Manic Monday: Smoking

When you talk about smokers, you are inevitably going to make someone upset because most people that smoke are very passionate about their personal freedom to smoke as they please. This passion has grown now that an already large group of cigarette smokers have been multiplied by an equally large number of smokers who have
transmogrified themselves and their habits into huge clouds of vapor. BUT smoking is inevitably smoking.

An estimated 40 million adults in the United States alone currently smoke cigarettes which is dwarfed by the fact that over 1 billion people are categorized as smokers worldwide. In 2014, this was nearly 20% of the world population. While smoking rates have leveled off or declined in developed nations, especially among men (which accounted for a staggering 800 million of that 1 billion statistic in 2014), in developing nations tobacco consumption continues to rise. But this is not a celebration of how many people choose to kill themselves slowly by smoking; these Manic Monday blogs are about pet peeves and things that drive people insane. Someone, who is not a smoker, having to endure the stench of cigarette smoke or having to walk through a huge strawberry flavored cloud of vapor is most definitely a lot of people’s pet peeve.

I’m all for people living their life as they please. Everyone should be able to live their own lives as they choose but when your personal freedom invades my nostrils, I must draw the line. I find it distasteful when me and my family are walking through the local grocery store and walk through a steam engine sized plume of banana flavored vapor. Or better yet when you are with your toddler in the park and someone sparks up a Marlboro Red beside of you on the bench. Is it dangerous to me and my CHILD to smell your smoke? Yes! And do I find it deplorable for people to smoke while I can smell it or be affected by it knowing that I don’t smoke…well you know the answer to that.