Dr. Hashim Abdu Hashim Okaz newspaper YOU are a smoker … so you are sick. You are a smoker … so you are a source of distress to others. You are a smoker…so you are an annoyance to all those who work with you or those surrounding you or those who are forced to be with you in one place and under one roof. Why are you becoming a cause of harm to others to the extent that they feel that you are potentially harmful to them? That is the reality of the relationship between those who smoke and those who do not, and between those to whom God wished goodness and those who bring themselves misfortune. We as a society, we as human beings, must become the first people to get rid of this scourge in cooperation with any agency reining in the use of tobacco. It is true that some people have become addicted and it is very difficult to help them. But the most truthful thing is that the conditions of these people are not above the broader interests of society, and they have to help themselves to get rid of this deadly poison. I don't imagine that Western societies, which are the producers and manufacturers of this epidemic, would succeed in curbing smoking and earnestly strive to get rid of it. However, you would hardly find any smokers in these countries lighting up in workplaces, markets, airports, or even toilets. At the same time, our offices, markets and airports are immersed with the odor of tobacco. Smokers do not have any qualms about puffing poison into your face wherever you go as if they find enjoyment in harassing you and transmitting their illness to you, besides fogging your face and clothes with their smoke, and this is without the least respect for your rights and regard for the regulations that ban smoking in public places. The question is this: Why don't we respect rules and regulations with regard to smoking even though people in other countries respect similar regulations in their respective societies? This is because the rules and regulations do not have any significance or value if they are not accompanied by a mechanism to enforce these directives and enact adequate, appropriate and deterring punitive measures against those who violate them.
