Is it halachically ok to buy and sell cigarettes?

Question

I live in a country where cigarettes are very cheap. I am going to travel somewhere where I can sell cigarettes for much more than it cost me. If I take them, I will make a huge profit.

However I am concerned that it may be halachically incorrect to sell these cigarettes to other Jews because it may be a transgression of lifnei Eiver Lo Titen Michshol - One must not place a stumbling block before a 'blind' person.

To establish if this is in fact prohibited we must first make sure that smoking in the first place is prohibited. I always understood that it was completely forbidden due to the prohibition of committing suicide (correct me if I am wrong).

However, one can argue (this is what many friends of mine tried to argue) that they are going to smoke the cigarettes anyway since they are addicted. So there should be nothing wrong with being the one who provides them.

I would like to know which side is correct (please bring sources to any answers) Thanks

Edit: as Daniel mentioned in the comments, I think it is actually illegal to do such a thing. I presume that this also makes it halachically incorrect?

Answer 1

Among important Sephardi Haredi rabbis, Rabbi Ben Tzion Abba Shaul and Rabbi Moshe Tzedaka called on youth not to start smoking.

Other major Ashkenazi rabbis who explicitly forbade smoking and selling include Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, Rabbi Moshe Stern, and Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg.

Answer 2

Rav Avigdor Nevenzahl שליט״א, one of the foremost students of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach זצ״ל, and former Chief Rabbi of the Old City once told me that if not for the possible legal issues that may come from it, it would not just be allowed, but it would be a mitzvah to steal, take away from, and ultimately destroy your friends' cigarettes from them, as it has been proven without a shadow of a doubt that smoking leads to cancer.

With this in mind, it seems obvious to apply that it is forbidden to sell them, though it would not be prohibited biblically(as they could acquire their own from the local store around the corner) it would be prohibited rabbinically.

However, I have seen that a s’vara quoted in the name of Rav Avraham Weinfeld זצ״ל (the author of שו״ת לב אברהםֿ) that smoking should be permitted on the basis that each cigarette itself is not able to give one cancer, it is only through the accumulation of the cigarette smoking that leads to cancer. Therefore one is permitted to smoke. Thus selling a pack shouldn’t be forbidden as each cigarette itself is not going to cause cancer, nor a whole pack.

However I consulted with a son of Rav Weinfeld and he said that this idea was never said by his father.

Answer 3

There is a disagreement among the poskim whether it is permitted or not, based primarily on health reasons; with most forbidding smoking. However, according to R' Yitzchak Yosef shlita, there is no explicit issur to sell or smoke cigarettes(see also Igrot Moshe YD 2:49). There have also been many, and are many Gedolim that smoke; something they would never take as a habit if forbidden by the Torah(ibid).

If one was in sha'at hadachak and needs parnasah, he may deal in cigarettes and rely on the poskim that permit it until he finds something better, b'ezrat HaShem.