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The Forum > Article Comments > Standing up to the anti-smoking bullies > Comments

Standing up to the anti-smoking bullies : Comments

By David Leyonhjelm, published 30/12/2014

But there are some people who remain fair game – smokers. Which is why, anywhere you see a smoker, you will find a bully lurking not far away.

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Bravo David! More people than you know or can imagine (despite the number of people commenting here that illustrate your point perfectly and who I hope you can just ignore) are behind you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Posted by AudreySilk, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 5:59:35 PM
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I may as well admit that I'm an ex-smoker, I smoked till I was 26 then one day a friend took me to Sydney Uni. with him whilst he got a Luger pistol x-rayed.
While there I asked his friend who was doing the x-ray if it was OK to smoke, he said that he would prefer me not to and then shewed me the human lung (in a jar) of a heavy smoker.
I had a two ounce tin of Log Cabin fine cut that was half empty and it stayed that way till it crumbled to dust, I quit 'cold turkey'.

I did smoke one cigarette after quitting, about a year later in 1961.
It was on the way back from a trip to rural Victoria and the mate I was with had said that he'd have me smoking again before the trip was over, it was the last night and we were camped by the Hume Highway.
Don rolled a smoke with loving care and just before he lit it I reached over and took it, "This's the one I'll smoke" I said, and he said "You bastard, that's the best smoke I ever rolled!!"

I lit and had a drag from a 'Benson & Hedges' tailor made in 1979, then threw it in the fire as the taste was disgusting and nothing like tobacco.
The smell of a good tobacco can still bring pleasant memories, particularly something like 'Erinmore' Flake.
Posted by Is Mise, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 7:10:36 PM
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Thank goodness we have someone like David to protect us from bullies.

Could he please now turn his venom on to people who bully us into driving on the same side side of the road, turning our phones off in concerts, talking softly in quiet carriages and libraries and pooing and peeing in lavatories rather than where we are when the urge arises.
Posted by GlenC, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 10:28:19 PM
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Smokers don't have any more right to practice their repulsive habit than I have the right to thieve another's possessions, unhindered by social standards.
When I see people, particularly teenagers, with cigarettes hanging out of their lips I see people attempting to be conformist followers of fashion in attempting to portray the image of a smart, sophisticted adopter of maturity.
People have the right to smoke if they want to, but not to assume that the right extends to their being able to inflict their filthy practice on others.
I don't feel the need to bully them; just to tell them,'if you don't smoke near me, I won't fart near you'.
Posted by Ponder, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 10:47:01 PM
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Emotionally, I say "kill them all!", but unfortunately I cannot find a consistent moral rationale to do so, not even for taxing them - so in that regard I agree with the senator.

Nor do I find the argument on [their own] health grounds convincing: most people spend their last years as a burden on the health/care system anyway, so by dying younger and ridding themselves and ourselves of their bodies sooner, smokers actually cost less, not more.

Anyone should be able to do whatever they like, including poison themselves, unless by doing so they hurt others - and smokers do hurt others and cause suffering to their neighbours, emitting a very tangible and disturbing substance. It is therefore (unlike the tax) justified to demand zero emissions, that no matter how they achieve so (or whether they can), no tobacco is spilled out of the premises of smokers (or of owners of premises that allow it).

Similarly, littering streets and public areas with butts should be enforced as a serious criminal offence with jail terms for repeat offenders and community-work of cleaning up the streets and parks after them for first offenders. This is the only reason why I currently object to storm-water harvesting.

Finally, non-smoking should be a condition for immigration, as part of the character test: no one who smoked in the last 10 years should be able to receive an Australian visa of any kind and while permanent-residents await citizenship (should be for 10 years), there should be a condition on their visa that they must submit to random blood/urine/breath tests and if found smoking they would be expelled immediately. While this is not my intention, I think that this move would also be supported by the anti-Muslim lobby because Arab males have one of the highest percentage of smoking in the world.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Thursday, 1 January 2015 8:58:25 AM
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I think that there is a far more powerful urge underpinning the want of some to "smoke" than just the mere allure and addiction of tobacco.

And that is the urge to seek an elevated state of mood, a mild state change if you will or a different sense of being, wherein the way you feel and the sort of thoughts that one has changes, if even but for a short passage of time.

For some, this can be a quiet glass of carcinogenic alcohol at the end of the day when other responsibilities have ended. For others, for sure, it can be a floundering in full blown substance addiction. Of course, for some, but not all, this can be accomplished by "healthy" means. But whether it is sport, prayer, a big fat reefer, or whatever it is in the mix that does it for you personally, the want for a taste of euphoria every so often in no small way unites most of us at times.

The need and want to be happy is a very powerful motivator and the absence thereof is one gateway to substance abuse. In some cases, in reality this is a need to self medicate. Thus, other ways to address this issue could include an affordable for all response to medical alternatives.

(i.e. instead of a big box of nicobate costing between $24.99 to $38 and the like)

Suffice to say that in my view the economic mechanism ought to be prevented from gouging the wallets of those afflicted with addiction.

This practice of gouging the wallets of the afflicted is as offensive as "safety net" individuals having to buy their food from publicly listed, foreign owned companies.

Unfortunately, the absurd price of cigarettes is little more than a sop for the bleeding hearts on the one hand and a parasitic money grab by the immoral guvment PoliTicks on the other.

Other alternatives could include members' clubs

(as once there was)

where people who do like to smoke can also enjoy themselves. Surely common sense dictates that both these ends can be achieved?
Posted by DreamOn, Thursday, 1 January 2015 2:20:26 PM
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