• Smoking makes no sense. I know I do it, but I refuse to encourage it
I’m a smoker and have been one for more years than I care to remember.
I would like to think that I have known about the dangers posed by tobacco and nicotine use for as long as I have indulged in the habit.
I would hope that my smoking has never encouraged anyone else to do so, but as you never know who you have touched in your life and how, I couldn’t say for sure.
People who have discussed cigarettes with me know that I enjoy smoking and have, as yet, found no reason to give up. But they also know I strongly encourage those who have not begun smoking to never begin the habit.
Yes, I understand how perverse my position on smoking is, but I never took an oath to be sensible in all things.
Now that those disclaimers are out of the way, let me tell you what's going on with smokers in South Africa at the moment.
The government here is busy with anti-smoking legislation, the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, which includes a proposed ban on advertising.
Not only will tobacco manufacturers and those people who make vapes and e-cigarettes be unable to market their products, the bill, which is currently before Parliament, recommends a fine or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both for smoking or vaping in front of children or non-smokers, no matter where.
So if you are in a room in your own house and there happens to be a non-smoker or someone under the age of 18 present, you will have committed a crime.
If the bill becomes law, the same punishment will apply whether you are smoking in your own car or even in the street or any other outdoor public place where there are non-smokers or children.
I am not sure how they will define the distance outdoors, but smokers will have to be very observant about where they do their thing.
Perhaps there will be specially designated alleyways or street corners or something along those lines because as it is now, it is impossible to know every non-smoker around you, and who can predict when someone under 18 is going to walk past?
If I had some decent capital, I would go around the country opening up smoking enclosures, much like those that can be found in some airports.
Actually even without capital, it's a good idea, as I'm sure the tobacco companies who will be saving so much cash on advertising will have some spare cash lying around to fund these.
That is, of course if they have any cash left as they seem to be spending every last available cent in their Treasury to fight the proposed legislation.
I recently received a very tempting offer to join a sponsored press junket to Poland for a conference sponsored by the pro-tobacco lobby.
Had I accepted the offer, next week I'd be setting off on a four-day long trip “attended by media from all over the world” to join delegates at the 10th annual Global Forum on Nicotine from June 21 to 24 in Poland’s capital, Warsaw.
The conference is around the euphemistically titled theme of “Tobacco harm reduction”, which basically means getting people off traditional cigarettes and into vaping and e-cigarettes, which are promoted as being lower risk.
The trip was sponsored by one of the world’s biggest tobacco manufacturers, who was ready to pay for business class flights, all meals and hotel accommodation and even to pay for the Schengen Visa.
One of the reasons I declined this generous invitation was because I am old enough to recall that until 1998, when a lawsuit forced them to find new ways, tobacco companies insisted, through their bought and paid-for researchers, that there was still a “controversy” over whether cigarettes were unhealthy.
As I said, I smoke. I know the damn things are harmful to my health and the health of those around me.
My smoking is my choice but I will not help you pull the wool over the eyes of others just so you can continue making obscene profits. It’s not how I roll.