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Why I cannot attend  

Günter Ropohl, Professor Emeritus of General Technology at the University of Frankfurt on Main, Germany, explains to TICAP why he will not be able to attend to the international Conference Against Prohibition. . . .

As far as I enjoy smoking I am not allowed to travel by plane or railway, and I am not allowed to visit public facilities for eating and drinking unless I am willing to forsake smoking. If I want to travel I am prevented from smoking by excessive bans. So while I would like to support my right to continue smoking by attending the conference, I would be forced to give up this right just at this very occasion. This is a fundamental contradiction in terms, terms which have been established violently by the anti-tobacco movement.

The tobacco prohibitionists are engaging in structural violence as they impede the efforts of defenders of smoking to assert their human rights, the freedom of lifestyle and the freedom of assembly (including the unhindered access to public rallies and meetings). Smoking bans reduce the ability of smoking people to resist effectively against these inhuman machinations. That is what I call the structural inequality of weapons. . . .

It is high time for the Supreme Courts of nations everywhere to wrest these weapons of structural violence from that militant and intolerant minority.

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