Liberty going out of fashion?

SMOKING cigarettes is nothing short of crazy; and potentially devastating in its addictive impact. I should know; I’m one of the addicted, despite giving up 18 years ago. The narcotic involved is nicotine and it’s powerful.

No excuses, but I grew up in the days when nearly everyone smoked. While the Spanish and Portuguese sailors already smoked tobacco in the early 1500s, it was Sir Walter Raleigh – one of the elite of British society – who brought tobacco (with potatoes) to England in the late 1500s.

Can you believe that his compatriots thought that tobacco was good for your health while potatoes were bad? They were evidently not too bright in those days. By the 1970s, global society had been fully invaded by this highly potent drug. Billions smoked cigarettes.

Nicotine

What pleasure was gained from cigarettes? I have absolutely no idea. They don’t fill the stomach or quench the thirst. They aren’t even mood-enhancers like alcohol. The drug nicotine simply demands that you smoke a cigarette; and you obey. The only satisfaction is perhaps the lighting up and then that first drag of smoke; especially with friends. At the end of a cigarette, you feel noticeably worse than when you lit up.

As recently as the 1970s the world got the big shock. We were told convincingly about the direct contribution of cigarette smoking to lung cancer. There wasn’t a massive reaction to that. Some people cut down but you still had millions on a packet – that’s 20 cigarettes – a day. Many claimed to smoke to achieve calm and comfort. That was self-delusional, because nicotine increases the heartbeat and the effect is quite the opposite, as well as killing your senses of taste and smell. I never smoked more than five a day because I played a lot of sport. I only ever gave up once – that was on December 1, 2005, my late wife’s birthday. I was ashamed because she had never smoked one cigarette, but died of cancer. I have not touched a cigarette since, but the addiction is still there; lurking.

Costly

I’ve been surprised and, indeed, impressed to see very little cigarette smoking in Eswatini. Admittedly it is now a costly habit, but even among the well-to-do there is very little smoking. But, in some countries of the world, the habit is as deep as 50 years ago.

As a measure to reduce or eliminate the use of cigarettes, some smokers have now taken to ‘vaping’, an activity many consider as visually stimulating as ‘gaping’, (lol). It’s an e-cigarette that contains a vapour, usually with a small amount of nicotine among other components. It’s very popular with the youngsters, though illegal in many countries for them to buy it under the age of 18.

I write this today because in the UK where, ironically, the habit is dying, there are still too many people also dying. Its government has decided to come down hard on it. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will soon go to Parliament, restricting vapes for adults, and making it illegal for anyone born after 2009 to ever purchase cigarettes. That second aspect is laughable since, in a few decades, the 45-year-old will be able buy cigarettes while his 44-year-old friend won’t. Yet the Bill is expected to get passed.

The first protagonist to attempt a ‘smoke-free generation’ was Jacinda Ardern, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand. But the moment her party lost power, its plan to implement a phased ban was immediately scrapped by the new rightwing coalition government. It claims to use the taxes on cigarettes to cut other taxes. Apart from many Muslim countries or communities where tobacco smoking is ‘haram’ (prohibited) Britain now appears to be alone in the world; planning to phase out smoking completely.

Lockdown

A preparedness to concede personal freedoms in illiberal policies is becoming more evident in the UK, the severe lockdown during COVID-19 having led the public to accept the heavy-handed restrictions. It now looks like handing more individual control to government. A poll in late 2023 showed a quarter of respondents wanting nightclubs shut and a cap of six people for social gatherings. Yet it wasn’t so long ago that, while chancellor, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak privately lamented invasive lockdown restrictions.

Surely adults should have the right to make personal choices about how they live their lives? Indoor bans in public locations on smoking have existed in many countries for more than a decade; and rightly so. Since that ban, smoking has become a private choice; phasing out smoking being the right of the individual to determine his or her own destiny.

When the Bill is debated in Parliament, will anyone argue that the right to smoke cigarettes is as strong as the right to offend, to drink, to get fat, to not respect personal hygiene and to vape? Unfortunately, polls are showing the smoking ban to be popular. Respect for individual autonomy has long been a necessary feature of democracy. With this ban, MPs across the parties will vote to erode that respect. “Liberty means responsibility,” said the famous writer, George Bernard Shaw. “That is why most men dread it.”