This paper attempts to delineate the myriad contours of a moratorium on smoking as examined from the point of view of public health and law. In pursuance of the same, it analyzes the topic from the following perspectives: firstly, an identification of the classes of society primarily imperilled by the practise of smoking; secondly, an enunciation of the various arguments present for and against a moratorium on smoking, and thirdly, the current legal position with relation to a ban on smoking, which would include both Indian as well as International strands of opinion. At the same time, it focuses on ancillary issues such as the linkages between smoking and media as evinced by areas as diverse as advertisement and the world of celluloid, the causal relationship between smoking and elements of society such as women, along with an examination of the impact of the practise of smoking on culture as such. By analyzing each of these topics, it attempts to irrefutably demonstrate the importance of such a topic in the public health and law discourse.