Yep...I reckon hot tar and burning torches, Nathan.

But when you can scrape a posse together, don't take a route where the traffic's busy - all that carbon monoxide could do you an injury.

Oh and don't forget these blighters hogging medical facilities..they'll have to be dealt with too!

"Alcohol and prescription drugs including common painkillers are causing more ambulance calls in Victoria than illegal drugs such as heroin and ice, new data reveals.

Victorian paramedics attended about 45 patients a day because of alcohol in 2013-14, compared to an average of four people daily for crystal methamphetamine, the drug also known as ice.

The second most common class of drugs responsible for ambulance calls was benzodiazepines; tranquilisers commonly prescribed by doctors to relieve stress and anxiety and to help people sleep. Benzodiazepines, which include Valium and Xanax, led to about 11 calls per day."

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/alcohol-prescription-drugs-beat-illegal-narcotics-for-most-ambulance-calls-20150816-gj07wk.html#ixzz3jzzE8bva

And when you've finished with them, I expect you and your comrades to picket the likes Of McDonalds et al - and every aisle in the supermarkets that stocks junk food - and harass anyone you see buying the crap and ingesting it.

There are so many avenues of delight to bash in modern Australian consumer society - why limit yourself to targetting smokers?

Poirot,

For a person to have four illnesses, it was not something I was ever expecting, along with other people worldwide forced into something they didn't want - illness.

With many smokers, there is a 'belief' (despite pictures/warnings etc) they feel there is no problem and they will never be affected in any form. Both of my parents though, used to be smokers and one was in the process of going through a heart attack whilst driving and collapsed in a local GP clinic and had to go to hospital.

Afterwoods, I was told, by one of my parents they wished they had listened to me earlier, as I had been trying to get my parents to give up smoking since childhood.

Smoke from cigars, cigarettes, and pipes harm humans in many ways, including flow on affects to unborn children. Also inhaling secondhand smoke, can be harmful to passers by. That's because the smoke that burns off the end of a cigar or cigarette contains very harmful substances.

So the "deniers" of this issue (in terms of smoking) very quickly focus on something else and don't realise the damage put onto others. Yes health across the board is needed, but I'm sure too many people will want to "avoid" that as well.

Nathan,

What? I don't have any illnesses? Might it just be that I don't feel the need to tell everyone? You know nothing about me, and never will. Some things are personal. Oops, sorry: you don't think so, do you?

We would do well to remember that cigarette smokers currently pay an absurd amount of tax, forcing those on lower incomes to smoke rollies which are both heavier on tar and heavier on the lung.

I am not aware of exactly how much tax is being collected but I wouldn't be surprised if it well exceeds the cost of any medical services that they require, but perhaps someone informed can enlighten us.

However, it also wouldn't surprise me if the majority of the cigi taxes went into the consolidated revenue of the PolitTicks, and not to medicine and cigi disease research were arguably it should be going to.

If that is the case, you can hardly blame smokers for clogging up the medical system when they have already paid their dues several times over.

Thereafter, I am personally in favor of smoking venues where smokers can enjoy themselves like everyone else, provided suitable tech systems for ventilation and filtration are fitted. Perhaps membership could turn on appropriate legal waivers being signed in advance.

Another thing that I do not know is whether or not the old smokers' adage is true or not?

"That results from the morgue show that the lungs of a smoker living in rural areas looks better than a non-smoking city dwelling smog sucker."

nathan,

I was referring to this point that you raised:

"So instead of just taking down people with an illness, recognise that what smokers are doing is essentially "stealing" medical professionals away from people with illness they did not put onto themselves."

And I was making the point that there are myriad behaviours necessitating care from medical professionals - behaviours that aren't forced on people - that are lifestyle choices.

Why single out one behavioural choice and label it ".... "stealing" medical professionals away from people with illness they did not put onto themselves."?

One more thing, Nathan.

While I'm sympathetic to you for coping with multiple medical conditions, I'd advise you to get on with your lfe and stop resenting other people having access to the self same medical expertise as you enjoy.

You wrote:

"I have 3 medical conditions, now 4 (none of my own choice) and yet smokers, think they have some holy right to treatment and take away doctors, nurses and other health services when they end up with severe illness.'

My adult daughter developed diabetes (Type 1) at ten years old. That is not a condition linked to lifestyle, but the result of an auto-immune reaction that destroyed the insulin producing cells in her pancreas.

She's now 33 and does four insulin injections a day...every day....plus a whole regime of diet, exercise and insulin adjustment.

I've never heard her begrudge anyone else medical attention. She's grateful to live in a society where she can ably manage her condition.

Get on with your life, Nathan. Stop worrying about what other people receive and why they receive it - and take the time to appreciate the care you receive in a very fortunate society.