Yesterday was national quit smoking day. Here's hoping some did. Lately there's been a lot of draconian talk about making it illegal to smoke in your own car even if alone and some zealots want to go further. They want to make smoking illegal. This is beyond stupid and I bow to no man with my anti-smoking venom. Keep in mind I'm asthmatic, raised in a house of smokers (Yuck!) and as a physician, I've told way too many their life was about to be shortened because of cigarettes. I loathe cigarettes.
Our goal should always be to help smokers quit while protecting the rest of us from the serious effects of second hand smoke but adults have the right to smoke. Draconian coercion doesn't work anyway. Didn't work with alcohol in the 20's and the war on drugs...how's that going? Encouragement and aids to quit is what's needed.
Smoking is nasty. Smoking kills. I know. We all know. But lets get real here. Making smoking illegal will just make an awful situation worse. Can you imagine the black market in cigarettes if we ban them? What we don't need is to give criminals another source of revenue. If you smoke or someone you love smokes. Know this. Help is available.
