Smoking: Is it a health issue or a moral issue?

Vice: /vīs/ noun: immoral or wicked behavior.

There is a proposal before the activist-driven Minneapolis City Council to mandate raising the price of a pack of cigarettes to $15 per pack. It seems to have made a lot of smokers and convenience store owners unhappy. 

I am a former smoker. I started stealing my dad’s Camel straights when I was in high school and then smoked regularly until I was 34 - so nearly 20 years. (Nearly half of Americans smoked in the 1960s, including both my parents.) I remember exactly when I stopped smoking - it was when my son was born, having read Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was more likely in homes of smokers. I’ve lapsed a few times in the intervening years, but should cigs go up to $100 a pack, I wouldn’t care. In fact, I now find the smell of cigarette smoke nearly intolerable.

What seems interesting to me is that smoking has become as much a moral failing - a vice - as a poor health choice. If you are a smoker today, it is because you have a bad value system or are too weak to overcome an addiction. We could add eating processed/snack foods, drinking sugary sodas, not wearing a bike helmet, gambling, refusing to get vaccinated, and reckless driving to behaviors we as a society deem moral failings - but attributing our disgust to beliefs they are poor health (physical and financial) choices.

I do think it is somewhat ironic that Minnesota politicians over the past few years have legalized marijuana, allowed liquor to be sold on Sundays, supported sports betting, and guaranteed women’s rights to abortions. In other words, opened the doors to activities many would consider vices, but are doing what they can to clamp down on tobacco use, including banning flavored and menthol products. 

Why is the Marlboro man such a pariah and not Tony the Tiger?