It seems the great cigarette debate just won’t stop.
Should or shouldn’t the government allow the sale of cigarettes under all lockdown levels?
As expected, the vast majority of smokers are of the opinion that they should be allowed their fix.
And most of them can’t understand the ban on smoking at all.
I have even read a few conspiracy theories around the subject.
But as I said on social media last week, the ban on smoking makes government the biggest loser by far; to the tune of multiple billions of rand in taxes.
So clearly there must be another motive.
Is it at all possible that the motive is to keep us alive?
I honestly can’t believe that we are even having this debate.
Or the one about alcohol and surfing, for that matter.
It’s almost as if people are not taking this seriously enough!
Our success in fighting the virus with an early lockdown has also been a psychological negative.
People are hearing the numbers, but because they are not experiencing the deadly effects of Covid-19 first-hand, it is an abstract concept to them.
There are no dead bodies in the streets and so far, few people know anyone personally, who has succumbed to the disease.
Those successes are causing some of us to let our guard down, allowing our confinement boredom to get the better of us.
If you have been going to any and all lengths to get some nicotine into your lungs, paying obscene amounts of money for a single cigarette, then you are as addicted and perhaps the ban on smoking is long overdue.