by Tricia Psarreas Murray

Created on: March 25, 2010   Last Updated: March 26, 2010

As long as cigarettes exist, so will the debate as to whether or not smoking should be allowed in public places. Putting aside all state laws, health risks, and unappealing odors, the answer to this ongoing debate should be obvious. Smokers should be able to smoke almost anywhere they choose because they can buy cigarettes nearly anywhere they choose.

As long as cigarettes are readily available for purchase, it is hypocritical for any public venue that endorses cigarette sales to take a smoker’s money and not allow them to indulge in their purchase – no matter how unhealthy or unappealing that purchase may be.

Smokers have been segregated in public places for decades but it is still a recently new practice to publicly deprive them of cigarettes all together. Even though most public places improved their smoking sections by upgrading their ventilation systems so smoke would not drift to the non-smoking sections, that money was put to waste as state after state outlawed public smoking.

Now some public places force smokers to cluster together several yards away from an establishment before they are allowed to smoke. Others allow smokers to stand outside in a roped off area to smoke their cigarettes like herded cattle.

Then there are others that enforce these methods and force smokers to pay an additional fee if they wish to reenter the public establishment. As a result, smokers battle inclement weather and far more secondhand smoke than they normally would as they pay more money to invade each other’s personal space to smoke what they legally purchased.

Is it too much to ask for a small indoor area where smokers could retreat for a cigarette break? Even a ventilated closet would suffice. After all, no section could be more uncomfortable or inconvenient than standing outside and often paying for that insulting privilege.

So long as designated smoking areas are meant for cigarettes and nothing else, non-smokers would have no reason to visit a smoker’s nook. Employees would have no complaints, consumers would remain unaffected, and smokers could satisfy their nicotine cravings that were sold to them by these very establishments.

Until the day that tobacco becomes illegal to sell, smokers should retain the right to smoke in public places. Consumers are meant to do just that – consume. As long as sellers sell, it is wrong to outlaw consumers from consuming.

Everybody who smokes does so at their own discretion. Smokers know the dangers of their actions as do the cigarette companies who provide them with their vices. If the general public would listen more closely to what smokers want, they would quickly discover that they are not asking for much.

Smokers simply want to use the products they have legally become addicted to without being sent outside like misbehaved animals in the process.

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