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On balance, Roslindale pharmacist agrees with cigarette ban
By adamg on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 9:03am
BUTV interviews Gregory Lahan, owner of Sullivan's Pharmacy, who says that while he'll miss the income from cigarettes under the city's new ban on coffin-nail sales in pharmacies, he acknowledges that it's hard to fill a heart-medication prescription for a customer and then sell her some smokes:
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So when I visit a CVS in
So when I visit a CVS in Boston I should also expect that they will not sell me any of their Frozen dinners (not healthy at all), candy, chips, soda, or any other forms of junk food. I guess I should also expect that they will ask for my medical history before selling me any condoms as well.
I dont like smoking, and I think it makes sense to ban it in public places and restaurants. I just have a problem with the government telling people they can not buy something that is perfectly legal in local stores. College students are mostly over 18, why are we treating them like babies by banning all cigarette sales on their campuses? Also in many parts of the city the only convenience store is a Walgreens or CVS. Although I would love to be the owner of a small convenience store right next to a college or between a CVS and Walgreens, expect sales to go through the roof as cigarette smokers look for a place to refill.
Nonsense
If they could prove you were a diabetic with a currently high blood sugar count, then selling you the candy bar might be the equivalent position to selling you cigarettes.
All of the food you bring up still have a useful caloric function and, in moderation, none of it is harmful. That is not the same of cigarettes at all. There is no "moderation" of cigarettes that makes them non-harmful. They have no useful health role.
1 cigarette and one park of
1 cigarette and one park of circus peanuts have the same overall affect. While the circus peanuts have "nutritional value" they are still very bad for you and have almost no redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong I hate cigarettes with a passion, I AM the guy who will cough if you light up next to me, even if I dont have to cough. I just think it takes it a step too far down the nanny state route.
Metabolism
Unless you plan on eating that cigarette for its fiber, it will do absolutely nothing useful ESPECIALLY in light of all of the things it will easily and quickly do wrong. Meanwhile, the pack of circus peanuts will become energy through glycolysis. What can't be used fast enough will become fat, some of which is even helpful for you (for those times when you're not close enough to a CVS to get your next circus peanut fix). Sugar is not harmful at all. It's overindulging in sugar where the problem exists.
I bet you could even design a weird 2000 calorie diet around eating a bag of circus peanuts each day (600 cal per bag, and counting for about 50% of your daily recommended carbs).
Nicotine = Stimulant
Saying that cigarettes have no useful health role whatsoever, in terms of the argument you make concerning junk foods, is wrong. Nicotine is a stimulant and, in limited dosage, can have a similar effect to caffeine.
It also reduces appetite, thus may be useful as a dieting aid.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
And CVS still sells nicotine in other forms
such as gum and patches.
Nicotine a stimulant? Hmmmm...I've heard differently, Suldog.
From what I understand/heard, nicotine acts as a depressant to the central nervous system. I went to high school (back in the mid to late 1960's), when great many high school students smoked cigarettes, and one thing I noticed in kids who did smoke is that, especially when they'd been smoking a great deal, they'd be moving much more slowly, and walking with their heads down. At an occasional party, I'd notice kids smoking cigarettes, and looking absolutely depressed, and moving more slowly also. Nicotine's certainly not a depressant to the central nervous system to the same degree that marijuana, alcohol, barbituates, or the opiates, but it's a depressant to the central nervous system, nonetheless.
Any drug that slows down the activities of the central nervous system is just that; a depressant.
Stimulants, on the other hand, speed up the activities of the central nervous system.
Its a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping!
Actually, Independentminded and Suldog are both right here: nicotine is both a stimulant and a depressant. All at the same time!
It works through two different sets of mechanisms to produce its effects. I think this is why cig smoking has been shown to enhance productivity in shitty jobs like assembly line work and cutting up chickens, etc.
Although I hate to break this to you IM, but there might have been a bit of something extra in those ciggies smoked in the scrounge lounge, too. Like opium, hash, etc. Either that, or immature adolescent brain systems reacting more to the depressant qualities than the stimulant qualities.
You would also want to look
You would also want to look at who smokes and who doesnt. Some types of people are more likely to smoke then others, I would take a wild guess that the slagger in the corner of the party person is like that anyway and that is why they smoke. Sure it doesnt work with all people (after all weve all known jocks who smoke) but it seems to make sense.
SwirlyGrrl: I went to high school in the mid to late 1960's,
when the number of high school kids who smoked cigarettes really was at an alltime high. Although I've never been a smoker myself, from what I observed in the kids who did smoke cigarettes, I'm inclined to believe that this:
is probably more like it, especially since, from what I observed, the cigarettes the kids who smoked carried on them to parties, or smoked in the boys/girls rooms, etc., were ordinary cigarettes, and not the kind that were laced with opium or hash or whatever.
Careful with that chainsaw
You're pretty far out there on that limb, Suldog, and I wouldn't wanna see you fall.
Heh
Just making the point that almost nothing can be deemed entirely worthless. For instance, I can be used as a bad example.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com