It obviously is a very lethal substance. It kills people that don't even use it.

Firstly providing you do not smoke around others (i.e. in your own home etc) it doesn't affect anyone else. Many countries ban smoking in public places such as bars and so forth already. I don't have a problem with that. Also it is not really the nicotine that is the problem, as far as can be determined it is not carcinogenic. It may help speed existing cancerous cells it may not opinion is divided. Certainly the real problem with tobacco is the other chemicals in the tobacco not so much the nicotine. So the main problem is how tobacco affects the people that use it. Yes it is addictive. Yes it is harmful and raises your chances of death. But that is the choice of the individual. It is nobody else's right to ban anyone from partaking in an activity that may threaten their health, it is the individual's choice to do so. Once we start legislating what people can and cannot do with their own bodies we start down a slippery slope. Providing people do not inflict their smoke on anyone else, or at least anyone who is unwilling I doubt two smokers would mind, it is up to the individual what they choose to do. So it is not illegal because it is the right of any individual to choose how to live their lives. Providing an individual's actions do not harm another individual there is no reason for something to be banned I am afraid. To do so is dictatorial and cannot be tolerated in a free society. There are other reasons, such as it is big business but the real reason you can't make it illegal is that it is indefensible interference in another person's life.

Wrong Johnny White, wrong all the way around, nicotine doesn't kill people who don't even use it. Nicotine is a stimulant, just like caffeine, it's not a toxin or a carcinogen. Yes, a nicotine patch can kill you if you put it in your mouth and chew on it. But a person's use of a nicotine patch, gum, lozenge, or inhaler, will not kill people around you. If nicotine were put on a controlled substance list, then by all means, caffeine would also have to be put on the same list. They both are addictive and raise your blood pressure. But it's your personal choice to use them or not. You appear to be under the impression that nicotine and tobacco are synonymous, which they are not. Truth is, pharmaceutical grade nicotine does not come from tobacco at all due to the fact that there are no laws that force tobacco farmers to stick to a set cultivation protocol. It is found in many other plants and can be easily synthesized in a lab. The multitudes of chemicals used by tobacco farmers to ward off insects and control weeds are the primary factors in what makes tobacco use cause cancer. Granted, cigarette makers and tobacco processing plants contribute to that as well. But if you had two pipe smokers where one smoked 100% organic tobacco and the other smoked traditional tobacco, the organic tobacco user would be at far less risk. Not risk free, of course, but easily at far less risk. Take a look at electronic cigarettes sometime and all the people taking a stand behind them because of how much safer they are than tobacco cigarettes. They have a valid reason for their displeasure with the FDA trying to ban them (when they don't even stand a chance of winning). The FDA is funded by tax dollars, and a mass amount of those tax dollars come from tobacco taxing. The FDA wants to make sure that all nicotine comes from tobacco because they don't want to lose their funding. So, in order to pull that off, they want to try and make nicotine a controlled substance. Yet, they also realize that caffeine is just as dangerous as nicotine and they know they will never get caffeine on a controlled substance list. And you really think the government is honestly concerned with protecting you? Here's your sign...

In large part it comes down to one's definition of a free country. People have to be free to do what they want. That includes putting one's self into high risk situations even when the additional risk is clear. It also includes allowing people to put in their bodies what they want in spite of the high risk a number of foods impose. In short, people must be allowed to make what may be identified as "bad decisions" that don't put other people in unreasonably high risk. When a government makes everything against the law that a governing body determines is "not good for you" that goes from a free society to a dictatorship. Smoking has been determined in many states to be illegal in many, if not most, public places which is reasonable. Making smoking illegal is not reasonable unless you are willing for people to have that kind of control over your life like and make things like salt, bacon, cream, ice cream, most pork products, coffee, and all alcohol illegal.

for the same reason alcohol is legal and now pot is being made legal. Money.. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/marijuana-use-and-its-effects

Nicotine is the addicting agent but the tar and poisons it carries are what can harm some people's health. The tar one inhales when smoking marijuana is much much worse than what one gets from smoking cigarettes. However, people often smoke over 20 cigarettes per day. Generally the amount of pot used per day is much less.

Well you first you might learn how to spell "legal". Part of a free society is being able to make our own choices, even if those choices are harmful to us. People know smoking is not great but they choose to do it anyway. I used to but I quit. Making laws only shackles people and abridges their freedoms. You may think it is for their own good but then who are you to play God and foist your own schemes upon other people. If you truly care then focus on educating people about the dangers of smoking and their are plenty of them.

Hmm! If you are so concerned, get into politics and do something

Nicotine is only the substance that makes you addicted. What

1 John 5:19 says: "We know that we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.." Satan has power over the world, then he influences humans to be as selfish, greedy, and shortsighted as he is. Each year, the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars on advertising to attract new customers, especially among women and young adults living in developing countries. The addictive nature of tobacco almost ensures that casualties will remain high among the one billion smokers already hooked. Unless current users quit, the death toll will climb sharply over the next four decades. It will take divine intervention to put an end to such things, as well as the devil's influence. (1 John 3:8) "The one who practices sin originates with the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, to break up the works of the Devil."