E-Petition: Review the Smoking Ban

I have just signed the e-petition calling for a review of the smoking ban and the question my friends will obviously be asking is why I, as a lifelong non-smoker, should support this petition.

 The reasons are numerous, but mainly linked to my belief of "Live and Let Live". I don't believe all the claims about second hand smoke and am quite happy being in a room with considerate smokers. Certainly I never felt offended by smokers in any of the pubs I visited and I tend to take the view that if a pub is too thick with smoke for my liking, I'd be quite happy to go elsewhere.

My main reasons are
1. The hypocrisy of the politicians. If smoking is as bad as they claim they should ban it entirely and prohibit the manufacture and sale of cigarettes. They won't because they would loose the next election and because it would decimate their tax revenues.
2. "Smokers are a drain on the NHS". I doubt it, most of us spend some time in hospital or receiving lengthy treatment before we die. Smokers, it is claimed, receive considerable hospital treatment before they die, at huge expense to the nation. But, we are also told they die a lot sooner! Non-smokers live longer, also eventually require hospital treatment, albeit for something different, but in the meanwhile need constant "care and maintenance" from our doctors. Personally I suspect that the "prior to death" cost to the NHS of a smoker is far less than that of a non-smoker. Non-smokers who insist on living to a ripe old age also incur extra costs to the government in terms of pensions, bus-passes, day-centres, home care, etc. In practice, the longer one lives past pensionable age, the bigger drain one becomes on public funds.
3. The ban is likely to cause my favourite pub to close (which is a good enough reason in itself). Since the ban, drink prices have been increased to the maximum that the market will stand locally in order to compensate for the loss of business, yet still the publican is hardly making a living.
4. There is some evidence that the ban has increased drug taking amongst the younger generation. Whilst you can't smoke in a pub or night-club, no one will notice if you "pop a pill". Although he has not seen this, my publican friend feels that there is reason to believe that the behaviour of some of the youngsters cannot be attributed to the amount of alcohol that they have drunk.
5. Smokers assure me that cigarettes help relieve stress; I just wonder how many ex-smokers are taking NHS pills instead! Cigarettes also seem to keep you slim which I would have thought should be encouraged in these days of increasing obesity.
6. Once the zealots get their way and smoking becomes effectively illegal, they will no doubt turn their attention to the demon alcohol; indeed they already have started ranting about the cost to the police and councils of drunks and the cost to the NHS, not only in A&E, but in terms of alcohol related illnesses. Now that is likely to make me very angry

I believe that these are very good reasons for signing the petition.
It can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.

To me, it is very reasonable in its request 

"We petition the Government to review the impact of the smoking ban on pubs and clubs and consider an amendment that would give licensees the option of separate well-ventilated smoking rooms."

Its not a request to abandon the overall no smoking policy, just a simple request that licensees might have separate smoking rooms if they so wish. As a non-smoker, I can see no logical objection whatsoever to what is proposed, and it would certainly save my local as it has two bars, one of which, in the old days, was tacitly accepted by all the locals as the smokers' bar.

Thanks to Dick Puddlecote for drawing my attention to this petition.