Although I am a smoker myself, I can definitely understand why people want a smoking ban. It's a nasty habit (that's hard to get rid off). It stinks and not just a bit. The smell of tobacco will get deep into your clothes and stay with you all day or night. The smoke irritates your eyes, making them watery with a burning feeling. It gets to your throat as well. You'll start coughing and within a while your throat will be sore. And this is just what it does to normal, healthy people. One can imagine the hell that people with asthma and bronchitis must be going through when they're in the neighborhood of smokers. On top of that there's plenty of scientific evidence that passive smoking may damage one's health. So yes, I can absolutely support the right to be in a smoke-free area.

Let's face it: smoking is not against the law. It's not against the law to produce tobacco products. It's not against the law to buy tobacco products. And (except for smoke-free zones) it's not against the law to use tobacco products. Either you forbid smoking altogether or you allow it. And as long as it's allowed, I may smoke. I'm allowed to drink water. Water is - just like tobacco - not illegal and it may be consumed anywhere. So why should that be different for smoking? It's inconsistent.

If you (the government) don't want people to smoke, then forbid it. But no, the government (at least here in Holland) welcomes the tax that smokers pay and rather than forbidding smoking, they decided to frustrate smokers as much as they can.

How hard can it be to compromise? In Holland we used to have smoking and non-smoking areas. And technology has advanced, there are plenty of solutions to get rid of smoke. You can see examples of them at airports, office buildings, etc. It's technically possible to create areas where one can smoke (which is not a crime) while in the mean time not creating any inconvenience for others. In the Netherlands the pro-smoking lobby had this slogan: "we can work it out together". Unfortunately that is not what the governments want. They don't want to work it out. They want to ban people who smoke without having to give up the taxes money that they bring.