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| Yes | 39% | 2249 votes | Total: 5765 votes | |
| No | 61% | 3516 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesThis is easily the most, for me at-least, annoying and frustrating debate I have ever seen. If people are not allowed to smoke indoors nor in public places, where are they supposed to smoke? At home? So this idea fundamentally goes against what I feel it is to be a human citizen - the right to make my own choices about my health and well-being.
The argument is pretty much governed by the non-smoking population that do not like smoke. This makes sense in a densely populated, enclosed area, such as a bus or a train, but outdoors on the street? Seriously, grow up, there are bigger things in life than a tiny puff of second hand smoke. The time non-smokers take to write their debates, has wasted more life than if they had just put up with it. It's not even something to 'put up' with anyway, its an enjoyable pastime, and is part of so many people's lives.
You cannot simply stop people smoking in public places, it is such a breach of human rights. The worldwide plans to stop smoking have already caused their negative effects. For example, hundreds of pubs and clubs in the UK are having to close down, as a massive percentage of their clientele are smokers. (Amendthesmokingban. com). This is even indoors, so outdoors is a totally different story.
Being a smoker of about 15 years, there is no amount of government garbage, or 'shocking' imagery that will ever make me stop smoking. There is no sentence or story that will ever affect me enough to stop smoking. So, with this in mind, what am I meant to do if I am no longer allowed to enjoy one of my favorite parts of life anymore?
This 'law' is taking away such a massive part of my life, that it's like passing a law that makes it illegal to show affection in public - this reminds me of past, failed relationships, and causes me heartache. This hurts me more than a puff of passive smoke will ever hurt. While we're at it, lets make it illegal to drink and eat in public, that's about how this law makes me feel.
If you're so intent on hating smokers making you passively smoke, maybe you should stop driving a car, or using public transport, as it causes much more harmful emissions on the environment, and also on you. On-top of that, driving a car is extremely dangerous in comparison to inhaling second-hand smoke.
All-in-all, it's the most ridiculous debate ever, and leaves me so angry I can't even put it into words.
Learn more about this author, Fred Gosnell.
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No
The rule I go by is, "Your right to smoke ends where my right to breathe clean air begins."
No non-smoker wants to sit in a restaurant and try to enjoy their meal, surrounded by smokers. Smokers don't realize how bad their habit smells, not to mention the deadly long term effects of even secondhand smoke.
That being said, I will propose a compromise: Let smoking be allowed in some designated areas where there are very, very few people, such as Death Valley and the states of Alaska and North Dakota. If there was a big public outcry, I suppose smokers could be allowed the convenience of traveling to the nearest Indian reservation, where they could smoke openly.
I am generally not in favor of government regulations forcing people to refrain from doing what they want, but in this case, it's a matter of protecting the general public from a bad habit of the minority. This is a serious public health matter.
Smoking tobacco ideally needs to be driven underground. Smokers need to be made as uncomfortable as possible, to help them come to their senses as to how unnecessary their habit is.
It is sad to see smokers huddled in the rain, sleet, and snow outside their office buildings, trying to keep their cigs lit, but it is for their own good. Perhaps there could be a law passed to make tobacco illegal, so smokers will have to conceal their illicit pleasure like pot smokers do now. That way, the rest of us won't have to hold our breath as we walk by a crowd of smokers loitering outside their place of work or by the back door of a restaurant.
Why indeed are cigarettes even legal when they kill so many people every year? If people are frequently sentenced to jail for smoking marijuana, which has never killed anybody, let's put cigarette smokers in jail, too! It's only fair.
I'm all for freedom, but until smokers come to their senses, we - the nonsmoking majority - will need laws to protect ourselves.
Learn more about this author, Paul Kemp.
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