Reference the link below:
http://sjmayank.blogspot.com/2009/12/shameless-smokers.html
By Mayank dealing with ciggarette smoking and drinking - ethical approach on doing it in a given place, with given group of people, et al
"Be a rebel". I will begin my comment with this famous line in one famous song from 'rang de basanti'.
I am a smoker and a drinker too. But Ii come from same cultural set-up as yours-- Lucknow and Varanasi combination, and know that we are discouraged to try them ever. i was and I am as sincere in my thoughts as your surely are(or maybe little less than you) but sometime i decided to practice one old moral science lesson : don't criticize the apples from China before you have tasted them.
Now being of a scientific thinking background, Mayank, tell me:
a) what is so good in smoking and drinking that makes it a habit-forming?
b) How much of book-read knowledge you have on these habits? Delirium? Deliquescent?
c) Legal aspects on public smoking? Ethical approach on what can be imposed on person which he choices not to -- like the choice of a non-smoker of not smoking in a given place, to be imposed on a smoker person?
d) What's smoking in essence and how deeply it is known to cause troubles? and how serious?
e) and how many other such causes are known and what has been done about them?!?
To give my answers:
a)Dopamine effect (a psychological phenomenon) is triggered. tell your ignorant friends that this psychological need is as good as craving to have water, or food, or sex, when thirsty, hungry or horny. Mechanical Engg boys, u all, have short visions on all other subjects, and with that mind do you dream to do good to your country?! Wake up and keep all round knowledge. (sorry for being little harsh._)
b)Mild smoking and drinking do NOT make you habitual. I consume these in good count, but as i write these the last cigarette i smoked was on 28th Feb and the last drink i had was in first week of Feb'10 !! Delirium is mild happiness, one stage of drinking, Alcoholism is one stage which most you ignorant people identify drinking habit with, in which the person becomes violent or so compulsive that he beats up his wife and leaves his small children hungry to buy himself alcohol.
Mild drinking is known to be good to health and esp heart. There is hardly any ban on drinking in any developed, wisdom-filled society. Read more books and matter to be a good person and a judge/decision-maker later in ur professional life.
c)In Europe, smoking is banned in all public places and people actually follow it, although it doesn’t mean that smoking is discouraged over there.! they all still smoke , perhaps same as before, albeit on open roads. And those same smokers will deny you smoking permission when u would do them in public place! Are you getting the ethics of what can be imposed on a person which is distinctly a matter of personal choice, not strictly resolved by law.?! Mayank, this is very important philosophy which will lead you to Objectivism, aka Nirmoh (in Bhagvad Geeta) and make you a good decision-maker for the corporate.
d)Smoking is a personal pleasure or maybe a need. U cannot deny this to a person who needs it. It is statistically known to cause cancer, but so do the smoke from your bike or your car ! And many smokers are still known to live for over 100 years, or suitably long enough by some self-chosen, or statistically obtained average age!
e) We are acting too strict against smoking or drinking due to temperance or religion-driven zeal, very likely. Think.
In Europe all chemical substances are being discouraged from personal use as they are known to be the real cause for body trouble. So people are switching over from cigarettes to Biddis ( !!!) as biddis are chemical-free and naturals ! nice, na.?
Have fun and enjoy. :-)
