Smoking versus Drinking

Okay so come on, who are they kidding? They’re trying to stamp out cigarette smoking, citing health issues, but what about alcohol? Can anyone deny that it’s a lethal poison? No? Didn’t think so. Proponents of the stop smoking campaigns, guilds, leagues, groups and clubs all say smoking is objectionable. Non-smokers don’t like the smell, and therefore, more and more smokers are banned from indulging in their little, harmless pleasure in public places. We have to sneak off to broom cupboards, loos or stand outside in the freezing cold and pouring rain. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of the exercise, because it’s enjoyable when you’re not shivering and soaked, or cramped in a toilette or squashed in a broom cupboard in mortal fear of being discovered.

So, some people get lung cancer. Whether or not smoking actually increases your risk is debatable. Many people live to a ripe old age, while smoking 30 a day. Who says those people who do get lung cancer wouldn’t have got it anyway? With the amount of pollution in the air these days, maybe it’s the soot and crap in the air we breathe. Let’s say it can cause cancer, I’ll give you that. It’s possible. Most smokers are adults, so if they want to smoke and take the risk, isn’t that their choice? Do we live in a police state these days, where we’re told what to do?

Nowadays, smokers are vilified, and the governments are all jumping on the bandwagon to tax cigarettes, which pleases the alcoholics no end, and fattens the government’s coffers. It doesn’t stop people from smoking, though. No, we’ll just find a cheaper brand, or cut out some other luxury, in order to pay for our habit. Yes, we’re addicts, but so are alcoholics, only they’ve got a fancy name for it, but they’re alcohol addicts!

Cheaper brands, by the way, are higher in tar and nicotine, and are therefore worse for you. Smokers are banned from smoking in public places, and even in their own homes, if they have small children or a maid who doesn’t smoke. Is this going to stop us? Not a chance. That non-smoking maid will simply get the sack, and we’ll hire one who smokes. There are plenty of those, who will appreciate a working environment where they can smoke, too. Maybe smoking does cause some health issues, but what about alcohol? Why isn’t that vilified to the extent that smoking is? Smoking doesn’t make you incapable of driving a car, or lead to acts of violence.

Nor can you die of smoke poisoning, but you can, and many people do, die of alcohol poisoning, because it’s a poison! That’s why it causes mental confusion. It’s poisoning your brain, and killing a whole bunch of grey matter in the process. Why is this fact always swept under the rug? Everybody’s okay with that!

How many people die every year, hell, every day, from drunken driving, domestic violence, liver cirrhosis and alcohol poisoning? Then there are the people who get drunk and do stupid things that lead to their, and other people’s, death or injury. Non-smokers claim that many people die of smoking-related diseases, but how does that number compare to the number of people who die of alcohol-related diseases, violence and accidents? It’s a drop in the ocean by comparison. Yet drinking alcohol is encouraged, advertised and accepted. Smoking never caused a car accident, or made a husband beat his wife, or made soldiers commit horrendous atrocities, but alcohol has, and does, all the time.

So, let’s ban alcohol rather, and reduce the number of fatal road accidents, liver cirrhosis, heart disease and violent deaths, and let people who enjoy smoking tobacco, a relatively harmless pastime, have their little pleasure. As a teetotaller smoker, I’m all for that!