Smoking ban: Does the UK government have the right to take away dangerous pleasures?

The smoking ban is illiberal, by definition. The UK government is essentially making a decision for individuals it believes lack the capacity to make the decision for themselves.

As The Scotsman’s health correspondent, I know all too well the perils of smoking. The heart disease, the strokes and the painful, undignified deaths from lung cancer, which can be a consequence of smoking tobacco, are easily preventable. Just don’t smoke.

The same can be said for many of the things human beings find enjoyable. Fatty foods lead to blocked arteries, alcohol leads to liver disease and sex can lead to all manner of terrible diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

There are, of course, exceptions and contradictions, such is the nature of law-making. Cannabis, for example, has very minor harms compared to its legal cousins alcohol and tobacco, something much of the western world is finally waking up to.

At the other end of the scale, drugs such as heroin and cocaine are illegal due to their all-consuming nature. Many people find a happy balance with alcohol, but few, if any, can take harder drugs without consequence, including the increasing number of Scots who use cocaine as a weekend indulgence and are fast developing life-changing habits.

Therefore, asking which drugs should be illegal is similar to asking which animals it is OK to eat. Some will say none, others will say all, while the majority draw the line somewhere in the middle. The same is true with addictive substances.

If the majority of people can have a ‘healthy’ relationship with a substance, be it alcohol, takeaways, or even dopamine produced by playing video games, then it ought to be up to each individual whether they partake.

Memento mori – remember, you will die. Surely you get to choose what you do in the few years you have left, and suffer the consequences yourself? So long as it doesn’t hurt others – and the indoor smoking ban took away smokers’ right to harm non-smokers with second hand smoke – it should be legal to do whatever makes you happy.