I have wracked my brain trying to come up with an analogy that would help UKers understand the situation in which we in the US find ourselves.

How about tobacco? What if the reigning powers dictated that tobacco in all its uses will be as of a certain date banned forthwith, that tobacco in the fields will be razed to the ground, that there will be no legal sales, that anyone caught smoking or chewing or snuffing will be prosecuted, and that anyone caught importing tobacco in any form will be haled into court, the rationale being that there is no earthly use for tobacco but ample evidence of its harmful properties?

It will, of course, require investigators, snoops if you will, who will be mandated by law to report any infringement of the new policy, i.e. if the snoop smells burning tobacco or has other reason to deduce that someone is breaking the law to immediately report the facts to the Enforcement Council, under penalty of their own arrest.

Keep in mind that there are many nooks and crannies and remote areas that would be hard to police, that some people would consider it an issue of freedom, an infringement of individual rights. A person who had smoked for 40 or 25 or 10 years might well expostulate that s/he is not about to stop smoking just because somebody in some office dictated they must.

What about tobacco?