The Smoke Police, Ethics or Foolishness?

An interesting conversation developed last week at the big round corner

table at Mon Ami restaurant in Prague, where eight or ten friends gather for

dinner and conversation on Wednesday nights. Robin regularly plays piano that

night and we knock back a few beers or glasses of Moravian red. It’s special to

have a regular gathering in a foreign city, where the owners smile to see us

and the table is always quietly reserved for our disparate group. Early on, my

friend Charlie noticed several of us had switched to electronic cigarettes and I

voiced my frustration over the increasing criminality of smoking in public

I’m a little to the left of really supporting the ever-increasing efforts

of the smoke-police, while Charlie’s relieved not to have his clothes and hair

stink when he gets home at night.

Admittedly he has more hair than I, but I’m

married to a non-smoker and know the complaint. We agree smoking’s an addiction,

no argument on that, but I feel frustrated when government, in this case a Europe…