You take a cigarette from inside the box that stenches of tobacco, light the tip of the long, slender cigarette, and take a breath in and savor the moment of the tobacco entering your body. On a cold day, a cigarette can make your insides feel warm and tingly. Immediately, you feel all your nerves tingling as the nicotine passes through you. In an instant, you’re detached from the freezing conditions of the weather and stressful situations you’re forced to face. In this sudden moment, you’re indifferent to what’s around you. Some people rely on this luxury to keep them sane during the day, while others just enjoy the daily task of strolling down the street with a cigarette in one hand. If you think about it, smokers are already banned from many privately owned places as soon as they decide to whip out a cigarette. More and more restaurants, including bars, are banning tobacco use on their property. Smoking, which used to be extremely popular—and I daresay, even habitual, in the US during WWII, is now infamous. Back in the day, smoking was encouraged, but of course, that was before people knew tobacco was a carcinogen. Smoking booths were provided, even to teens like us in high schools. Although smoking is still a trend in today’s culture, there are many laws against tobacco use. I’d hate to be the devil’s advocate here, but everything is harmful to some extent, even water, so why target smoking? Smokers are being persecuted more and more. A majority of smokers smoke on the street because they are restricted from doing so indoors. If you can’t smoke outside, nor can you smoke inside then where can you do it? Nowhere.

Personally, I think the whole anti-tobacco industry is going overboard. It’s a person’s decision to choose if they want to smoke or not. Even if there’s a law against smoking on public grounds, people are still going to do it. If somebody wants to quit smoking, they must do so with their own motivation. You can’t have a law forced on someone to quit smoking. It would be an extreme affront to the smokers because if they were caught smoking on the streets, they would be fined a hefty amount of money. Prohibiting smoking on public streets also takes away personal freedom and liberty, two things that every person has a right to. The streets and sidewalks that we walk on are publicly owned. They’re as much yours as they are mine. Who are people to say what we can and cannot do there? People even have sex on the street. Why can’t you smoke there? I know a lot of people would disagree with me on this subject, however the American Lung Association, combined with politicians who enforce these laws are cornering smokers into defeat. What happened to the freedom of choice? Personally, I still believe in that right and I exercise my freedom to choose daily.

So if you’re a non-smoker, and you hate crossing paths with someone on the street smoking, then move away. It doesn’t bother anybody unless you choose to be bothered by it. History has developed the fact that you can’t force anybody to stop doing something they don’t want. It has to be a product of their free-will.