Smoking should be prohibited The issue of smoke prohibition in public places has been the subject of great many debates recently. In Canada, for example, the prohibition to smoke in public places became a fact. In that country, smoking is also banned in all of Canadas provincial and federal jails. Still, despite the fact that smoking is being proven to cause such diseases as cancer and also being the major reason for people having heart attacks, there is still a lot of controversy surrounds this issue. Apparently, there are some individuals that consider ban on smoking as an infringement of their civil rights and freedoms. Oddly enough, these people dont seem to be raising their voice when they face a real danger to their liberties, like The Patriot Act for example. This brings about an interesting question is smoking is the right to be free or the right to be weak? Its been stressed out in medias that it might be too cruel on the part of non-smokers to impose their will on smokers.
Many psychologists also say that it is almost impossible to quit smoking without psychological help Let us mention briefly the effects of smoking so itll be easier for us to apply logic while dealing with this issue. Among the others, there is one effect of smoking, called a second hand smoking. It occurs when non-smokers are being forced to inhale cigarettes smoke, while being in the same room with smokers. According to American Lung Association: New studies show that if a woman’s partner smokes near her during her pregnancy, there are added risks. She has a greater chance of having a baby that weighs too little and may have health problems. Its being proven now that those who smoke are 60 times more likely to end up with heart disease; every smoked cigarette shortens persons life by 20 minutes.
For those who are capable of rational thinking, comes the question if there are ways to deal with drugs addiction, why cant the same be done with addiction to tobacco? Those critics of proposed smoke prohibition in public places needs to be asked simple question does the society have the right to protect its unborn as one of its greatest value? The answer is yes, but it only applies to healthy society. When our bodies are healthy then our spirits are healthy as result, and once we reach this state, smoking will cease to be the issue of individual freedom and will ultimately become the issue of disgust. It is probably going to be beneficial for society, as whole, if smokers continue on with their deadly addiction this will cause them to die, thus freeing us of a burden. Yet, they can do it in their homes, without making others to suffer. In my opinion, smoke prohibition has to become even stricter, ultimately bringing us closer to a time when tobacco is going to be considered illegal to sell and to consume. It is much easier to accomplish then majority of our whining psychologists, whore being paid 50 dollars an hour, are trying to convince us. Theyre telling us that smoking is actually illness and not just an addiction.
By saying this they make smokers feel if they have an excuse to continue poisoning themselves and others. As Canadian correctional institutes experience show, once smoking is forbidden by one resourceful act, even those ho had smoked throughout their whole lives, dont have much of a difficulties because of not being able to smoke anymore. Important is to convince person that there is no way on Earth that he can smoke, unless hes willing to be heavily penalized. In my opinion, our governments policy on banning smoking from public places is correct one, which comes as a big relief, as we havent seen much of sanity in governments recent actions. In one of Steven Kings novels Corporation Quit Smoking, man signs a contract with company that guaranties him becoming non-smoker within one day. It really does happen to him, as he realizes that his wife is going to be beaten severely, if company finds out that he had smoked.
Very simple and reliable method, plus huge saving on not having psychologists involved In my view, we as a society, have to adopt much more aggressive attitude towards smokers, who not only cause damage to their health but also try to poison us as well. The prohibition of smoking needs to be instituted also in such places as airports, bars and restaurants. Another method of dealing with the issue is removing all the ashtrays from the places where people can still smoke. This will make them automatically guilty if they try to dispose cigarette butts elsewhere, thus causing them to consider twice before they light up. In 2003 New Yorks mayor Michael Bloomberg has pushed through prohibition laws, even though majority of restaurants and bars owners were strongly opposed to it. They were predicting that such prohibition would heavily impact their businesses, going as far as demanding compensations from the government.
Yet, it never happened, people just had to adjust their act accordingly and there werent any dramatics involved, despite what psychologists were predicting. People will adjust very quickly and a lot of lives will be saved.” Said Mr. Bloomberg, while being interviewed by BBC correspondent. Today, New York is the cleanest city in America when it comes to second hand smoking. According to a present ban, the restaurants owners can have their licenses suspended if they tolerate smoking on their premises. This goes to show that the best way to deal with problem of second hand smoking is decisive action, regardless of what public opinion of such action might be at the time. We live in consumerist society, where main goal for people is to be able to enjoy themselves as much as possible.
So, it is not likely that people just might start acting responsibly and consider others. Thats why the intellectual elite will have to decide on what is good for people and what is bad and come up with measures that might not appear very popular at the time, but will prove to be beneficial for the whole society in the long run. The stricter smoke prohibition is – the more lives are going to be saved.
Bibliography:
Last Smoke in New York. BBC News, UK edition. March 30, 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2899719. stm 20.10.2004.
Study Shows Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke. March 15, 2004. http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/news/shsmoke.htm 20.10.2004. Smoking Should Be Prohibited in Public Places. Online Magazine. http://www.topics-mag.com/edition7/smoking-no.htm 20.10.2004..