A month ago, I wrote a post about World No Tobacco Day.  I didn’t mention it at the time (though I’ve been following the story), but in Australia on May 30th, Doctor Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann was violently assaulted, left in a coma with severe brain damage.  On June 28th he was declared dead and taken off life support.

Why was Pritzwald-Stegmann assaulted by 22 year old Joseph Esmaili?

Because Pritzwald-Stegmann told Esmaili not to smoke in a hospital.

There are many such stories of smokers becoming aggressive, violent and committing criminal acts when told to obey the law or respect rules on people’s private property.

NIH: Cigarette smoking and intimate partner violence among men referred to substance abuse treatment.

This study examined differences between alcohol-dependent offenders of intimate partner violence (IPV) with and without current daily cigarette smoking. Eighty-five alcohol dependent men arrested for domestic and referred to substance abuse treatment were evaluated. A total of 71% of the participants reported current cigarette smoking.

NIH: Effects of cigarette smoking on human aggressive behavior.

Women attacked in Berlin cinema for asking men to stop smoking (June 2017)

Three women were physically attacked and threatened with a knife on Sunday evening when they asked two male cinema-goers to put out their cigarettes.

The two men, both 21 years of age, were sitting in the row in front of the women in a cinema in the Tiergarten neighbourhood when the incident occurred, police report.

But instead of stubbing out their cigarettes, they turned around, hit the women in the face, ripped at their clothes and then threatened them with a knife.

A man who smoked on an airplane and caused a fire midflight received a 9 1/2 years sentence.  He was seen smoking outside the courthouse after the trial.

A Council Bluffs man was arrested for assaulting a woman who did not give him a cigarette.

Passengers on a Pakistan International Airlines flight were blacklisted after smoking on a flight and “misbehaving” with the flight crew.

A passenger on a bus in Wuhan, China stabbed the bus driver after being told not to smoke on the bus.

Youtube: A woman in Israel starts a fire at a gas station after being refused a cigarette

Youtube: A man in Suzhou, China was arrested for assaulting a bus driver who told him not to smoke on the bus

Saitama train conductor assaulted after asking man to smoke in designated area

And the list goes on.  Laws banning cigarettes and private property owners banning smoking are not justification for violence, assault or destruction of property, no matter what smokers think.