Reply #218: Smoking is alleged to kill around 400,000 Americans annually, mostly people

[benEzra]

who are approaching the upper end of normal life expectancy and have been smoking for a long time.

Alcohol kills around 100,000 Americans annually, many of whom are nondrinkers (via drunk driving, alcohol-facilitated murder, and manslaughter). I do not have "years of life lost" figures handy, but I believe they are a lot less uneven than the raw death stats are.

Alcohol also contributes to domestic abuse in ways smoking does not. My wife's mother was a chain smoker; my wife's father was an alcoholic. Guess who beat the shit out of whom.

As I said upthread, I believe smoking bans and drinking bans are neo-Puritanical approaches that are wrongheaded and infringe on civil liberties and human dignity, and even though I am a nonsmoker I will fight outright smoking bans just as much as I will fight alcohol bans. There are ways to mitigate the abuse without going all fundamentalist on the issue (and believe me, right-wing fundies are a huge part of both the antismoking and anti-alcohol movements).