Bad Habits

It's good to see that the war on bad habits still isn't over.  Only this evening my local TV news programme brought us the shocking news that some smokers in the region could be unwittingly be smoking illegal tobacco.  The bastards!  As if smoking wasn't anti-social enough, they're also depriving the taxman of revenues and encouraging criminality with their filthy habits!  Jesus!  Next thing you know, they'll be be smoking bloody horse meat!  Don't misunderstand me, I appreciate that smoking is an unhealthy habit, but it is the vehemence with which smokers are still pursued and demonised, even after smoking has been banned from public places and cigarettes treated like hardcore pornography, locked away behind shutters in shops selling them.  Maybe it is because I'm a lifelong non-smoker that I don't have this pathological hared of smokers: unlike born-again non-smokers, I don't fear that the sight or smell of cigarettes will persuade me to lapse.  Indeed, a lot of these anti-smoking measures seem to be predicated on the idea that the only reason people smoke is because they are mesmerised by the sight of those colourful packets or because they are ignorant of the possible ill-effects of long-term smoking.  The reality, I suspect, is that people start smoking for much the same reasons that most drinkers start drinking and drug users start taking drugs - they enjoy it, it gives them a kick.

But smoking isn't the only bad habit that has been vilified of late - only the other week we had calls for a 'fat tax' to be put on soft drinks.  Once again, those of us who imbibe such liquids are well aware that they aren't really healthy - we drink them because we enjoy them.  The reality is that very few people are actually 'addicted' to things like Coca Cola and for whom the soft drink is the main cause of their obesity.  Just as there are few smokers left who chain smoke themselves into an early grave or drinkers who become alcoholics.  Indeed, there are even significant numbers of drug users who aren't addicts.  None of these things, done in moderation, will necessarily kill you.  It is when they are done to excess that the problems start.  But those who do become addicts don't do so simply because of the availability of fags, booze, drugs or soft drinks.  There are many reasons why anybody becomes an addict, ranging from psychological factors to environmental factors.  Which is why I have such a problem with these campaigns against smokers or drinkers or whatever - they refuse to acknowledge the complexity of addiction and instead opt for the simplistic 'solution' of prohibition.  Which won't ever solve the whole problem.