Thinking Planning

Smokers

I have found out that one of my best mates smokes. I’m sort of not surprised that this person smokes, but still every time I find out that someone who I look up to, who I see as a confident, smart and grounded person is a smoker I just think why??!! It is proven beyond absolute doubt that smoking drastically reduces your health, fitness and general well-being. It eventually kills you. So why do people smoke? Yep, it makes you feel better and more confident as a person and it’s addictive… yaddy yaddy yadda! It kills you! Surely living a healthy and long life is better than having a tobacco quick fix? Geez. I find every time I find out a friend smokes I have to re-adjust my view on them as a person, it is a great big huge shock initially, and I am usually unable to reconcile it due to the sheer dumbness of the person’s actions. I find I may even avoid them during and after their smoking, not just because it makes me feel ill, but because I’m just upset that they are doing that to themselves and to others around them via passive smoking. It’s a great disrespect to everyone involved.

This leads me on to the public health and space regulation question of smoking. As a person who feels sick and struggles to breathe after being around smokers, and a belief that activity that is absolutely proven to undermine one’s health should be stamped out by regulation, I am all for banning smoking entirely from public places, and any other area that is someway tax-payer funded or publicly accessible. That is, I believe people should only be allowed to smoke on their own property and therefore not infringe on the enjoyment and health of others. Yes, smoking has a history of being a social practice, a right of passage and cool in some youth cultures, and therefore widely practiced publicly, but it is a key example of health and science giving way socio-cultural norms and pressures.

I just don’t get it. They all should get those nicotine patches. Crikey!