The rule of law

Andrew Vella (February 10) insists on hitting the nail sideways yet again.

His puerile (mildly put) hint at liberalisation of drugs and alcohol is irresponsible (to say the least) and makes me wonder what's really on his mind. He simply tries his best to be categorised. I will ignore such temptation.

In my previous letters I simply attacked the habit of tobacco smoking. Tobacco smoking is, as I said, anti-social, a killer and most certainly a public enemy.

I condemn the action not the actor. Mr Vella may fail to understand what that means, but that's certainly no fault of mine!

Also condemnable is Mr Vella's persistence in error. Defending what is manifestly non-defendable is bad, persisting in that defence is diabolic! Alcohol abuse and drug abuse are also anti-social and public enemies but they cannot be used in perverted justification of tobacco smoking. No reasonable mind can in any way justify Hitler by citing Stalin!

Mr Vella's last paragraph merits a bit of a comment. This may come as another surprise to Mr Vella. We are definitely not an absolutely free country. We are a society, living by the rule of law, which rule of law limits our personal liberties, simply because we are a civilised society and as such have obligations and responsibilities towards one another and towards that same society in general.

Smoking in public places does not qualify as one of anybody's liberties. Why? Because it has been legislated against! Why has it been legislated against? Because it irritates and irreparably harms non-smokers who have become bored stiff of smokers' arrogance and provocation. So the legislator thought it wise to legislate against the practice of this filthy habit in public places. In the near future that ban will spread to everywhere - hopefully that will happen in our lifetime. Why? Because most people abhor tobacco smoking, can't stand the stench it lets out and do not want to go on getting sick because of second hand smoke!

Smokers have a choice: they can either enjoy the benefits of relative liberty and protection provided by the rule of law together with all the responsibilities that involves, or else they have to move on to where jungle rule prevails.