I agree with you. People should light up in public just on general principles. Rolling over for the nanny-state only guarantees more intrusion into your life. The nannies of the world have an insatiable appetite for control; the mere fact that you live without their permission offends them.
For people like me who have asthma, non-smoking laws allow us to live like normal human beings. Before these laws were passed, we couldn’t go to restaurants, bars, or anywhere that people were smoking. We couldn’t get jobs at places like that, either. Talk about infringing on people’s freedom!
These laws have given people with similar health conditions the chance to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That’s not a “nanny state”—that’s a guarantee of freedom for all people, not just the ones in good health.
Before you say that it infringes on a smoker’s “freedom”...cigarette smoke doesn’t stay on one place, it infringes on other people’s freedom to breathe clean air. Nobody has the “freedom” to make another person sick. There’s a big difference between a medical condition that can’t be helped, and the immature inability not to go for a few hours without sucking on a smoldering pacifier. If someone’s stupid enough to engage in a habit that will result in COPD or lung cancer, do it at home—quit trying to drag the rest of us to the oncology ward with you.