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[filkertom]

I don't know if this is an indictment of Kentucky, or America's addiction to tobacco products, or the inability of some people to exist without having the wrong kind of government intervention, i.e., make us safe from the whole world and do it stupidly and expensively, or what. Or maybe I just don't get it.

Following an incident where a woman fell asleep while smoking and set her own nightgown on fire, Kentucky wants to legislate "fire-safe" cigarettes.

I had never heard of this before, but Kentucky isn't even the first state to consider this. New York made them mandatory in 2004.

Um, guys...? I understand where your heads are at. Fire safety is very important.

But it apparently has not occured to you that [a] you can't make them completely fire-safe -- no burnee, no smokee -- and [b] you are trying to make a safer addictive carcinogen.

So. What addiction can't you break? Mine's Pepsi. And potato chips. And the internet.

Comments

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's no different from fat-free biscuits and petrol-engined cars with airbags. We want to have our addictions and eat them.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Potato Chips and French Onion Dip...

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I can stop drinking Pepsi anytime I damn well please!

..Er. Yeah.

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

I can't walk by a box of donuts without taking one. I can't. I've tried.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Coca-Cola and Usenet.

[bardicwench.livejournal.com]

Coca cola

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Caffeine, sugar, the internet.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

The internet, caffine, diet Barqs root beer, and milk chocolate (even though I am diabetic, but at least I can moderate myself).

[jss]

Internet.

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

I can break any addiction I currently have. I choose not to. :-) (Jolt Cola if I really want the caffiene, TyPhoo or Twining's Earl Grey hot tea in the morning generally.)

[hughcasey.livejournal.com]

My addiction:

Dr. Pepper. That stuff is like cocaine in a bottle.

And Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper? That's crack. Pure, high grade crack.

[sdelmonte]

My online RPG. DC Comics. Pretzels.

And chocolate.

[eleri.livejournal.com]

potato chips. I've almost completely given up soda, I've even moved from an iced tead IV drip to vitamin water. I'm cutting out extra sugars and fats and salt...but give up my potato chips? Hell no.

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Breathing. Just haven't been able to shake that breathing habit.

[bald-ruminant.livejournal.com]

Oxygen addiction is one of the most pervasive and socially acceptable chemical dependencies on earth.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

NAME it!

[la-azteca.livejournal.com]

Saw your post from a flist of one of my flist, so I hope you don't mind my comment. I can understand where you are coming from, but I guess my thoughs on this are clouded by personal experience. Smoking in bed almost cost my father his life -- and maybe mine as well. If I hadn't woke up, walked by his room and smelled the smoke ...
One of the groups that is pushing this legislation is the National Fire Protection Association. According to a Feb. 15 press release by the organization:
Nineteen states have already filed fire-safe cigarette legislation this term, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. More bills are expected to be filed soon. Six states — New York, California, Illinois, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Vermont — have such laws already on the books.
Anyway, my addiction is chocolate.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I don't mind at all. :) And I certainly can understand your perspective.

[allisona.livejournal.com]

Chocolate, TV and the Internet.

[kestrels-nest.livejournal.com]

Chocolate, chai, internet and instant messaging, not necessarily in that order.

[poltr1]

The internet (hey, I'm the original Usenet junkie!).

[madmanotl.livejournal.com]

Actually Vermont has those cigarettes also. They are designed to self estinguish after 20 seconds if not "used" due to their special branded paper.

[ifics.livejournal.com]

Chocolate, sugarfree these days. Filk music, and good SF.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

You sound like someone arguing for abstinence and martial fidelity as methods to control STDs. Sure, they work, but God himself doesn't seem able to make people use them. So, why not reduce the fire risk?

See also <http://firesafecigarettes.org>.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but I don't think that's a valid comparison.

On the one hand, we're talking one of the primary biological drives of the species, an extremely pleasurable act designed to perpetuate our existence, and the fact that there are diseases which have evolved to take advantage of it, and the further fact that there are ways to prevent those diseases.

On the other hand, we are talking about a way to avoid setting yourself and the room on fire while carelessly intaking an addictive substance that may give cancer not only to you but to anyone nearby enough to inhale the by-products.

[ixias.livejournal.com]

Coke, WOW, popcorn and caramel brownie Luna bars.

[fuuberry.livejournal.com]

Mmm.. Luna bars. I'm completely addicted to the Chocolate-Covered Cherry ones.

Also, Planet Smoothie's Twig and Berries flavor... Or anything that's strawberry and bananas, carbonated drinks (I'm more addicted to the carbonation than the caffiene.. It's weird.), music (I can't sit still without music playing or at least humming a song in my head), chocolate, and fruit (any kind... I get twitchy after a while if I don't gnaw on an apple or something).

Oh, and World of Warcrack....damn game.

[tropism.livejournal.com]

They've already passed a law like this here in NY, IIRC. Basically, they're not -adding- anything to the cigarettes -- all they have to do is take out the oxidisers in the paper -- usually KNO3, IIRC -- which are in there to keep the cigs from going out. Some cigarettes -- like Moore and Djarums -- are already like this.

[armb.livejournal.com]

> take out the oxidisers in the paper ... in there to keep the cigs from going out

I had a supervisor at college who would spend some considerable time lighting his pipe, suck on it a couple of times, put it down while talking, pick it up, realize it had gone out, repeat...
I think he spent about 5 times as long lighting it as smoking it once lit.