Okay someone needs to stand up for the smokers; I’m tired of seeing people treated harshly for their life choice. Yes we can go over the usual anti smoker slander of it kills, it stinks, butts all over the ground ect. And yes you have some valid points there, however it is still a choice and we live in a society that is “free”, with that in mind where do you anit-smoking uppity douches get off degrading another human being for choosing to enjoy a cigarette from time to time? You think because you don’t that raises you to some god like authority on what is right and wrong? Now I know some smokers out there can be just as ignorant non-smokers by smoking in bus shelters, in public parks, or even close proximity to children and to them I say shame on you. I am a smoker and I have zero complaints on having to stand a few feet away from these areas to have a puff. But if the wind blows my smoke in your direction don’t you come over to me all red faced and ranting like a lunatic about how “I’m killing you with my bad habit”. We all have our vices for all I know you could go home and shove a hot curling iron up your arse because that’s how you unwind after a stressful day. To sum up we “smokers” are not out to get you, we don’t want to kill you and if the smell of cigarette smoke bothers you, wear a hazmat suit outside. We are people too and we have the right to smoke as much as it’s your right to not smoke. Stop treating smokers like outcast minority. If it’s not right to do it to other races or sexual persuasions, how is this any different? what will it take a mob of Non-smokers beating a smoker to death? I hope not. Can’t we all just get along? —Second class citizen because of second hand smoke
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2013.
are you seriously comparing yourself to racial and sexually orientated and disabled minorities?
I agree, the ranting lunatic was a dickbag. But are you SERIOUSLY comparing yourself to people who have no choice? People who, by nothing more than the colour of their skin, the shape of their eyes or who they are attracted to, are systematically and consistently marginalized? Are you seriously, SERIOUSLY lumping yourself into the same demographic as these people who were born into a mold that has unfairly been cast aside?
…
REALLY?
Your comparison of poison to skin colour makes me want to puke balls.
Fuck my ass… you make a bad case.
Are drug addicts not second class citizens? Just joking, ya drug addict.
As an ex-smoker off and on for over 40 years, I no longer support smoker’s so-called rights. It’s a gross, smelly and deadly habit and most smokers have no idea just how fucking badly they reek to non-smokers. It took me being a non-smoker to realize that.
Still, they are legal and, therefore, we have to suck it up in the meantime.
The ‘free’ society that allows you to smoke also provides the opportunity to others to complain about your smoking.
You said it yourself – “smoking kills” – Death is expensive, little buddy. We’re all left with the bill when you choke and kick the bucket or end up plugged in and crawling around a hospital ward for the last decade of your life.
And it’s not a hate crime.
smokers rights movement!?!?!
bahahahahahahahahaha
This is such a stupid bitch, hate crime? Please. Smokers stink and that’s a fact. Smokers are slowly killing themselves, that’s a fact. You were not born with this addiction therefore you can change if you want. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
If you have the right to blow toxins in public, people sure as fuck have the right to complain about it. No one is gonna commit ‘hate crimes’ on smokers, not that they would be ‘hate crimes.’ So relax.
I just quit smoking, best decision I ever made. With my new cooking classes I will learn to eat healthy and will live to be 100.
As a non-smoker, and someone who has never smoked, I admit I do not understand the appeal of smoking. Most smokers stink and have health problems. But that being said, it is you’re right to smoke if you choose to and I support your right to make that choice.
The argument about the cost to taxpayers because you smoke is valid, but it is unfair to target smokers only with this argument. That argument can be made to anyone who chooses to do something that hurts themselves such as smoke, eat poorly, not exercise, etc.
If you take steps to avoid smoking around someone, then non-smokers should recognize that you aren’t smoking around them, and we should move if the wind starts to blow it in our direction. Mutual respect.
Each side has valid points but you can’t dismiss each others arguments. Smokers have a right to smoke, and non-smokers have a right to breathe clean air.
Ass-fucking isn’t a bad thing, just so ya’ll know…
If we substitute smoking with beer drinking, it would be a very different argument.
Ryan87 said it best: “Each side has valid points but you can’t dismiss each others arguments. Smokers have a right to smoke, and non-smokers have a right to breathe clean air.”
Once we start eliminating or watering-down human rights, it’s a slippery slope!
yeah see this is what the world has come to because of people who think like this. If someone else dares to tell you that your behaviour is infringing on their personal space, they are dangerously close to committing a hate crime.
This has to be the stupidest thing i’ve ever heard. Freedom is a two-way street. If you have the freedom to express yourself how you see fit, that means that EVERYONE ELSE has the same freedom you do.
LOL Smokers Pride Parade? Smoker History Month? Smoker-Canadian Studies in high school? I smoke and am aware that it sucks and do apologize if you have to smell my last cigarette but it’s an addicition I’ve had since I was a kid and it’s not as easy to quit as some people might think. Seems easy enough – just don’t buy the smokes…
It is true that smokers have the right to smoke (though not to litter) and that people that don’t smoke have the right to complain about it. Realistically, if I am smoking outside, it is always away from entrances or areas where people would congregate. If someone were to walk up to me and complain, to my face, they’d have to go out of their way to do it and I would probably exercise my right to tell them to fuck off.
I don’t hate smokers OP because, generally speaking, I know how their story ends.
My issue is with breathing their smoke, both for health reasons and the fact that it stinks. How would smokers like it if I let a hot, wet stinky fart seep out upwind from them? Let them gag on that for a while. It’s my right though.
Reg, unless you have some powerful shit whispers, I doubt I would smell your hot, wet and stinky fart from 6 meters away outdoors. Perhaps a little after-wiff. I don’t think that that would force me to walk over to you and complain about it all self-righteously, though, just because I don’t fart.
Reg, good point, but if you did let a hot steamy fart out up wind from someone, they probably would not yell out at you.
No but try standing two steps up in front of someone on an escalator. Wretch.
point is OP, there is little else you could do that impacts the people around you more than blowing that nasty shit in their faces. A few feet? Why is it that smokers feel we have to put up and shut up?
I don’t wanna smoke your cigs with you so go stand somewhere else. If I can smell you…you’re too close.