Smoking and Gay Marriage

In an interesting post Thurber looks at smoking and gay marriage, wondering how the same people who support gay marriage can also oppose smoking. Her point is that both are practised by minorities, and in both cases the majority take away the right of the minority to do something.

Which is an interesting point. At the Ashtray Blog we support the smoking ban insofar as it is to protect non-smokers from passive smoking – why should non-smokers have to smoke when we light up? Freedom of choice in then impeding on the freedom of other people to be free from harm. In that respect alone, we disagree with Thurber – after all gay marriage does not inflict physical harm on other people.

However, when the smoking ban goes further, preventing smokers from smoking outside or in special rooms, it does inflict upon freedom of choice – although it could perhaps be argued that when a smoker is addicted he/she has already lost his freedom of choice as to whether to smoke or not in the first place.

Related posts:

1. The E Cig Phenomenon
2. Smoking & the Brain

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