One Last Puff

As an ex-smoker, I fully support the smoking ban in all enclosed public spaces shortly to be enacted here in Scotland. Unfortunately, smokers will still be able to puff away outdoors so we’ll still see cigarette butts littering the entrances to shopping centres and other public facilities. In my opinion, that’s as bad as the smoke so I think the ban should be extended to any public place, period, and heavy fines imposed upon the “one last puff” brigade who foul the area.

Being honest with myself, I guess my support of the ban would be less strong if I still smoked but I would not rebel against it. The most striking thing I noticed after stopping smoking myself was how much smokers stink! I remember being in my local library when a one-last-puffer came and stood at the bookshelf beside me, he positively reeked and I had to walk away repulsed.

“Holy shit!” I said to myself, “did I smell like that?” - I suppose I must have.

One thing I will never do however, is look down upon people who smoke, or try to convince them to stop. I once got into a heated argument inside a restaurant in the USA with a woman who had the stupidity to tell me that only people of low intelligence were smokers! People who know me will guess what happened next; I destroyed her feeble argument with a list of the most intelligent people who had ever lived and were also smokers, being a dimwit though, she had probably never heard of most of them.

To all you smokers, I offer this small encouragement from personal experience.  I found the hardest thing to overcome when stopping was the fear that it would be difficult, once I’d beaten that the rest was easy. Be aware that the desire to smoke never entirely leaves you, but a short while after stopping, the desire is very weak and lasts only a second or two. At least that was my experience, for you it may differ.