As a previous poster said above, the big pharmaceutical companies push anti-smoking laws to get more people to buy nicotine products. Companies like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson sell more nicotine to the public than the cigarette companies do.

Besides, smoking is a convenient scapegoat - for politicians and activists who lack the will or intellect needed to fight pressing needs. Its a ideological distraction these folks would never let anyone wrest from their control.

Incidentally, former smokers are among the most anti-smoking people I know!

Smokers deserve respect as people,
their behavior in regards to smoking however does not.

I read all 69 comments as a result of your posting and now will make my own.
Smoking is my privilege...............something I choose to do for myself. It helps relieve tension and cuts back on the appetite. It can be very relaxing after an arduous workout...................it has medicinal value. I don't take 'nerve' pills, diet pills or any kind of man made pills to change my mood.............I smoke. It's healthier.............for me anyway. I've smoked for 45 years, never have known anyone who has suffered from 2nd hand smoke. Smoked during 3 pregnancy's, grateful for small babies. biggest was 7.5lbs. Raised 3 kids in a dual smoking environment. boy does not smoke, girls do. No ill effects known from smoking in this family or other families of known smokers. Smoking allows me to stop and take a break when I'm working. If I can't sleep at night I can get up and go to an all night restaurant(in Missouri) and have coffee and a smoke and visit with the waitresses there. I miss that, (now that I'm in Utah.) I can remember when smokes were 3 packs for $1.05 and you could smoke them anywhere, at work, school, planes, trains, department stores, grocery stores, restaurants, bars, bus stops, parks, stadiums, so forth and so on..................................then changes came about, the only places left were bars and restaurants who invited smokers to come in. Restaurants gave them a section of their own. Then these self righteous do gooders have joined forces to strip smokers of having any place to smoke except in their own home..................and now that's on the hit list. No one has given up as much as smokers. We no longer can 'light up' where or when we want, like we used to, that privilege has been taken from us................and is continually be taken away in different places..............................now we even offend the dead in their graves. The price of cigarettes has been taxed so high in some places, you can't enjoy smoking like you used to, because it's too expensive...........................discrimination.................why is it non smokers are allowed to come into a smoking establishment but a smoker is not allowed to go into an establishment that used to have a section set aside for him or her. What happened to equal rights? Why can't a business open their doors to smokers only, non smokers, not allowed..........................something is just not right, when non smokers can outlaw smokers from places they've always been and have the governments support them. What about us.................who supports us in having the same rights as a non smoker. If a non smoker wants to enter an establishment where smokers are he/she has that right, a smoker does not...........................not anymore. If I wanted to open an establishment for smokers only and forbid non smokers from coming in, I would be in big trouble, first, I doubt if I would be given such a license, but smokers are not allowed to go in to a public establishment because of whiny non smokers and the corrupt governments that do the bidding of powerful lobbyist. Most smokers have been considerate of their non smoking counterparts for many years. We have accepted the loss of many of our freedoms without much of a fight. We pay more for a product than we ever have..........................and we still smoke. It has purpose.................for us. I think smokers should unite in a movement to 'make' non smokers pay a fee for clean air. It will be added to their bill in a restuarant where there used to be a smoking section, on planes, trains, stores, etc. etc Wherever smokers once were, now non smokers will pay for all that clean air they've been given at our expense.......................it's fair.................. non smokers should have to pay for their privelege of closing the door on equal rights........................don't you think????

Smoked during 3 pregnancy's, grateful for small babies.