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Smokers like other drugs addict are usually quite selfish when it comes to anything that might interfere with their continued use of their drug of choice. Like the person who has had too much alcohol and then decides to drive, least concerned that their impairment might cause someone’s death is only concerned with their ‘right’ to drink.

An addicts mantra is always "my, my, my." Therefore, it goes "my need for a drink now" regardless of the fact that this is money for the rent, or the kid’s school fees of for foodstuff for the house.

So too with the smoker and "my right to smoke" not withstanding the fact that you are poisoning all your kids. In fact, it is precisely this angle that has many smokers worried that at one point even smoking in their homes is going to be restricted.

Indeed the current debate on the smoking restriction ban revolves around the smoker’s rights, and the manufacturer’s rights and the hotel owners, restaurant owners, bar owner’s rights.

Everybody is so busy clamouring about "my" rights that we seem to have overlooked the very reason for these restrictions. And they are smoking ‘restrictions’ and not bans as the manufacturers would have us believe though for them this is par for the course. For BAT and other tobacco giants, thrive on misleading the public and so fudging the real issues with side issues.

Yet for the smoker one would feel that they would at least sympathise with non-smokers around them and especially their own children. Hell no. "My right to smoke" does not even take into consideration one’s own children.

How else would you explain the scenario where at one’s place of work you find that since smoking is restricted, people are commonly seen huddled outside buildings sucking hungrily on the aptly nicknamed ‘cancer stick’. Yet instead of deliberating on the reasons why they are not allowed to smoke in the building the meekly comply.

Once home however, these wet cats turn into angry lions spewing smoke all over the premises. Smoke that is inhaled by their innocent children who they are supposed to protect. This is certainly a mark of gross selfishness for why not then smoke outside? Alternatively, is it because the kids are helpless and cannot protest even in the unlikely event that they were aware that they are being poisoned?

Certain physicians in the west consider smoking in the home a form of child endangerment. I would go a step further and label it child abuse. For the child is innocent and knows not the inherent dangers in passive smoking.

Yet the adult is there to protect and nature them, to the extent that he is ignorant could be an excuse but why does he feel he has the right to do at home what is so harmful that he is not allowed to do it in public places? If he can go out in the cold in the office, why can he not do so at home?

At this point, let us pause for a moment, having said what we have said and look at things from the smoker’s point of view. Why does an otherwise loving, supportive, protective parent become so callous when it comes to smoking, an almost Jekyll and Hyde personality.

Well it is simply because they are addicts. They are addicted to the nicotine in the cigarettes they smoke, or their pipes and periodically need a ‘fix’ similar for example, to their heroin addicted counter parts. When thy do no get their fix, they begin to suffer withdrawal symptoms which range in intensity from mild irritability to tremors and temper outbursts.

We therefore in pressing for smoking restrictions often get so caught up in countering big tobacco arguments even as they push for their positions that we forget about the poor smokers many of who are trying to quit but just do not know how to go about it.

There is therefore an urgent need to put into place programmes to educate smokers right down at the grass root level, the ordinary mwanaanchi on the dangers involved in smoking in a non-confrontational manner but more importantly how they can quit.

What are the various options available and what do they cost? For unfortunately a large chunk of smokers in Kenya are the poor and their smoking is not only a cause of distress to their families due to passive smoking but also due to money that could be used for food and medicines being diverted to smoking. Money, which these families can ill afford.

These families cannot afford over the counter (OTC) or medically prescribed drugs to help them quit though the use of such being only one of the several ways there are to quit smoking. Cold turkey is the most obvious method where one simply stops. The term cold turkey originates from the goose bumps similar in appearance to plucked chicken or turkey that one gets as they go into withdrawal.

One can also try a gradual reduction in the number of sticks smoked per day until you are at zero or join one of the many smoking cessation programmes that have been designed. It is the awareness of the existence of such programmes that has to be widely disseminated into the countryside right down to the village level.

Let them be set up in churches, mosques and even private homes so that access is easy and simple. Let I.E.C materials be designed and disseminated in the various local languages and let the government or NGO’s look into the possibility of supplying the medications free of charge for those who would succeed through that method.

For as with any drug addiction, different treatment regimes or programmes work better with different individuals. We need to teach Kenyans to reach for life instead of cigarettes.

Issues of free choice do not arise when we talk about smokers who are addicted. Once addicted, free choice no longer exists and we need to help our smokers even as we continue to lobby for smoking restrictions to protect the non-smokers.

Ultimately, in order to prevent having to more smokers to help there should be a concerted effort by all Kenyans to step up preventive programmes so that less of our young people pick up this toxic substance in the first place.

Let us all remember that the enemy here is not the smoker or the non-smoker, but the tobacco companies like BAT. What they have succeeded in doing right now is to reduce the issue to smoker’s rights vs. non-smokers freedoms. This is not the issue.

For the smokers we feel you, we hear you do not stand up for your rights, but for the rights of your children. While we try to sort out your issues and how you can be assisted to stop smoke courteously when around others by moving away completely or better still avoid lighting up. Nevertheless, in your homes stop saying “my rights” but instead “my children’s rights” and smoke outside the house. Stop being selfish as a first step to conquering your addiction. Start now!

David Ogot Snr. Is the programmes director of the goinghomedotcom Trust a media NGO specializing on drug abuse issues. A recovering alcoholic he can be contacted at goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com website: www.goinghomekenya.org

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