What do you think of smoking?
I'm not a smoker. I used to have the occasional cigar, but that was a stage in my life.
I remember an era when people still smoking in restaurants, and only 13 years ago, you could smoke in pubs and clubs.
Nowdays I don't get why people still smoke. In Australia, the taxes has made it the most expensive place in the world to smoke. $20 USD a packet! Plus they have removed the branded packages and put uniform packages with photos of diseased eyeballs, brains, etc. It is so damn expensive and gross to smoke. But people still do!
I don't mind the smell of cigarette smoke. I do mind if someone is walking in front of me and is blowing smoke in my face.
Smoking at pubs in the outdoor sections is actually a good way to meet people, so if you go out and want to meet randoms, its a place away from your group and the loud music to do so.
So in that regard, the segregation of smokers has had a social benefit for some. Or you might think, who'd want to meet or hook up with a smoker?
If I see a beautiful girl and then see her smoking I'm turned off. Female smokers don't age well. They seem to get the wrinkles around the mouth more so than men (or is it only that I notice it on women?)
I once heard an argument that trying to stop deaths by tobacco is actually more expensive as an ageing population means more to be housed and treated for dementia. Not sure about that one.
I for one am glad not to have put up with the smoking habits of the 70s and earlier, when there was smoking everywhere. In offices, on planes, restaurants, etc.
I think the next stage of stopping smoking in my country will be the major supermarket chains banning the sale of tobacco. It's weird that "the fresh-good people" (slogan of Woolworths here) is a major seller of cigarettes.