I am a smoker. At the moment, I am having another go at quitting, but that is really irrelevent as there is no such thing as an ex-smoker. Only a lucky few *never* go back to the dreaded weed.
Two things, however, totally wind me up:
1) Would all the sanctimonious, holier-than-thou non-smokers who go on and on about how the quality of their lives is destroyed by smokers please bear in mind some of the difficulties we face. Many of us would like to give up - unfortunately, nicotine is several times more addictive than heroin. Consider also, if you can, the emotional and physical distress of being denied a substance to which you are addicted, and which you are accustomed to comsuming at roughly hourly intervals - for ten hours or more. Is it any wonder that the incidence of air-rage is on the increase?
2) Smoking is not illegal. We are breaking no laws by lighting up. If you don't like it, don't bitch at me - bitch at the governments who will do nothing about banning cigs because they cannot afford to lose the tax revenue.
3) The amount of damage done to a non-smoker on a smoking flight to the US must be pretty irrelevant compared to spending 2 hours a day in traffic jams in London, or breathing in the organophosphate fumes leaking from the engines through the air system in a BAe 146 (the vomit-like stench).
When you get down to the bottom line, smoking is bad. Nobody denies that any more. However, it would be nice if we could limit the amount of hysterical witch-hunting that seems so fashionable at the moment. There are plenty more things out there waiting to kill you.