The controversy around a smoke ban seems to be endless because a great number of people still justify tobacco use. Apparently, all smokers consider any restrictions on cigarettes to be a personal offense from the government as tobacco has always been perfectly legal and wide-spread. To address this hot debate, the health minister of Queensland, Australia, has recently proposed a complete smoking ban to individuals born after 2001. It seems to be a radical step difficult to implement, nevertheless, the ban is likely to be issued soon.
Making smoking illegal is not enough to reduce the number of smokers. Apparently, the policy shall concern banning the retail of cigarettes, which is a serious insult to businesses. Besides, countries that are about to implement smoking ban need to check their import more thoroughly to suppress the resistance of the black market. In a theory, making tobacco illegal will sufficiently reduce the number of smokers. If cigarettes are accessible only through the black market, they will inevitably rise in price, which means that every second smoker will not allow themselves to purchase cigarettes.
A full ban on smoking makes a perfect sense. Tobacco is considered to be a highly addictive drug that is dangerous both to smokers and to their social environment. Smokers do not want the authorities to interfere in their daily habits, nevertheless, authorities have a full right to protect second-hand smokers who do not want to suffer from the choices of the others. Someone may treat tobacco ban as a draconian measure but, all in all, the health care cannot ignore the damaging effect of this substance. If other drugs obtained from plants have already been banned, why should not we do the same with tobacco?