Views: No Smoking!!!!

Yesterday we went out to have our shot of late night plaintea at aound 11. I, as always, asked the guy at the counter for a cigerette. This guy tells me that there's this fancy new law stating that we couldn't smoke in public places!!! Apparently three guys have been picked up by the police while they were having a fag on the pavement. Imagine my surprise for this was the first time I heard of this!!! Well... I'm not exactly up to date on current affairs. Blame it on our hostel and the lack of a decent TV room. But the main question here is "Do we need a law against smoking in public places???". Most Sri Lankans are non smokers. And some others, like me, smoke with extreme moderation; one cigerette per day, two tops, and a few more on social occasions. I know only a handful of heavy smokers. Ya we all know it's bad for your health and all but then again CO and lead particles are extremely bad for your health but no one suggests that we should stop using internal combustion engine.
If it's about the youth of the country getting addicted to smoking cos they see someone smoking in the bus halt...well what can I say...it wont be much help. People start smoking mainly because of the influence of their peers. No one farces you to smoke. You jsut start off wwanting to find out what's so cool about breathing in a puff of smoke and letting it out. In my case it was different. I was curious about smoking. True. But I was pissed off at these guys who aired commercials where a girl disses a guy cos he's smoking. Now... I value my freedom more than any woman on the planet (mabe except my mom) and it drives me totally wild when I see something like this. What I wanted to do was to get the message across to these "anti-smoking" guys. Keep your damned bitch... I live my life the way I want it and your petty words don't count for shit. I made up my mind to smoke (I was a non smoker and a non alcoholic and a vegetarian at the time).
It's a free world (apparently) and we have the right to make chaices about our lives. I chose smoking. Someone else would choose not to smoke. I respect that choice. And it's the responsibility of these so called "anti-smoking leagues" to respect the choices of who want to smoke. These "pana ne" phrases are just fueling the fire. No more smoking in public places (apparently this hasn't been approved by the cabinette yet)... fine...now could we get down to the real issues in this country...