Smoking law
...of people who desperately need an outlet for their stress. This argument is especially strong because United States presents itself to the world as a symbol of freedom. To infringe the individual’s liberty to smoke at a time like this therefore seems positively unpatriotic. One writer, for example, stated that “it is a sad miracle that liberty has gone so out of style in some parts of our country as to make these smoking bans possible. These laws rob individuals of their freedom and replace it with a government bureaucracy acting in loco parentis-in the place of parents-to regulate personal behavior with a heavy hand. Any public health benefit gained in this transaction is far outweighed by the price paid by millions in individual liberty.” The opposite side, however, states that the liberty argument is weak. Cigarette smoke is unhealthy, not only for the smoker who chooses his poison, but also for people who inhale the smoke. ”Smoking is expensive, offensive, and addictive, and it's practically guaranteed to ruin your health. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that it causes the death of someone every 10 seconds.” Many people have the right to stay healthy as long as they could. Therefore, they don’t have to spend their time inhaling other people’s liberty. In addition to the liberty arguments against the bans, smokers and their supporters say that they are discriminated. According them, lots of activities besides smoking have unpleasant and unhealthy effect. Some of these activities such as driving polluted vehicles on the streets remain permissible. Why should smoking be treated differently? Smokers are convinced that the government does not truly care about pollution but uses pollution only as a pretext to go after a “despised” group. Such statement, however, sounds a little weird. People who enjoy unwinding with a cigarette are not a despised group in the society. Also, when it comes to what to be prohibited, the government seems to cut it favor of more harmful pollution, rather than the less harmful one. A final argument against the smoking bans is that people who smoke are simply choosing to relax in one of the variety of ways. They say that many of them are addicted to nicotine and NEED to smoke. Even Philip Morris agrees with “… the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking is addictive. It can be very difficult to quit smoking, but this should not deter smokers who want to quit from trying to do so.” Smokers also complain that prohibition of smoking in public isolate them from their groups. I, myself believe that this argument is quite strong. I have seen many students standing outdoors, looking miserable, smoking in the rain…Consuming cigarettes for them does not represent a fully voluntarily choice; they are just addicted. The contr...