For some reason people these days think that it's pretty much okay to drink a lot of alcohol which is very expensive and very unhealthy, but if someone smokes here and there it's "crazy", "stupid" and "very expensive".
Nicotine itself has plenty of beneficial effects: http://www.gwern.net/Nicotine
Even if tobacco was perfectly healthy, it has other issues. It ruins your sense of taste, making foods bland. Many people dislike the smell. And smoking just one cigarette a day requires near-superhuman willpower. It would likely become an expensive habit.
Are you serious or did I miss a <satire> tag ?
Buying cigarettes means giving money to tobacco companies. I firmly believe these are an example of corporations bein evil - which I understand is a controversial opinion on HN.
The tactics (spread fear and misunderstanding; discredit your oponents) have been taken up by other campaign groups (eg, anti climate change groups) often using the same scientists for hire.
"Vaping" avoids most of the social stigma of smoking and if you buy carefully you avoid giving money to tobacco companies.
There were lots of PSAs in that era about the dangers of smoking, so I think it was also partly a rebellion on my part, against "those stupid adults."
I've been very up front and unrelenting with my kid about smoking and other hazards. I think I've been successful so far. It helps that not that many kids smoke, so I think there's less peer pressure.
I think it'll take another generation or two before it's all but unseen.
I too am amazed that anyone takes up smoking. I see younger coworkers in their twenties out taking a smoke break, and I can't believe how such smart and gifted people can be so idiotic.
Not that I have it all together, I just don't smoke. Lots of other things I could improve on.
Maybe if we could better predict mortality rates due to smoking, and convey this in ads, people would realize how bad it is. Until they are faced with their mortality in a more brutal way, they will not change attitudes towards smoking. Changing bad habits is very hard. See how difficult it is for obese people to lose significant weight, and not relapse into obesity.
I think if we could accurately tell people about the effects of smoking at dofferent levels that might make a difference.
Smoking is apparently one of the leading cause of erectile dysfunction. Perhaps it's a sneaky trick to ise that, but if true it could help persuade some men to avoid smoking.
It reminds me of a Soviet political poster I saw about alcohol. It had the male symbol but the arrow was drooping. Funny and quick.
male ♂
Some people just seem to be wired differently and even a small exposure is all it takes. I think other addictions to [illegal] drugs are the same - smoking has a little less stigma since it is legal (but's it's certainly not socially acceptable like it used to be 'in the old-en days' when I was younger).
Got to love it when my friend goes on about how unsafe my motorcycling is while she is taking a drag.
My favorite bit about smoking, people will go into the gas station and buy a pack of smokes and a lottery ticket ignoring the near certain outcomes.
When I was in my teens, I went with some friends out and about and they all smoked. They told me I had to take small breaths to get used to inhaling the smoke. I tried it and felt the overwhelming fogginess it brought to my lungs. I was an athlete and immediately sensed how it was clogging things up. My lungs were trying to tell me something!
That was many decades ago and I have not picked up a cigarette since and never will.
I had a girlfriend who smoked. When we broke up, she said that the one thing she was grateful to me for was getting her to quit smoking. She said, "Everything smells better and tastes better and I don't run out of breath all the time."
I was great in bed, too.
To learn that cigarettes are sold in pharmacies in the USA is frankly incredible.
I was really surprised when I last visited the US to find a pharmacy with a deli counter, electronics aisles and a fridge full of frosty beers. It really was just a slick, well-stocked convenience store.
Both of those are similar to I guess Walgreens and CVS, from my limited experience of California.
But, in some places in the US, CVS the store is more like a general store or even a corner grocery. Some CVS stores do not sell prescription drugs at all.
Does it have anything to do with the fact that CVS-Caremark is one of the largest PBMs in the US (second only to ExpressScripts, actually)?
There's more at play here than just a moral action.
Executives are beholden to the board who is beholden to the shareholders. If the shareholders don't want this, they can force change at any level.
Whatever made you think that was the case?
1) They look better
2) They get extra shelf space back
3) They don't have to secure all those high-dollar cigarettes or worry about their theft
4) As smoking declines, they'll probably eventually have to do this anyway, so why not get some positive spin out of it?
I'm willing to guess they've run the number and know this isn't going to be a huge hit to their business.
There is a large shortage of primary care physicians in the US that is only expected to get worse (which continues to result in the utilization of physician assistants and nurse practitioners for primary care). Furthermore, slipping cigarette sales in recent years (and renewed campaigns to curb smoking in the US) make this look like a long-term tactical bet by CVS.
edit: just found this:
>CVS does not sell electronic cigarettes, the highly popular but debated devices that deliver nicotine without tobacco and emit a rapidly vanishing vapor instead of smoke. It said it was waiting for guidance on the devices from the Food and Drug Administration, which has expressed interest in regulating e-cigarettes.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/business/cvs-plans-to-end-...