How long till cigarettes are illegal?

[Silent]

I was browsing through a bunch of hospital websites earlier today doing some job hunting near where I'm moving to.  One hospital in particular had a giant banner above all the job posting saying that they do nicotine testing prior to hiring anyone.  I thought it was a joke at first but nope, that's some real shit.

What it amounted to is if you pop hot for nicotine no job for you.  You're then put on a 90 day ban from applying for open positions.  I can't believe this is legal.  I guess it must be but WTF is that?  I can understand them not wanting you to smoke at work, or come to work stinking like a bar, but I can't go home and relax with a cigarette anymore?

This caused me to search around online to find out how long nicotine stays in your system.  For a daily smoker it looks like it can take a week or two of quitting to be in the clear for anyone that wants to know.  I imagine these type of rules will only become more common in the future.  Luckily out of the 20 or 25 hospital websites I looked at this was the only one with nicotine testing.  Or at least it was the only one who bluntly puts that on their website.

Can you imagine going home telling your family that you lost your job because you had a cigarette while out fishing last weekend?

I've been trying to think of other cases like this that exist.  By that I mean things that are legal to do but jobs won't hire you if you do them during your own time.  So far I'm coming up with nothing.

[The General]

Add that to the big push about legalizing marijuana and the 'medical marijuana' goofiness that is going on and you see why we are literally living in upside-down times.  Through the looking glass.  Nicotine has medical uses too, you know.  Medical marijuana is a smokescreen for pot legalization.  And cigarettes are taboo.  Situation FUBAR.

[morphiaflow]

Keep cigarettes legal.
Legalize pot. And prostitution while you're at it.
Tax 'em all.
End of story.

[onan]

What it amounted to is if you pop hot for nicotine no job for you. 

but I can't go home and relax with a cigarette anymore?

Can you imagine going home telling your family that you lost your job because you had a cigarette while out fishing last weekend?

I've been trying to think of other cases like this that exist.  By that I mean things that are legal to do but jobs won't hire you if you do them during your own time.  So far I'm coming up with nothing.

I have had a difficult time wrapping my head around this one too.

First, the reason that has been discussed where I work is purely an economic one. Lower insurance costs. Insurance companies (BCBS to be specific) are using a form of financial punishment to stop people from smoking. And it has to do with improving their bottom line without one thought about personal freedom. But that is that.

It smacks of prohibition to me. And we all know what a success that was. I also find it hypocritical that there is no test for alcohol consumption and medically it does significant damage as well.

I am not a smoker, never have been. I am intolerant to those that smoke. Not by being rude but I never dated anyone that smoked. I don't socialize with smoker. It is just too annoying to me. But I would never suggest punitive actions for some personal choice.

[DoYouThinkItWasAngels]

[JustOneFix]

While it may not seem like it, this isn't anything new. Henry Ford prohibited anyone who smoked to work at his factories or other places he owned. This lasted until the 1940's.

I've heard of a few places here in FL that test for nicotine.

I'm a smoker, and enjoy my Marlboro Reds a great deal. However I've cut back ALOT since the price has been raised so much.

[The General]

While it may not seem like it, this isn't anything new. Henry Ford prohibited anyone who smoked to work at his factories or other places he owned. This lasted until the 1940's.

I've heard of a few places here in FL that test for nicotine.

I'm a smoker, and enjoy my Marlboro Reds a great deal. However I've cut back ALOT since the price has been raised so much.

Yes but if it was ONLY Henry Ford that did that, then it is something new.
Cause Henry Ford was a nut.  Brilliant, mechanically, but a nutball.

[MV/Liberace!]

Keep cigarettes legal.
Legalize pot. And prostitution while you're at it.
Tax 'em all.
End of story.

well said.

[onan]

well said.

[rant]
Although I agree the aforementioned post was well stated. Here is my problem: where does it stop? and along with that when did my employer become my parent?

Sure tax them... but aren't we already bitchin about taxes? Good luck getting any politician to make that one of their talking points.

Back to the "where does it stop?" OK, cigarettes are bad for ya. Even when used as intended... bad for ya.

What about over eating? bad for ya, no one can argue? who defines overeating and who monitors?

Not getting enough sleep because of the interwebs, bad for ya the company suffers when production falls or company product is compromised.

Look smoking is bad for ya (redundant, I know). But I don't like any official telling me or anyone else how to live their life.
[/rant]

[aldousburbank]

Through the looking glass.  Nicotine has medical uses too, you know.  Medical marijuana is a smokescreen for pot legalization.

Agreed, with this addition:  Pot legalization is a smokescreen for, and a gateway drug to, freedom.  I'll grow, smoke, chew, stick up my ass anything I damn well please thank you, and do.  Fuck these people whose sick minds want to pollute or impinge on my personal choices.  I'm a fucking American, get your hands off my brains and dick.  I say grow weed BECAUSE it's illegal and give the bud away.  Freakin paternalistic bastards.  And don't tell me what I need to be eating either, I'll make my own damn choices.  The prohibition of nature is fucking insane, not to mention trying to prohibit consensual acts of whatever.  Screw that.  And the same with Medical MJ dispensaries. (hey, hang on GuildNavigator)  If somebody wants weed cause they're sick, or not, grow that shit man- or have someone grow it for you.  I'm sick of people insisting you need to be sick to chill with herb, maybe I need a freekin prescription- yeh screw that!  It's a scam to keep the prices high and allow the feds and the Mex mafia to play the dang ol' money game on the border here- and I'm not just talking out my ass.  I am intimately familiar with the situation say no more.  AZ is THE smuggling state my friends, and we just passed Med MJ. 

