In Canberra, as everywhere else in Australia, smokers are more demonised than refugees. Big Brother wants smokers to kick the habit.
Nicotine Nazies have banned nicotine addicts from smoking in Canberra's park play areas lest they force passive smoke on children.
Canberra Hospital used to have an outdoor Leper Area where its patients and visitors could puff away their lives, unmolested by Nicotine Nazies. Now the Leper Area is gone and No Smoking is enforced inside and outside the hospital.
Canberra's pubs, clubs and dives have caged outdoor Leper Areas where, like animals in a zoo, smokers can puff away, drink beer and watch sports channels on plasma TV.
There's no doubt that smoking is addictive and it causes all sorts of health problems but Prohibition By Stealth will only drive smokers to use "Chop Chop" smuggled tobacco to dodge high excise costs.
Below is Justin's Tree in our Canberra backyard. Justin was the Chief Pathologist at Canberra Hospital. When we moved into a new home, Justin gave us a Maple Tree sapling from his small farm just outside Canberra as a house warming present. He must have signed or done hundreds of biopsies and autopsies of lungs riddled with cancer from smoking.
Guess what Justin died from long before his time. Lung cancer from smoking. Yet tobacco companies try to kid smokers that their products are not addictive.
