Government Hypocrisy

I gave up smoking in 1997, 14 years ago. Since then I've had a little more money in my pocket, my tastebuds are able to taste more subtle flavours of food because they aren't covered in nicotine and my general state of health is better than it would have been if I'd continued smoking. I'm careful about passive smoking too. I cover my mouth and nose with my hand when passing smokers on the street. They have their freedom to smoke and I have my freedom to avoid breathing the smoke in. Fine.

But what annoys me is the government hypocrisy. the long list of poisonous substances added to tobacco has been APPROVED by the government. The British government, the American government and all the other governments APPROVE the addition of hundreds of poisons to tobacco while simultaneously listing these chemicals as harmful. One department of the government CONDEMNS these chemicals while another department APPROVES them.

My suggestion to government is this: Don't ban cigarette smoking - instead, why don't you stop giving permission for these hundreds of poisons to be added to the tobacco? If permission for these additions were withdrawn tobacco companies would squeal that the cigarettes won't burn properly anymore. Our response should be: "Tough! That's YOUR problem!"

Just my twopennyworth on the subject...