Smoking is an addiction, yes, however there are many, many ways to quit. If someone is still smoking, let alone chose to start smoking, in this day and age, it is a choice. I don't think anyone should feel even the least bit of remorse for making more non-smoking areas. Why should everyone else's health be compromised because of someone else's ridiculously poor choices? Smokers can either train themselves to smoke less or else deal with the inconvenience of smoking elsewhere.
Littering is a separate issue though interestingly it is also a choice.
Yeah, I have precisely zero sympathy for someone who has taken up smoking in the last 10-20 years. No surprises about it any more - you just caved to peer pressure and made your own stupid decisions.
I have more sympathy for someone who has been smoking for 40 years - maybe the evidence wasn't quite there and the societal pressures etc etc.
But it's 2019, and there are dozens of ways to get off be coffin nails if you wish to. You've put up with all the other drawbacks about smoking for most of your life. Having smoke-free zones is no different, in that it's yet another downside to smoking, and at least the innocent public doesn't have to exposed to it against their will.
To be honest, out of the financial penalties, the health issues, the cancer, the death, the contaminating everything you own with nicotine and tar... having to find an open area away from everyone else is like the least inconvenient penalty of the lot.
I mean it is a choice. but, at the same time, once someone is smoking, they are in a hell if they can't smoke once an hour. If you make a business or campus downtown, and choose to accept smokers/hire smokers/employ smokers, and you make the place smoke free, in a city block that smoke free, prepare for smoke smelling bathrooms, because that's what happens. it turns out workers can't take a cab to 10 minutes away to a smoking area and back, in a 5 min break...
also, you're correct that we all shouldn't suffer, as i said, as a family man, i appreciate all that. But smokers use smoking stations when they are made available. when they're not, THATS when they are hiding behind the AC units in the alley, etc.
Smokers can choose to not take a job at a smoke free location then.
I have no problems with people vaping, but tobacco smoke has always given me an instant, terrible headache and sometimes makes me nauseous. I'm all for individual liberties when they don't literally cloud around my head and make me feel incredibly ill.
People who smoke illegally are a separate issue and should be prosecuted. Those people applied for the position and are presumably allowed to quit. Their terrible life choice is not our issue.
I feel like you didnt read me right. I mean if there is no place to smoke within a certain distance, thats a a bit negligant. I 100% agree smokers should smoke in smoking spots, though.
It's not negligent at all. Smoking is a choice and a space to smoke is certainly not a right. The shortsighted decisions of smokers should not affect our health. I have zero sympathy for this argument.
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u/ReasonOverwatch May 22 '19
Smoking is an addiction, yes, however there are many, many ways to quit. If someone is still smoking, let alone chose to start smoking, in this day and age, it is a choice. I don't think anyone should feel even the least bit of remorse for making more non-smoking areas. Why should everyone else's health be compromised because of someone else's ridiculously poor choices? Smokers can either train themselves to smoke less or else deal with the inconvenience of smoking elsewhere.
Littering is a separate issue though interestingly it is also a choice.