Smoking in Lebanon

I feel like almost everyone around me smokes...especially people my age. I feel like in the U.S. smoking has become really taboo. It is frowned upon and the laws really encourage an anti-smoking attitude with the cigarette taxes and laws about where you can/cannot smoke. When I first arrived in Lebanon, I had to get used to the fact that it isn't illegal to smoke in restaurants here, as it is in Chicago. Pretty much everywhere I go I'm caught in somebody's cloud of smoke. In Chicago, it is even illegal to smoke in front of the entrance to a building. Here, students smoke during school workshops and events and on the bus to events. Of course, I have serious issues with the cigarette industry because I think it really is evil and when you buy cigarettes you are making bad people very rich, but being in Lebanon reminds me that it certainly isn't the government's job to tell people what to do in regards to a matter as personal and mundane as smoking cigarettes. I think people should be able to make the choice but I am thankful that I can eat in a restaurant and not have to inhale cigarette smoke. Again, I am seeing these two extreme sides between the U.S., which always seems to be way too much into peoples' personal business, and Lebanon, which may be in need of a few more laws to keep people safer. It is a very tricky balance and no government has ever found the "right" or the "best" way to govern. All I know is that a man was smoking IN THE GROCERY STORE this morning and it bugged me.