Smoking 2

19 June 2007 | 18:43 by Wolfie
Filed under: Health

Back at the beginning of April, one of my early blog posts was about smoking (click here if you want to go and read it first). Well, it started out being about smoking and then turned into a bit of a lament about how pubs aren’t pubs anymore.

So, with the imminent smoking ban, I thought I’d revisit the subject and see if I could actually get across this time what I had meant to say in that earlier post.

It is not illegal to sell cigarettes and tobacco products. It is not illegal to buy cigarettes and tobacco products. Up to now, it has not been illegal to use cigarettes and tobacco products. But as from 1 July, it will be illegal to use cigarettes and tobacco products pretty much anywhere except your own house.

This is the latest development in a long-running saga which has seen the humble cigarette move from being the must-have fashion accessory (remember all those film-noir flicks from the forties where absolutely everyone smoked?), through to being the pariah of the modern age - it even beats binge-drinking as the all encompassing evil.

The Government wants people to stop smoking because it’s bad for their health, and puts a terrible burden on the health service. Non-smokers want people to stop smoking because they don’t want to passive smoke. Already banned from quite a number of places, smoking in a public building becomes outlawed from 1 July.

But if smoking is so bad for you, and the health experts insist that it is, why not go the whole way and make the buying, selling and using of cigarettes and tobacco products completely illegal? Why have this halfway house situtation? Well, partly because of the money; at the same time as trying to get people to stop smoking, the Government actually loves it when they do because they earn a mountain of cash out of it. “Oh, but that gets used up to pay for the extra health services needed by all the sick smokers”, I hear you say. No, it doesn’t. There’s still plenty left. (You could even look at it another way; if smoking is bad for you, encourage people to smoke more. That way, they’ll all die early and you won’t have to worry about paying them a pension for who knows how many years!)

I think the smoking issue really goes to the heart of the way that Government is trying to make us live our lives now; they seem to have decided that we can’t be trusted to look after ourselves anymore so they’re going to do it for us. The Nanny State as is it known is reaching ever further into people’s lives and I, for one, object. Smoking may not be good for you or others (although, there is some evidence to suggest it’s not as bad as it’s made out ) but at the end of the day it’s legal! Just like fatty food, fizzy drinks, take-away, alcohol and all the other things that they’re trying to stop us enjoying.

I’m a grown-up adult; I can make my own decisions regarding my health - if I want to smoke, drink and eat bad food why shouldn’t I be allowed?

Tags: Smoking

Comments

2 Responses to “Smoking 2”

Ed on 19 June 2007 | 20:50

The tobacco war isn’t waged because you don’t want your clothes to stink of smoke. Or because everyone is entitled to”clean air”. Or to reduce the cost of medical care. Or to prevent “premature death”.

Big Pharma pays for a tobacco war because they want to replace tobacco–the best antidepressant known to man- with prescription drugs at ten prices. It means trillions of profit over time and it means they are rich enough to rule the world
for their own benefit and call it “healthy”.

The don’t give a damn if you like it or not.
Wolfie on 19 June 2007 | 20:56

See, that opens up a whole side of the argument that I hadn’t even really considered. I think “Smoking 3″ may have to delve into this area more deeply.