Ah but here's the problem:
I don't smoke; hate smoking; have had family who have died of lung cancer; dealt with a parent who smoked on-and-off through much of my childhood. Personally, I'd like smoking to just not happen as much as anyone - probably more than most.
but...
A few years ago, took a trip to the MK with extended family. Brother--in-law became increasingly irritable as the day went on. Finally got to the point where he was snapping at everyone in our group including his own three year old child over stupid stuff. He was being rude to cast members in lines, complaining about absolutely everything and making us all miserable as I'm sure he had to be helping to do for anyone else in ear-shot of him.
Eventually, wife clued us in to the problem. We got him to a smoking area, used restrooms and wasted about another 5 minutes and he came back from his little area in Tomorrowland like a man who had just found God.
Having to leave the park so he can get his smoke on would have seriously sucked for all of us. Thinking there was some easy way he was going to go to the front and then meet back up with us when he'd never been there before and didn't understand where anything was, also would have been a mess.
I'm lucky enough to pretty much never go with smokers but this one time was an eye-opening experience for me because prior to that, I'd have been right there with you.
This is a societal social-change kind of issue. It's something that most of us (non-smokers) want to be the norm. The problem is Disney making themselves the tip-of-the-spear when it comes to that change. You're already in a place where people can be stressed and tensions can be high. This just ads to it and the impact can be felt by plenty of non-smokers, too.
The other night, someone was smoking right in the middle of the mob of people waiting to get back on the ferry at park closing to go back to the TTC. Not to be judging books by covers too much but he looked like the kind of person who was fine doing what he was doing, knowing it was wrong.
You could see people's disgusted faces in the extra-wide queue when they came in contact in the switch-back but who was going to complain to him and risk an altercation? At that time of day, who was going to leave their family to go find a cast member to come do something about it? The guy got away with it and that was in a situation where he had options.
He was a jerk. I'm in no way saying he was representative of most smokers but I see a change like this pushing more people who, yes, have what I consider to be a filthy, dirty habit but who are reasonable and responsible and don't want to offend others, to break the rules.
I might be wrong. Really hope I'm wrong.
