*Addiction DOES matter, it always matters and that's the point about being an addict. When a lifestyle choice which becomes addictive begins to affect the person's judgement, then they have become an addict. They are an addict because their addiction becomes their main priority.*

There you go Dotto, a perfect description of the deeply religious!
They live for their religious fix, it affects their every judgement.

It certainly damages the rest of us, when they lose all sense of
reason. From the Taliban to religious posters on OLO, religious
addiction is very common.

Rehctub..I have no axe to 'grind' on this issue at all.

I see no point in talking about banning boozing or gambling but suggested that perhaps it should not be given the major focus it gets.

Gambling is a gormless activity that fleeces far too many. I do buy the odd scratchit, in moments of pure greed when I am hoping to get something for nothing, so have to confess to first hand knowledge of the gormless tag.

Boozing is more socially useful, so long as 'boozing' is not taken to mean being constantly plastered...merely 'sipping' from time to time.

Fags... well, there really is no excuse for them at all is there?

You'd have to try very hard to smoke one fag, never mind a box of 50 or so these days, but clearly people who are really keen do manage this, and pay the price of an addiction in no time at all, so it seems....if you endorse the farmers of this weed, no doubt you'd have no trouble with the opium poppy farmers either.

After all, think of all the jobs jobs jobs it creates! Prisons, shrinks, police, break and enter repairs, social workers, importers, customs, bent cops, judges, solicitors... I could go on.

Pubs are revolting places now, brim full of wide eyed goons gambling on one arm thieves, TAB races blaring out, screens full of sports... and now ours are open til opening time again, they are full of pissed-up idiots, who then go off to 'clubs' to have more, and then fight with the coppers and anyone else who they think are 'looking at them'.

There's $30billion in lost revenue via the blood sucking churches, then all the 'family trusts', the salary sacrifice arrangement for vicars and government workers, super rorts by the cwt, CEO payments that probably attract no taxes at all... there's plenty of room for Gillard and Abbott to tax a few people if we are 'moving forward' in the next couple of weeks.

Shadow Minister wrote:
<<"If Australians willingly gave up alcohol (and other drugs) and gambling then society as a whole, along with these individuals, would be better off."

This also applies to driving big cars, prostitution, smoking, and plethora of other self indulgent, but morally dubious choices. Unless one can program humans to be responsible robots, the choice will always be to either legally regulate these industries or have them operate underground.>>

Hasn't the campaign against smoking been one of "programing" humans to be "responsible robots", as well as happier, healthier and less of a buran to others and the taxpayer?

Grateful... you wrote what you say Shadow Minister said, didn't you?

It's in your first post, the one that started the thread!

What does this mean?

"less of a buran".

I've never heard of a 'buran'... what is it?a

Pericles was right, your comments are very manipulative Grateful so don't try and create a 'da, da I told you so' moment out of this, because there isn't one! You can't twist the message about responsible robots into a picture of happiness for society Grateful. That was the point of using robots as a metaphor for people who have 'willingly' decided to do something that was not their own idea to do. Robots don't have ideas, we program them. Maybe you're thinking of Robot in Lost in Space - but Dr Smith still had control over the power pack.

Thank you Yabby!! Alcohol and religion - and you can place either in the context of addiction with similarly damaging outcomes. Never thought of it in this way before. Yes, I can certainly see your point about this.

Buran Buran, it's Grateful's new punk rock band. Their new single is called Wasted but Free - you know kind of a rocked up metal version of Born Free - without the lions but ... for animal rights reasons, naturally.