Recently I've been involved in a lot of debates on the morality and ethics of smoking cigarettes and have tried increasingly hard to defend my habit. The problem with the 'anti-smokers' as they are often labelled, and will be referred to in this blog post, is that they believe they speak for the entire non-smoking population. The conviction of many anti-smokers is that there are only two sides to this argument, that it is in plain black and white writing on the wall. This is, to put it bluntly, bullshit.
I know many people who do not smoke - most of my friends choose not to. None of them are violently anti-smoking, they just choose not to do it. I also know several smokers who wish they could stop and are in favour of the smoking ban put in place by the Government on July 1st, 2007 (the ban dictates that one, by law, cannot smoke in any enclosed public space). There are also smokers who smoke for enjoyment and are passive about it - they don't act like assholes to non-smokers and they respect the law. This is the category I like to think of myself as falling into.
Of course, there will always be smokers who are complete idiots about it; I've met a few in my life and I didn't like them one bit. However, anti-smokers feel that it is right to blanket all smokers, or at the very least most of us, under this category. Now excuse me for the informality and use of the vernacular here, but fuck off. I am not one of those people and I hope I never become one. If I smoke outside, I make sure I do it somewhere secluded so that non-smokers need not have to endure my fiery secondhand smoke of death.
Also, British anti-smokers; I often hear you citing the fact that we cost the NHS £1.7 billion a year. Sure, okay, I'll admit that this is indeed true. However, rather than think about what we're doing, stop and look at the bigger picture for a second - that massive pricetag on packs of cigarettes is there for a reason. Every year, the smoking tax raises £12 billion - that's just over a 1:6 ratio, statistics lovers!
Now think further forward to an outright ban on all smoking. How much would your income tax rise to make up for the dip in taxes caused by the removal of cigarettes? I'll leave you with that thought.
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4 comments:
Thoroughly interesting and enlightening blog, Nova.
I know you intend to be a magazine journalist, but I can see a career in the newspaper industry, writing stories of personal interest and the likes if necessary.
Keep it up.
Ah, interesting point with the statistics there. I had never thought about the tax. Good point. Excellent post.
i wood like 2 no what u think about the babby you kill with you're cigarette smoke? babby can not frigth back
I like the stats, tks
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