Governments have been waging a war on tobacco and cigarette-smoking for years and years; and the war has been relentless and is still in progress. Many governments, especially successive UK governments, have made the smoking of a cigarette so expensive and so difficult that it has gone from being a pleasure that most people could afford to becoming a rich person's pleasure. Successive governments have also made it well-nigh impossible to go anywhere and smoke a cigarette. One cannot smoke a cigarette in cafés, pubs, restaurants, or in any public places or public transport. Virtually the only place that one can smoke a cigarette today is in one's own home. And in some places in the US, especially rented properties, even that is not allowed!
I write here as an ex-smoker; so, having given up smoking in April 2022, I no longer have any skin in the game. But I wish someone could explain to me the logic of waging an all-out war on smoking tobacco and then making a volte-face on the smoking of cannabis. To my way of thinking, this is as illogical as it is crazy. Is society going to be any healthier when people turn away from the smoking of tobacco and take up smoking cannabis instead? That, to me, seems highly improbable. I'd wager that by encouraging people to take up smoking cannabis—its legalisation will give the green light to its consumption—there will be, in the years ahead, a whole host of health issues to be faced, many among them probably being cognitive difficulties — health difficulties which are challenging health systems as it is. I believe I am right in saying that it is an undeniable fact that cannabis can have a deleterious long-term effect on a person's brain function. I guess we're about to find out for definite.
In view of many Western governments' easing up on soft drugs, might I suggest that laws on smoking cigarettes be relaxed again and their prices be sharply reduced? The war on smoking has had a profound effect on people's sense of joie de vivre. Moreover, obesity has increased exponentially and miserableness abounds. – © Mark Alexander