Guess what, you can't grow your own here within 25 miles of a dispensary!  You MUST purchase.  A dispensary applicant needs 250K to even meet the requirements of the dispensary application process, and at least that to proceed toward first harvest.  Who pays for that?  This is a scam!

(Full disclosure- for the past several months I have been being paid as a consultant to a legal firm representing major players in the first wave of dispensary applicants who will be filing within 30 days.  Yesterday I was in a board room/televised conference with some major development funders and it is not a pretty situation my friends- they only smell quick gains.  What am I doing there?  Ok, getting paid- but also, seriously, trying to steer the program away from the fiascos I sense approaching.  There are a few ethical people on the scene and that's who hired me.  I'm doing my best to work within the system here.)

I'm a freaking gardener man.  I don't grow weed.  But this shit makes me want to, along with every other single species some asshole tells me not to grow.  Know what I mean?

Allright I'll shut up.

[DoYouThinkItWasAngels]

I was naïvely shocked when decriminalization failed in California last year, but then it was explained to me that the growers were against it!  Foiled again!

[aldousburbank]

I was naïvely shocked when decriminalization failed in California last year, but then it was explained to me that the growers were against it!  Foiled again!

Precisely!

[The General]

You guys will probably get your wish, as the powers that be realize that a stoned population is a much more easily controlled population. 

Didn't mean to derail your cigarette thread with my pot analogy, sorry bout that.

[aldousburbank]

You guys will probably get your wish, as the powers that be realize that a stoned population is a much more easily controlled population. 

Didn't mean to derail your cigarette thread with my pot analogy, sorry bout that.

General,

The population is as stoned as they're going to get.  Busting people for plants is clearly a controllers game, hello.  Prescriptions, alcohol, medical MJ, whatever, they're all there for people to do whatever they want with it.  I choose to say screw the controllers, bust the criminals.  Ok so, keep cops to criminal matters.  Fuck prohibition, and those that support and profit from it, including weed growers who cry about legalization.  Get a job.

[The General]

Legalizing drugs would mean more people would use them.  For sure.
Just as legalizing prostitution would mean more prostitutes.

I'm actually for some form of decriminalization, but not legalization. 
Different things.

[onan]

Legalizing drugs would mean more people would use them.  For sure.
Just as legalizing prostitution would mean more prostitutes.

I'm actually for some form of decriminalization, but not legalization. 
Different things.

I often hear the argument that legalizing marijuana would somehow increase the number of users. I am not sure where that argument leads. Since the argument is marijuana is also considered a gateway drug (all data suggests the opposite), if it became legal there would be no "gate" to open.

I also usually ask the question: if it were legal, would you use it? Most times the person questioned says no they wouldn't. I am then perplexed to understand how they would not succumb to the legality lure they have just endorsed.

I also am somewhat at a loss to understand the difference in decriminalization and legal.

If there are no penalties for some yet to be defined law that makes it illegal but without penalties than the paper the law is written on is worthless.

To be as honest as I can marijuana is not without some risks. In the last 10 to 15 years there have been medical concerns about marijuana induced psychosis. There is also the concern if ingesting any type of substance into the lungs. But to me that is mostly a personal choice.

I also want to throw my opinion into the mix. Marijuana has been around and used for centuries. Nowhere in the history is there a story about some crazed bunch of cannabis crazies cavorting with anarchy, unless you consider Reefer Madness.

There isn't a culture on earth that does not have and use an intoxicant. The legal ones in this country are much more dangerous and unhealthy than marijuana.

I am for legalizing all drugs and monitoring their use. The first thing that does is remove the profit from criminals. I am willing to bet gun deaths drop big time.

[The General]

By decriminalization, I mean: no jail time. 
Financial fines, and/or other punishments would apply.
Our jails are unnecessarily full.

[DoYouThinkItWasAngels]

You guys will probably get your wish, as the powers that be realize that a stoned population is a much more easily controlled population. 

The continued illegality of drugs in fact indicates the lack of a conspiracy controlling the Western World.

[Ruteger]

The Dems/Libs will never make cigs illegal - too much tax revenue comes from this addiction. Blatant, demonic hypocrites.
Have u heard that Obama wants to tax your car's mileage? Just Google it. True. They (Libs/Dems) forced us into smaller, fuel-efficient cars and when that reduced the gasoline tax revenue, they realized they needed another fix for their spending problem.

[The General]

The Dems/Libs will never make cigs illegal - too much tax revenue comes from this addiction. Blatant, demonic hypocrites.
Have u heard that Obama wants to tax your car's mileage? Just Google it. True. They (Libs/Dems) forced us into smaller, fuel-efficient cars and when that reduced the gasoline tax revenue, they realized they needed another fix for their spending problem.

God, we are in such a hole.
Taxation could be %100 of income and the government still wouldn't have enough to climb out of it.  We're bankrupt.

Obama's a smoker, so I don't think smokers have to fear too much while he's in office.