drives me nuts, too. I see so many tossing butts out their windows or just dropping them in the street as they walk. Or the ones that actually use their ashtrays and then dump the whole lot out in the parking lot. Ugh. The world is not your ashtray!

I feel sorry for the smokers that do care about the environment and the comfort of nearby non smokers. I'm sure not every smoker out there is a unfeeling jerk. But they are in unfortunate company with so many that just don't care.

Michelle

I don't think the graphics would do any good. As a former smoker I have to say I've not always realized how much smoking stinks!!! I hate driving by a car in the summer with the windows down and smelling the smoke from the car next to me, but unlike other people I know, I know it's their right to smoke in their own vehicle and I'm not calling them names for doing so. What I do mind is when people are just plane mean. One time an older guy just dumped his ashtray right in front of my son (then 4) out of his car at the mall and the ashes went right into his face. Then when I said something he yelled at me and it wasn't anything nice he said too. I wished him the worst......lol. Anyway, I would love having the bars smoke free... that would be cool!!!

Oh how awful! I'm usually pretty non confrontational but I think I would be yelling, too. Nasty.

Michelle