My comment:
The government is busy de-normalizing cigarette smoking; yet at the same time they do nothing about drug-taking. In fact, drug-taking appears to be becoming an ever more normal part of life for many. To me, this seems perverse.
I would say that they've got their work cut out if they want to rid society of this habit. All they are doing is driving it into the private sphere. But in so doing, they are making people that would otherwise be tolerant, less tolerant, because they keep hammering away at so-called dangers of second-hand smoke. (Where's the evidence?)
By segregating smokers like this, they are causing loneliness for many. These days, nobody wants you in their home if you smoke. And if you get invited, and you smoke, you have to go out into the garden to puff away. How demeaning that is! And how unwelcoming, too.
If the government ever succeeds in de-normalizing smoking, indeed if they succeed in banishing it, they will find that the habit will be replaced by something else. And that something else will probably be far more injurious to health than even smoking is. At least smoking kills slowly (in most cases). It does not bend the mind, or make people's behaviour odd.
I have to shake my head when I think how much this once tolerant nation has changed. My parents' generation were fine, upstanding citizens, who dressed well, spoke well, etc. Many of those people smoked, and sometimes a lot. But they were decent people: honourable, courteous, upstanding, welcoming, caring.
And today? What have we? Take a look around your local supermarket! Many might not smoke cigarettes, but take a look at the way they're dressed, listen to how they speak, listen to the foul language, observe the multiple tattoos and piercings on their bodies. How healthy is it to inject ink under the skin? And what is the government doing about that?
I don't have children, but if I did, I would much prefer that they be exposed to a little passive smoking than for their minds to be polluted by the excesses of the modern age.
Lastly, I should like to say that even though I am not in any way homophobic – far from it, actually – one really has to wonder the direction a society is taking when it will soon be legal for two men/women to marry, and walk down the street holding hands (and kissing?), yet it is already illegal for a man to light up in the public arena.
My poor father must be turning in his grave. – © Mark
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