Selling cigarettes and alcohol is immoral for the same reasons.
But banning a substance that people depend on and that criminals can produce didn't work, just like the war on drugs doesn't work.
There needs to be a different approach, they should address the issues that lead ppl to injest poisons in the first place by helping them, not going against them to try and lock them away.
Its also immoral to take away the crutch someone uses to stand before you've built them a new leg.
Why is it immoral to sell a harmful product if it's to people completely aware of the dangers? It would be different if you were somehow responsible for them choosing to try it in the first place but with modern advertising bans even that responsibilities virtually gone..
Personally, among other reasons I hate this line of thinking is I feel it defers proper responsibility. I am the one responsible for any harm that comes to be for by being a smoker. By saying the person who sells them to be or the tobacco company is somehow behaving in an immoral way is tantamount to taking away my responsibility and by extention saying I shouldn't be held fully accountable because.. What? I'm too stupid? Too immature? I dunno but I'm an adult and I don't agree with the idea that anyone's got any responsibility for say, my smoking except for me. And if they aren't responsible then they aren't acting immorally by selling them to me. If they're acting in an immoral way to do so then that implies they have some level of responsibility for my addiction and I don't agree with that at all.
Same for illegal drugs too. The dealers are providing something I want. They didn't force me to try it, no body did. My sources are in no way responsible, I am..
I don't see how the two concepts can be separated, either they are acting immorally, which means they share in the responsibility for my habit and thus responsibility is not entirely mine. Or responsibility is entirely mine and their behavior isn't immoral.
And I believe the responsibility is entirely mine. They were my choices, nobody advertised it to me. Nobody made me do it.
There may be some extent to which that is true, when you start considering things like abuse histories and escapism and things like that, in which case at least in some instances there may be some truth to it, but even then it's still not the dealers and sellers who have any responsibility and I still think it's a bad habit to get into to look for anyone else to blame.
I do think tobacco companies do behave in an immoral way by say, their actions in trying to argue against the truth of tobacco harms in the past, by targeting the third world, by continuing to advertise in countries they're allowed too. All of these things are immoral. Advertising is immoral because it's an attempt to influence people into starting.
But in places where they can't do that, where all they so is supply it to the willing, as with drug dealers, I don't see it as immoral at all.
EDIT: Id also like to say something about the word poison. Like the word toxic, I really hate it when people use either of those words. Because most people in using them are just showing their ignorance of chemistry and how it works and are using the words in a way that is basically playing politics and advertising.
I for one would much prefer people just confine themselves to describing the realities in an unbiased way, using the word poison or saying something is toxic which is arguably a little worse, it's emotionally and politically loaded and often very dubious. It usually carries a false implication. There are appropriate uses of the words, when the meaning is indisputable and there is widespread consensus on the meaning, but most situations aren't that.
But alas I know most people will keep doing it anyway, I just wanted to mention my feelings on the topic.
I'm not so frustrated by the description of some of the chemicals in tobacco smoke being toxic or poisonous, more so the former but on the whole that's a fair assessment. But referring to pretty much any other drug by those labels including alcohol, and nicotine is getting highly dubious. As all those compounds have legitimate uses. And if something is poisonous or toxic that usually implies there is no legit medical purpose.
Just a pet peeve of mine.
