When I gave up smoking I decided I would never be one of those ghastly ex-smokers. Some of my freinds still smoke. I used to go outside into the porch for a fag when I smoked (non smoking partner) so I still expect smoking friends of mine to go out too, but I can still provide an ashtray and stand with them to continue the conversation. In fact I like to think the only thing I do significantly differently is that I don't light one up myself.
The militant anti-smoking brigade never did anything to encourage me to stop smoking in all the 12 years I did. In fact they just made me feel either miserable or defiant. Miserable people smoke more and defiant people blow smoke at you just to piss you off- totally counterproductive then.
It's common courtesy to try not to smoke around children or in the thick of a crowd but when you look around where you happen to be (the town centre for example) and there is nowhere as far as the eye can see that is not in the thick of a crowd what then? It's easy to say "don't smoke" but the stuff is officially more addictive than Heroin, you are effectively asking a junkie to stop injecting, it's just not realistic. Smokers can really suffer if they can't smoke. That's why so many smoke out of the windows on trains, they know there is a fine, they know it upsets everyone, they just can't stand it anymore. Making train stations non smoking only meant smoking on trains increased (ask train staff). Look at what happened when hospitals went to totally non-smoking grounds. Patients still smoke, but now they sneak off in the bushes where no one would notice if they blacked out, to do it. That's inhuman. Sick people shouldn't have to breathe unwanted smoke either, I do understand that, but would it be so hard to have a little bus stop style smoking shelter somewhere on the grounds with decent lighting and a roof for rainy weather and an ash tray? It'd clean up all the sneaky dog ends round the bushes overnight I am sure. Most smokers really don't want to upset you by having a sneaky one out of the door of A&E at 5.30am in the driving rain when no one is looking, they really don't, but what realistic choice are you giving them?
Making life really miserable for smokers and kicking them for doing what they have to do is not only conterproductive and ineffective it's cruel.
Smokers exist, like it or not, and they can't all be expected to just pack it in this very second because it's not convenient to the anti-smoking-brigade. That's just not realistic. Smokers pay enough tax to fund something like 14 new hospitals a year already, they can't smoke anywhere that is public indoors, hell they can't even legaly smoke in thier own cars if that car is arguably used for work. If they do smoke in thier own homes or cars they are branded as dangerously irresponsible if they ever give a lift to a child or invite one round, let alone what society says about smokers who have thier own kids.
The street is the last place you can legally smoke and the anti-smoking brigade have the temerity to whine about that- they are the ones that caused it to be that way! If there is a smoker in front of you walking along and you don't like it, then stop for 2 minutes and wait for goodness sakes. Just like you would if a stinky unwashed drunken person was in front of you. You probably wouldn't expect the alcoholic to be sober immediately however. You do expect the smoker to be miraclously cured though.
The entire anti-smoking brigade are totally unreasonable.