- The Right to Smoke -
Smoking Bans and Smokers Rights

The right to smoke is an oft repeated mantra used by smokers to suggest that smoking in public places should not be restricted.

The argument against smoking bans is that the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes in indoor spaces can be controlled simply by installing good ventilation.

Public smoking bans however, are not just about controlling for the possible harmful effects of smoking, they are also engineered to change public opinion and provide good role models for the young because youth are more vulnerable to smoking initiation messages.

The smoking facts reveal that in conjunction with other anti-tobacco laws and measures, stopping smoking in public places can be effective in changing overall attitudes towards smoking, and that individual rights or freedoms are not restricted when smoking laws to protect the public are enacted.

Smoking Facts About Individual Rights, Freedoms and Choices

Smokers have rights, you even have the right to smoke a legally addictive product. What you do not have the right to do, is harm other people when you make that choice.

It would be nice if you as a smoker decided that you would protect other people from the harmful effects of smoking your cigarettes, but the problem is that all members of society cannot rely on the goodwill of all smokers to protect their health.

We need smoking bans and laws to make sure that people who smoke cigarettes do not harm others by their actions.

Such laws are put in place when there is an acknowledged risk that use of a product may be harmful to the public. Laws and regulations are put in place to restrict when and how that product can be used. You cannot drink alcohol, drive an automobile, or fly a plane anywhere you like although they are all legally available products.

The Right To Smoke - Freedom or Slavery?

If individual rights and freedoms are important to you, why did you give them up by making the choice to become enslaved to the cigarette?

Isn't it time to address your smoking addiction and become really free from the oppressive effects of smoking cigarettes?

Smoking bans and smoking laws are not a conspiracy to rob you of your individual rights and freedoms. You have already given them away.

Your smoking addiction makes you a slave to the cigarette and you are being manipulated by the tobacco companies (with your permission of course) who say they care about you, their valued customer, but then they provide you with their products that are known to be harmful and will shorten your life span.

What business in their right mind would kill their own customers?

You believed their biggest lie when you first became a smoker. They tricked you into thinking that use of their product would somehow improve your life and make it more enjoyable.

Since you freely made that choice to believe them you are now enslaved and have given up many of the freedoms that non-smokers seek to preserve.

By believing in your right to smoke (See Smoker's Rights - Does the Right to Smoke Really Exist?) and continuing to use cigarettes you have lost the freedom to breathe, to remain healthy, to fight infection and to have full rewards from the money you earn.

Tobacco companies want you to believe fervently in the right to smoke because they benefit if you do. And the longer you smoke the more money you put in their pockets. (See the Financial Advantages of Quitting Smoking)

The real question you have to ask yourself is...

If smoking is bad are smokers bad people because they smoke cigarettes?

Go to Smoking is Bad - Smokers are Not

Go back to Smokers Rights -Current Ethical Issues and Public Smoking Bans

Go back to Smoking Bans - The Effect on Businesses When Anti Smoking Laws Stop Smoking in Public Places

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