Smoking ban in the Netherlands

Starting tomorrow, smoking in pubs and restaurants will be banned in the Netherlands. The national daily NRC Handelsblad criticises the ban: "Why was the free market not allowed free reign here? Smoking and non-smoking restaurants would both have attracted their respective clientele. And even the staff are free to work where they want. Those waiters who smoke could work in a restaurant that permits smoking. What happened to the non-intervention state that claims to be worried about too much pressure through regulations but will soon require a police force to tackle smokers and a nicotine public prosecutor? ... It certainly did not take long for non-smoking to become a virtue. And smoking is now an institutionalised form of deviant behaviour that has become so widely condemned that non-smokers no longer need the protection of the state."

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