A smoking ban in bars, restaurants and other indoor commercial facilities is a foregone conclusion. Our tough-talking health chief, York Chow Yat-ngok, is determined to ban smoking in all public workplaces, with no exceptions.
There are many issues on the anti-smoking crusaders' agenda, but it seems that the most pressing one in Hong Kong at present is passive smoking. Like every other issue associated with smoking, this debate is emotive and vitriolic. In Dr Chow's words: 'Second-hand smoking is a very polite way of saying you are forcing people to inhale carcinogens.' He, of course, has carte blanche to bash smokers because they are perceived as inconsiderate, lawless, addictive villains and, most of all, the minority in society. Rhetoric aside, smoking in the presence of those who detest the smell or involuntarily suffer is indefensible. The fact that smokers try defending it makes the situation even more offensive. It is no wonder that anti-tobacco policies are generally hostile towards smokers.
But in my opinion, there is no place for outright hostility towards anyone who is addicted to anything. Although perceived as a weakness, addiction is part of human nature, and we are all prone to it. Hostility deriving from fanaticism does not win hearts or change behaviour. After all, tobacco consumption is legal, and is not the only thing in this world that is killing us slowly.
Hostility breeds hostility, and usually results in defiance and anti-social behaviour. The Hong Kong government should brace itself for a strong backlash from smokers when the ban becomes effective. For a start, enforcement will be a headache. Second, watch out for other possible disruptive behaviour.
In Toronto, where smoking in public places has been banned, the fronts of commercial buildings are invariably littered with cigarette butts. Even in Canada, smokers trade one kind of anti-social behaviour for another. The most unsavoury aspect of smoking is that people usually become hooked when they are young and reckless, and it is a very hard addiction to kick.
For centuries, emperors in China tried banning tobacco smoking among their subjects by imposing punishments as drastic as the death penalty, but without success. This is the kind of addiction we are dealing with. I had one patient who was able to kick his heroin addiction, but continued to smoke after numerous attempts to quit.