JANUARY 9 — The way some smokers are going around moaning as though they’re a persecuted minority is irksome.

Look, the research is there. The danger of secondhand smoke is real and no one should have the right to harm others because they have a nicotine dependency.

At least you’re still allowed to smoke. It is within the government’s rights to determine just where you’re allowed to smoke.

It is not persecution — it’s purely common sense where public health is concerned.

You want to blacken your lungs with tar? Fine. Just don’t think the rest of us non-smokers should be forced to inhale your smoke.

I live with smokers. But there are rules. No puffing smoke into people’s faces, no indiscriminate disposal of cigarette butts.

There are people who are sensitive to cigarette smoke — young children, those with asthma or allergies or who just react badly to cigarette smoke.

It is not your right to be a public nuisance. Having to leave clubs or open-air restaurants smelling of cigarette smoke is not what non-smokers signed up for.

Killing yourself slowly, with a slow suicide by cigarette is your decision. Just don’t take the non-smokers with you.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.