Brenton
Smokers Rights
November 5th 2007 00:41
My friend is a smoker. To be honest this just kind of pisses me off. However, I’m going to try to write an article here with minimal sarcasm in it.
For a pretty long time I’ve been a proponent of people having the technical right to use drugs. My friend makes no small point about pointing this out passionately, every time I have a go at smokers.
“You protect everyone else and say they can do what they want to their body but you’re happy to see smokers trampled on.”
The difference as far as I see is that I don’t have ravers blowing ecstasy in my face every time I’m waiting at a bus stop.
But I do concede a few points. Yes, smokers can pollute their bodies if they wish. Yes, they have the right to smoke. No, their choice of self affecting behavior doesn’t justify treating them like lesser beings.
That said, I do have a problem with the idea of Smokers rights. Not because I don’t think smokers have rights, but because I don’t see them as having any special rights. Black rights, Gay rights, Women’s rights all function because it is accepted that that individual is as they are – they cannot change (without, as it is, SERIOUSLY extreme biological or psychological modification).
However, I have never met a smoker who endured the pain of being the only kid in preschool treated differently because he was addicted to smoking.
So in conclusion; yes, you have the right to do what you want to your own body so far as it does not affect anyone else. Yes, it is wrong that you be singled out as mistreated for your choice of activity. But for the love of God – cut out the Martin Luther King shit.
IMAGE by Kalandrakas
For a pretty long time I’ve been a proponent of people having the technical right to use drugs. My friend makes no small point about pointing this out passionately, every time I have a go at smokers.
“You protect everyone else and say they can do what they want to their body but you’re happy to see smokers trampled on.”
The difference as far as I see is that I don’t have ravers blowing ecstasy in my face every time I’m waiting at a bus stop.
But I do concede a few points. Yes, smokers can pollute their bodies if they wish. Yes, they have the right to smoke. No, their choice of self affecting behavior doesn’t justify treating them like lesser beings.
That said, I do have a problem with the idea of Smokers rights. Not because I don’t think smokers have rights, but because I don’t see them as having any special rights. Black rights, Gay rights, Women’s rights all function because it is accepted that that individual is as they are – they cannot change (without, as it is, SERIOUSLY extreme biological or psychological modification).
However, I have never met a smoker who endured the pain of being the only kid in preschool treated differently because he was addicted to smoking.
So in conclusion; yes, you have the right to do what you want to your own body so far as it does not affect anyone else. Yes, it is wrong that you be singled out as mistreated for your choice of activity. But for the love of God – cut out the Martin Luther King shit.
IMAGE by Kalandrakas
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