by Ray Burke

Created on: January 24, 2009

Smokers beware:

There is nothing worse than enjoying a lovely walk through a park or down a road when all of a sudden the disgusting smell of cigarette smoke comes wafting your way and follows you like, well, a bad smell. You cannot always see the culprit or hear them, but you certainly can smell them. It takes the absolute pleasure out of breathing fresh air and ruins a peaceful state of mind while trying to have some quality time.

Smoking is an absolute selfish addiction and should be on a par with CO2 pollution, since you can readily smell and be affected by cigarette pollution. Yet smoking is a legalised drug by governments since they can control tobacco, but not cocaine, poppies, or marijuana plants (This is the same for alcohol, but that's another story). It is why tobacco products are allowed to thrive and will not or cannot be totally banned due to their revenue from taxes. For governments to be implicit in the deaths of millions during peacetime for the sake of raising money for public concerns seems perverse. How many more lives would have been saved had smoking not been legalised and promoted to such mountainous heights (Some might say the same for driving accidents, plane crashes, drinking and drugs, but the effects within societies from smoking and smoking deaths are just not comparable).

As much as I like some of my female friends that smoke, the fact that they do would preclude them from being my girlfriend. The thought of them harming their own health would be hard to take, but also they would be harming mine with a constant pall of smoke that would cling to them and their effects. Killing themselves and me is as bad as physical, mental and verbal abuse. They are deriving pleasure from slow suicide and this personally upsets me. For smokers with children, they are condemning them to a possible life of respiratory illness, addiction, or even rejection/resentment for smoking. If a parent cannot give up for the sake of their children it is as much an abuse as smacking, or verbal and mental abuse. Some cultures are practicing genocide of the next generation by not curtailing tobacco.

Smokers claim that their taxes (from cigarette tax) pay for a majority of public health services, but that should not be an excuse to continue smoking. Smokers drain National Health Service resources with their illnesses and complications. But taxes, pricing and legislation are not the only issues, as smoking will not go away with bans, restrictions, and higher prices.

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