Why the anti-smoking movement is making me smoke more

Tuesday November 4, 2008

Sooner or later, writes Joe Jackson, the antismoking movement will collapse under the weight of its own extremism

As someone who has tried hard to help in the fight against smoking bans, it surprises some people to learn that I’m not a big smoker. I just like the combination of a drink and a smoke, and when I’m not drinking I don’t miss the fags at all. Not smoking isn’t that big a deal to me. Being forbidden to smoke, though, is quite another matter.

When the first European smoking ban was passed in Ireland, I was on holiday, on the lovely and underrated island of Madeira, and I saw a news report in my hotel room. Though my Portuguese wasn’t up to much, it wasn’t hard to understand the images of depressed smokers outside pubs, smugly smiling health ministers, and a rather bemused-looking newscaster – Portugal still has only mild smoking restrictions now.

Anyway, I suddenly felt not only furious but positively desperate for a cigarette. I went straight to the hotel bar, ordered a whiskey with a beer chaser, and smoked several back-to-back. I had fantasies of stuffing whole packs in my mouth at once and lighting them with a blowtorch. Then I bought the biggest cigar they had, and smoked that too (though not at the same time).

Rebellious

I’ve been accused of being ‘rebellious’, but that’s not quite right. I never wanted to be a rebel just for the sake of it. That’s just as dumb as always wanting to conform. No: it’s when authorities come and poke their noses into my business, and start pushing me around without legitimate cause – THAT is when I become rebellious. And I’m not the only one. The smoking ban in Ireland was soon followed by one in Italy, and since then, the smoking rate in both countries has gone UP.

Prohibitionist movements (and make no mistake, that is what antitobacco is) always eventually come unstuck because an inconvenient number of people simply won’t fall in line. Such movements have another way of sabotaging themselves, though: their disdain for the truth.

People have smoked tobacco for thousands of years. It clearly has benefits, otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it. It has the curious property of being both relaxing and stimulating. It helps memory and concentration, helps control weight, is a natural antidepressant, and helps protect against, or alleviate the symptoms of, quite a few diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. It also offers intangible, aesthetic pleasures: smell and taste, ritual, tradition, camaraderie, and so on.

Fearmongering

This all presents a problem for prohibitionists. For them to tell the truth – that heavy, long-term, cigarette smoking MIGHT harm the health of SOME people, and ‘secondhand smoke’ hurts no one – just won’t do. Only by relentless exagerration of the potential risks, more and more desperate fearmongering, and more and more oppressive and undemocratic legislation, can they hope to achieve their pipe-dream of ridding the world of tobacco forever. In spite of all their efforts, there are still over 1.2 billion smokers in the world, including probably well over ten million in the UK. The trouble is, the more outrageously the Antis lie, the more of us start to catch on.

I started catching on some years ago when California became the first US State to ban smoking pretty much everywhere, calling ‘secondhand smoke’ a sure-fire killer. I was skeptical about this, and started asking inconvenient questions: how do they know?
How are the studies done? What do the statistics really mean, in the real world? Where are the proven cases? All questions which antismokers still dodge every time, if they’re even asked at all – they’re mostly given a free ride by mainstream media and politicians.

Evidence

But the fact remains that no intelligent person who put any effort into understanding the true evidence on ‘passive smoking’ could possibly conclude that it’s anything to worry about. For that matter, much of the ‘science’ used to demonise ‘active’ smoking isn’t much better.

It’s ALL currently hyped to the point of hysteria. But my point here is that I wouldn’t have figured this out if these guys weren’t lying and bullying so outrageously. And as a result, guess what: I’m smoking more. Prior to the California ban, I was smoking an average of maybe three or four a day, and feeling vaguely nervous about it. Now, after years of research, I’m in the 5-10 range and feeling fine. Still pretty moderate compared to some, but that’s my choice: MY perception of what’s right for me – not some health minister’s, and certainly not some hack from the likes of ASH, handsomely paid by pharmaceutical companies to stigmatise me to the point of, in effect, calling me a murderer.

There are other ways the antismoking movement has me smoking more – like increasingly forcing me into a ‘smoking ‘ghetto’. For instance, I never used to smoke at home, or in hotel rooms. One of the ways I moderated my smoking was by thinking, ‘I’ll wait till I get to the bar.’ Not any more.

Loophole

In New York, my on-and-off home, there is a loophole in the law which permits about eight bars in town to allow smoking. So these are the bars I go to, and once I’m there – well, I’ve made the effort, and the statement, if you like, to go there: so I smoke! Probably more than I would otherwise have done. The same goes, even more so, for those places willing to flout the ban; if they’re willing to take the risk, the least I can do is smoke in return. I’m also a member of a posh private cigar club which I probably wouldn’t have bothered with if I could still smoke everywhere. But it’s a trip uptown to get there, and once again, since I’m there . . .

When I’m in England, I make a point of supporting pubs which can accommodate me outside with some sort of dignity, since I don’t want to lose that option. And again, I probably end up smoking more. Otherwise, though, I’m boycotting pubs in favour of more private parties, with casks of ale, good music and whatever else everyone feels like doing away from the CCTV cameras. It’s much more fun. And of course, we all smoke. A lot.

Appeal

I haven’t touched on the tendency for prohibition to turn things into forbidden fruit, and to actually increase their appeal, especially to young people. Personally, I think I’ve outgrown that impulse, though I’ve seen it in many intelligent American adults when I’ve produced a bottle of Absinthe smuggled in from Germany. Wow! They have to try it! And usually they don’t like it. Still, the appeal will go way down now that the USA has finally decided to de-criminalise the stuff.

Everything goes in cycles. Fanatics always sow the seeds of their own destruction. Right now the antismoking movement is winning all the battles, but sooner or later it will collapse under the weight of its own extremism, dishonesty, and sheer meanness. There will, inevitably, be a backlash and smoking will be more popular than ever. I hope to live to see it. Who knows, maybe then I’ll finally quit.

Joe Jackson is a musician and writer and a member of Forest’s Supporters Council

Link
Joe Jackson