Smokers

by Patrick Sills

Created on: September 07, 2011

It’s really quite simple. Smokers are people. If a person has attained the age of 18 years, he or she has the right to engage in any activity deemed legal for adults. Smoking may not be the healthiest habit that one can adopt, but neither is eating Kentucky Fried Chicken! At any rate, and however you slice it, tobacco is a legal product, just as are those greasy, cholesterol-laden wings, thighs, and breasts cooked with Colonel Sanders‘ secret recipe.

There is no disputing the fact that smokers now make up the minority of citizens. Thus, nonsmokers make up the majority. The problem is that because this fact holds true, many believe the rights of the majority trump those of the minority. Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

The numbers of smokers have dwindled significantly since the pastime was first linked to lung cancer and then other health problems. However, nobody had a problem with sharing space with those who still chose to smoke until, out of the blue, the US Environmental Protection Agency suddenly declared that passive tobacco smoke was not only harmful to nearby nonsmokers, but also that it even killed a certain percentage!

This figurative bomb was dropped on the public in early 1993, and smokers have been paying the price ever since. Discrimination, ridiculously high taxes, and the deliberate act of demonizing anyone who so much as thinks about lighting up around nonsmokers has become an accepted practice, and at this writing, restrictions that further ostracize this segment of the population are being proposed.

For starters, there is not a single shred of definitive proof that any nonsmoker subjected to what is now known as “secondhand smoke” has ever died as a result. The fact that passive smoke is hundreds of times less concentrated than that which a smoker ingests as well as the overwhelming anecdotal evidence of tens of millions of people who were exposed to it that remain healthy today should easily and logically dismiss such preposterous claims.

Moreover, the US Centers For Disease Control relies solely on a computer program to “estimate” the numbers of deaths attributed to such exposure. This program is even used to essentially guess how many smokers themselves die from their habit. To put it another way, death statistics from both smoking and secondhand smoke exposure are made up!

Even if it could be determined that a handful of nonsmokers have indeed died from being around the smoke of others, this still does not justify ridiculously unfair ordinances that not only promote blatant discrimination, but also violate the very concepts of Free Enterprise as described in the US Constitution. Some people die from bee stings, do they not? Therefore, should the manufacture of honey be stopped? Here are a couple of other cases in point: Tens of thousands of people will die in car accidents each year. Should the automotive industry be shut down? Some people accidentally drown while swimming. Should swimming pools therefore be outlawed?

Assuring that smokers are fairly accommodated and therefore have some semblance of rights is far more important than appeasing some whiny nonsmoker who doesn’t wish to smell that lit Camel 75 feet away. At least, this is how things should be. As a matter of fact, this is exactly how things once were, and nobody had a problem with it.

Even before mandatory smoking bans in public places were implemented, there were plenty of places that voluntarily prohibited lighting up, so nonsmokers genuinely offended by tobacco smoke have always had rights that have remained intact.

Smokers, on the other hand, have been stripped of practically all of their civil rights in one sweeping motion. They can neither enjoy what constitutes their personal pursuit of happiness, nor can business owners that depend on smoking clientele to maintain their livelihoods any longer provide accommodations. This is clearly unfair and lopsided, and anyone who cannot grasp this concept desperately needs to be educated in the ways of equality.

Common sense and courtesy for all once prevailed. Those who smoke are citizens just as nonsmokers are. As such, smokers have every right to enjoy themselves in public settings as nonsmokers. It’s the equitable thing to do.

The question is: Have we as a society already embarked on a trail of madness from which there is no return?

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