First California, then New York and now it rears it’s ugly head overseas in Great Britain. The Smoking Police are out in full force and they are trying to eradicate the evil that is smoking from all corners of the globe. On the surface, it is a noble cause. Even I, as an addicted smoker of many years, realize the dangers of this particular habit. The medical effects can be deadly, the other features, such as the smell, the stained teeth, the worn out skin, only help worsen the results. There is nothing wrong with people working to make society healthier. I doubt anyone would have a problem with that thought process. The problem with all of this smoking regulation is much bigger than what we are seeing on the surface. And it is something that people everywhere, whether they smoke or not, need to pay attention to.
Take a look around the world at this current moment. The problems are abundant. Terrorism is on the tips of everyone’s tongue, both here in the US in our current election campaigns and more so elsewhere. The school massacre in Russia, the continual attacks in Israel, Iraq and the Middle East, genocide in the Sudan, a recent coup in Haiti, and so on and so on. Domestically speaking, we also have a huge budget, massive unemployment, Medicare issues and educational worries. All of these are huge, complex issues that scores of people are trying to figure out. Then we have the other stuff. The minor issues, but ones that are easily identifiable and possibly solved, that our government decides to address only when they have no other options. The most popular topic du jour of the moment is Gay Marriage, obviously VITAL to the well being of our country. Everyone has an opinion on it, mostly cause they can. It’s hard to formulate an intelligent response on how to rework Medicare, but on Gay Marriage, you can either say its right or wrong and that’s your whole argument. It’s the ultimate crutch for the politician, a timely social issue that they can get behind without putting in too much work.
It was not too long ago that smoking was the topic of the day. For years, California had instituted strict smoking laws in public places such as restaurants and bars. New York followed that path last year to much public outcry, though after some time the critics fell silent and remanded themselves to go outside in order to smoke. Now it appears that England is revisiting their smoking laws, both on the legal age and taxes. The idea is that this type of action will sweep throughout Europe, though anyone who has ever traveled abroad, especially to France and Italy, will tell you that citizens of those countries will respond to stricter smoking laws about as well as if you told a child that he could never eat candy. Their anger and frustration they would feel, very similar to what those of us in New York felt, is one that says, “Hey, mind your own freakin business!” The smoking age of 18, fine, kids shouldn’t have access to cigarettes. Increased taxes, they suck, but we will still pay them to get our smokes. The banning of smoking in bars, um, okay, fine, we’ll go outside, even if it seems ludicrous. But that’s it! If we don’t take a stand, where will it stop?
How long until government decides that something else we choose to enjoy is bad for us? What constitutes something being bad for us, aside from obvious medical evidence in the case of cigarettes? And even then, isn’t it up to us to decide what we take into our bodies. The government has always fallen back on the notion of “curing the ills of society” when times got tough. Prohibition occurred in the early 1920’s, and failed, because of two key principles. One, people want what they want and nothing can stop them if they want it bad enough. Two, people are not as stupid as the government thinks. Prohibition was the big political issue of it’s time, but it only served to mask the real problems, the rapidly failing economy, of which the government didn’t know what to do. So instead, they put on the brave face to fight the moral issue of the day. Flash forward to the 1980’s, when the economy was doing well but somehow unemployment was up, civil rights were being cast aside and we were on the brink of war. Cue the theme music and bring on “The War on Drugs.” Once again, it was as if the elected officials said, “Well, we can’t figure out how to save our economy and those damn Communists won’t listen, so what can we do to make people think we are doing something? I got it, Drugs. They’re bad, let’s go after them.”
Doesn’t this sound all a little too familiar to what is going on today? The US led the parade of smoking laws, at the same time we are in the epicenter of the Iraq quagmire. Following our lead now is Great Britain, taking on smoking, while being grilled over being the Robin to our Batman in the battle against Saddam. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Plus, we haven’t even gotten into the social ramifications of the smoking laws. New York used to be cool, like the outlaw buddy of yours who had that mystery about him and all the girls wondered about. Now, we are all grown up, driving a mini-van, dull as a Michael Bolton album. They took away our smoking rights, and we went from being the head of the cool table at lunch to the dork sitting by himself while the other cool kids, like Spain and Italy laugh at us. It has affected our bottom line monetarily as well, and while I don’t have concrete figures, I would venture to say that the number of European tourists to NY has declined, as has nightclub revenue and other evening entertainment. This makes sense. In the past, a couple of guys from Milan would live it up in NYC for a few weeks of partying, but now, with no smoking and dull times as far as the eye can see, who the hell will want to come here?
Talk all you want about how bad smoking is for you, that is not up for debate. But never forget that when the government decides what you can and can’t do for enjoyment, we all suffer. If not now, then in the future, and if we aren’t careful, we’ll go from being the coolest place on the planet, to wondering where all of our friends went. And then what are we? What will have become? We’ll be Canada. Pretty exciting eh?
