Smokers Rights @Solsticepublish

This is not an anti-smoking blog.  This is not a pro smoking blog. 
This is a blog about everyone’s individual rights.  I was at a restaurant
last night and noticed someone having to step outside in order to have a
cigarette.  I watched and thought, “Times have changed.”  Remember
when their used to be a “Smoking Section” in restaurants?  It wasn’t that
long ago.  I want to be clear on this.  I do not smoke and I do not
like being around others who are smoking.  With all that said, is it really
fair to ban others completely from smoking just because we don’t like it? 
I know all the studies about second hand smoke and I don’t want it around me or
my family.  There was a time, however when restaurants would have a door to
a patio where smokers could go without having to leave the establishment. 
What happened to that?  It wasn’t hurting any non-smokers.  Smokers
prefer to slowly kill themselves with tobacco.  I personally prefer Doritos
and red meat but, to each their own.  At least they would have a little
dignity instead of sneaking outside and away from the door to smoke.  It’s
almost like someone has declared open season on the smokers and is hunting them
down.  We didn’t hunt down the American Indians of the plains.  We
killed off their food source and forced them onto reservations.  Well, we
are not killing off the smokers.  What we are doing is slowly constraining
where they can smoke to the point that it becomes nearly impossible to smoke
anywhere but at home.  Is that right?  Once again, I prefer not to be
around the smoke but what about the smoker’s rights?  We are banning them
into extinction.  The philosophy is, “If we make it too hard for them to
smoke, they will quit.”  I sincerely believe the majority of smokers want
to quit.  They actually have heard all the thousands of ads too but simply
can’t quit for one reason or another.  I pity them.  Then I think to
myself, “Do I really want all these people to quit smoking?  They pay a
large amount of tax that I do not have to pay.  I don’t want to pay those
taxes.  What would happen if they put a special tax on Doritos and said you
could only eat them in certain places away from others?  That would upset
me greatly.  Part of the reason would be that I like Doritos and part of
the reason is that I feel like that would infringe on my rights.  IF I’m
not hurting anyone else and it is legal, why should my consumption be
regulated?  Why are smoker’s rights any different?  Give them a patio
to go have their cigarette away from me and then let them return without having
to walk by everyone waiting to be seated.  Every law we make is killing
another buffalo.  And that just doesn’t seem right.