A martian landing on earth would be forgiven for thinking that smoking was one of the greatest dangers facing the planet today, up there with global warming, nuclear weapons and AIDS. Everywhere you look, there seems to be a war raging against the little sticks and the people who enjoy them.

New York was one of the first major cities to ban smoking in public places, closely followed by many U.S. states. We got in on the act in 2006, and now the campaign against tobacco is even spreading to the Middle East, where Iraq have decided to ban smoking in public. That’s right, Iraq. They’ve decided to give up tackling the insignificant problems of their country collapsing around their ears in a mess of suicide attacks and sectarian violence, and instead focus on the real enemy, cigarettes.

No-one in their right mind would argue that smoking isn’t bad for you, of course it is. There’s a wealth of medical evidence to suggest that smokers live less healthy and shorter lives than the rest of us. But let’s be honest, with the amount of fat and cholesterol we shovel into our bodies on a daily basis, we’re not ones to talk. The oil we pour onto our foods so that after we’ve finished eating, it looks like we’ve put on lip gloss. For some people, the poison (AKA alcohol) they pour down their throats, which eats away at their livers. All of this stuff is much more likely to shorten our lives than having a few cigarettes a week.

Besides, what happened to freedom of choice? The exaggerated “Smoking kills” signs written on packets, the ineffective TV ads, the tutting and dirty looks people fire at anyone who lights up (excuse the pun), all of the silent and not so silent judging; all of it is part of this holier than thou attitude that envelopes the entire phenomenon of smoking. The whole thing is incredibly patronising.

Second hand smoking is the one area where anti-smokers may have a point. It’s unfair for those who choose to remain healthy to have to breathe in toxic chemicals, so the indoor smoking bans may have a point, of sorts. But again, this has been taken to extremes. In California, it’s illegal to smoke closer than 20 feet to a doorway of a public building. Like Iraq, it’s good to see the Sunshine State has its priorities sorted. Ignoring the fact they are almost completely bankrupt, the Terminator and his team focus on the dastardly cigarettes.

Unchecked, these smoking Nazis would roll this plan across the country and even worldwide, to the point where the 1.22 billion people (one fifth of the world’s population) who smoke would probably be forced into clearly marked areas, policed, where they would smoke as if committing a heinous act.

Fortunately, the government of this country at least, will never actually launch into a full-out crusade against cigarettes. It’s because they’re not actually stupid (despite Gordon Brown’s attempts to prove otherwise). The tax it brings in prevents the NHS from total collapse. And the taxes are stupidly high. Duty free cigarettes at airports are almost half the price of those sold in shops up and down the country. So  the fight against cigarettes, in this country at least, will never be more than half-hearted on the government’s behalf.

So what’s my point? I guess it would be “live and let live”. If smoking affects you, then you’re entitled to be annoyed. However, for the vast majority of people, the most they’re affected by smoking is catching a whiff of the smoke as they walk past a street corner. And this is something to get so worked up about? You inhale more poisonous fumes from cars every time you cross the street. I don’t smoke, but we should stop patronising the one fifth of the world’s population who do, and leave them and their cancer sticks the hell alone.

by Shaahid Hasan Jaffer

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