This smoker supports the ban

I SMOKE. I wish I had never started. Apart from the health issues and damage these toxic sticks have caused myself and loved ones, there’s the money – oh, the money! – I’ve wasted to kill myself slowly. Stupid, really.

The argument I am hearing lately about smoking and open air eateries is an interesting one, but, having read and heard both sides of this two-sided coin, I must side wholeheartedly with the smoking ban about to be introduced in Malaysia. It is fair and it is the first step in catching up with most of the planet’s disgust for smoking, and the laws that are in place in almost every public environment globally.

I ask this of those who are adamant in keeping the ban from happening or who will defy the ban and continue to try their luck smoking in places where it will soon be banned: Would you smoke in a movie theatre, your colleague-filled office, your family doctor’s office or on public transport, trains, in Grab cars, or queueing up at the post office or in a government facility?

Would you light up while visiting a loved one in hospital, or in an airport departure lounge, let alone the plane you are flying home on? No, I suspect, and gosh, you are still alive and managed to abstain during any one of these, often lengthy non-smoking periods.

Good for you, you can and will manage come January 2019 onwards.

Think about it. Think about others. Think about those who have never smoked, or those who most enjoy the taste and fragrance of a good curry or a cendol with all their fresh variances and flavours.

What an insult it is to blow smoke into the face of our family members, let alone at the laws that we as smokers have all known would be enforced soon.

Those of you who believe this is an insult to your civil liberties or an attack on you personally, I assure you, it is not. It is about the health of the nation and the health of our families, not to mention our own health. Non-smoking by-laws are put in place in public places for a reason, because they work and keep the general public healthy.

The other bewildering argument that is circulating is that the government should find means other than the smoking ban to help those addicted to quit and not use the restaurant ban as a means to an end. Well, there is no correlation. The #1 reason we as children or young adults began smoking in the first place was peer pressure, or the desire to look grown-up and mature.

Our influences were from those around us, a parent, sibling, aunt or uncle smoking, and we established our life-long addiction. Nine times out of 10, it involved a family member lighting up after or even during a meal. We were hooked before we even took our first drag.

Oh, and by the way, satisfaction from a cigarette before or after a meal is a myth. Cigarettes only ruin a good meal and it ruins the experience for anyone who has to breathe in our toxic clouds, including us.