I have spent the past few days in London, and have noted that the city’s restaurants, bars, and public buildings have been liberated from the ceaseless stench of tobacco. It is a remarkable transformation in a city where, until recently, a non-smoking restaurant was virtually an oxymoron. There are, of course, the little packs of addicts hovering about the entrances to most public buildings, but it is clear that the rights of non-smokers are finally beginning to trump the rights of smokers. It is almost a certainty that rates of tobacco consumption will begin to fall, as public consumption of the drug becomes more and more difficult, and more appropriately seen as an intrusion into the lives of others. Imagine — a meaningful step forward in the war against drugs, achieved without the sledgehammer of criminal prohibition.