by Derek G Rogers

Created on: April 02, 2007   Last Updated: May 13, 2007

Yes! Yes! Yes! I fail to understand how anyone can suggest otherwise when so much research proves that inhaling other peoples smoke is dangerous. To scream about the "Loss of rights of smokers" is just plain silly, you might just as well argue that to prevent you from poisoning someone else's food is a similar infringement. But I maintain that if someone wants to smoke themselves to death they do have the right to do so. Just so long as they don't take someone else with them. Therefore it follows that smokers should not be restricted in their habit if they practice it in their own home...so long as no one else in the house is a non-smoker...difficult isn't it!

I used to to smoke, heavily, it was the thing to do both in business and socially. Then the first research was published, like many others I took little notice. But as time went by and more evidence was obtained of the damage smoking could do to health, my unease turned to certainty and I resolved to stop. But I couldn't! I needed that cigarette. The realisation worried me, I hated the thought that something could control my mind to such a degree. The more I thought about it the more I resented the knowledge. I began to cut down.

One evening my son asked me if I loved him and his sisters. I was shocked, I thought I had made it obvious enough and couldn't understand why he should even ask such a question. He went on to explain that at school that day they had been shown various pictures of people who had died of smoking related diseases. The teacher had stressed that smoking was a killer and that most smokers should know that by now. So he asked. "If I loved them why did I smoke knowing that it would eventually kill me?" That did it. I made up my mind there and then that I would stop. And I did. I stopped smoking both cigarettes and Havana cigars (Which I loved)and have never smoked once since that day.

How did I do it? Well I suppose that the most important thing was that I really wanted to. But I knew that if I began asserting I had given up, I would want a cigarette all the more. So from that day to this I have never regarded myself as having given up. But I don't happen to fancy one at the moment.....

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