Consumer Responsibility: What Smokers Owe Themselves—and What Society Owes Smokers
Smokers are told they're responsible for their own health. Society is told it's responsible for protecting nonsmokers. The mutual-responsibility framework is broken. A new framework would acknowledge both individual agency and structural constraint.
The smoker is told: 'You chose to smoke, you're responsible for quitting.' The society is told: 'Protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.' The framework assigns all responsibility for smoking to the individual and all responsibility for protection to society. **The framework is broken. Smokers don't freely choose addiction—they're shaped by genetics, environment, industry marketing, and social conditions. Society doesn't just protect nonsmokers—it stigmatizes, taxes, and restricts smokers in ways that sometimes help and sometimes harm. A new framework would acknowledge both individual agency and structural constraint.**
