What now? Cigarettes costs twice as much in 2 years, universities ban smoking on campus, prices go up another 15% next month and now the whole city is to quit?

Hang on.

It’s starting to feel a bit like breach of personal rights.

Apparently there will be dedicated smoking areas across the city. I can’t help but picture crowds of people in a box of some sort – categorised.

This is not a good look for our city.

No doubt second hand smoking puts people at risk and it’s a matter of personal rights too, but surely theres a less isolating solution that doesn’t have to put smokers in the ‘spot light’.

Assigning them to a spot to smoke and only in that spot: soon enough the norm would be that being seen smoking outside your ‘zone’ will probably get you few more looks than usual. You don’t know what people are thinking about you. Smokers simply do not deserve to feel uncomfortable by making a VERY ALLOWED personal decision.