Down through the years, I?ve attempted to warn my fellow Americans about the tyrannical precedent and template for further tyranny set by anti-tobacco zealots. The point of this column is not to rekindle the smoking debate. That train has left the station. Instead, let?s examine the template.

In the early stages of the anti-tobacco campaign, there were calls for “reasonable” measures such as nonsmoking sections on airplanes and health warnings on cigarette packs. In the 1970s, no one would have ever believed such measures would have evolved into today?s level of attack on smokers, which includes confiscatory cigarette taxes and bans on outdoor smoking.