Do you smoke?

[mc ukrneal]

Thanks so much Government for protecting us! Quite frankly, I would rather be protected from government!
Having smoking and non-smoking areas in restaurants shouldn't bother anyone. If the majority want to smoke in a pub, others who don't can CHOOSE to go to one that is non-smoking. Otherwise self-righteous prohibition becomes yet another incursion on one's freedom of choice. And, really how does smoking in a park contribute to pollution? I have gotten to the point in my life that what people do to stop or ameliorate pain is really their business. If it is a cigarette, that is really NONE of my business and I don't judge others.

ZB

I spend a lot of my time in countries where smoking is still permitted in restaurants. Even though I sit in the non-smoking area, you can smell the smoke in many cases. That is just the way it is with smoke - it gets everywhere and into everything. The cigarette becomes your business when the smoke ends up in your lungs. And if you read the literature, even secondhand smoke is quite deadly.

[Holden]

Thanks so much Government for protecting us! Quite frankly, I would rather be protected from government!
Having smoking and non-smoking areas in restaurants shouldn't bother anyone. If the majority want to smoke in a pub, others who don't can CHOOSE to go to one that is non-smoking. Otherwise self-righteous prohibition becomes yet another incursion on one's freedom of choice. And, really how does smoking in a park contribute to pollution? I have gotten to the point in my life that what people do to stop or ameliorate pain is really their business. If it is a cigarette, that is really NONE of my business and I don't judge others.

ZB

ZB, there is a serious flaw in this argument about choice. Anti-smoking legislation was enacted state by state in Australia after an employee successfully sued the owners of the licenced club she worked in after contracting lung cancer. She was a non-smoker who worked behind the bar of a smoked filled club and as it was one of the few employers in town for her skills and qualifications she literally did not have a choice.

My local pub has a smoking area that is outside so both smokers and non-smokers can socialise together. I can choose to go outside and talk to the the smokers if I wish and that is a far more preferable choice.

[Brahmsian]

I'm curious as to what the culture in Europe these days is regarding smoking?

I know in North America - it is pretty much banned in all indoor public places - and in some cases: public outdoor places.

Although, I see that in so many Hollywood movies, smoking is still so commonplace and it seems that every one is lighting up there.

[Bulldog]

What will it take for non-smokers to be satisfied?

[DavidW]

Although, I see that in so many Hollywood movies, smoking is still so commonplace and it seems that every one is lighting up there.

Really?  I don't think so.  I think that in the oldies you would see people smoking alot in movies.  Now you rarely see people smoking in movies.

[Todd]

What will it take for non-smokers to be satisfied?

Possibly prohibition.

[Brahmsian]

  Now you rarely see people smoking in movies.

Well, I totally disagree here with you, David.  Respectfully so.

[Brahmsian]

Possibly prohibition.

You are probably right.

[Brian]

Possibly prohibition.

I have friends who don't smoke, that's all I need 99% of the time and the other 1% I just deal with it (or try to leave).

[Bulldog]

Possibly prohibition.

Could well be.  I've noticed that current smokers tend to be less considerate of non-smokers than in past decades.  Maybe they feel that they are being treated like second-class citizens and react accordingly.

[Brahmsian]

Maybe they feel that they are being treated like second-class citizens and react accordingly.

They are the lepers of the 21st Century.  Oh well, so it be.

I know I always felt guilty when I smoked, even if it is was in privacy, outside, and nowhere near anyone.  You do feel like a pariah, and maybe that's the way one should indeed feel when they do smoke.

[eyeresist]

Might be a good idea for you to specify the product being smoked.   

Marijuana prevents cancer. Google it. There are many scientific studies demonstrating this. Of course, you will be cancer-free but delusionally paranoid and unable to effectively manage your life....

ZB if you don't smoke, then why are you so mad?  I don't think this is about respect but finding an excuse to fume.

Fume LOL!

[Jay F]

Your argument in favor of public smoking is nonsensical. Public intoxication is a crime.  And it isn't okay to breathe in auto and industrial fumes . That's why there are laws regulating that type of pollution. When someone is sipping wine at the next table in a restaurant, it doesn't affect me. If they light a cigarette or cigar, it certainly does. In fact, it ruins my meal and the damn stench follows me home (the odor attached to my clothes, my hair). Why should a drug addict have the right to do that to me in a public place? Why must the majority cater to the addiction of the minority? If the nicotine addict can't even go an hour without lighting up, they have a serious problem. Luckily, for us nonsmokers, government has finally stepped in to protect us.

Sarge

Sarge for Mayor!

[DavidW]

Fume LOL!

Yeah after I wrote it I realized how unintentionally funny that was!

[karlhenning]

I spend a lot of my time in countries where smoking is still permitted in restaurants.

A big surprise for me was when in Barcelona there were people smoking in the underground.  Good heavens!  And not one of your modern, relatively well-ventilated patches of the underground, either.

Ptrobably the only thing which at all annoyed me about an otherwise wonderful, beauteous city.

[karlhenning]

What will it take for non-smokers to be satisfied?

What will it take for smokers to be considerate?

[zamyrabyrd]

ZB if you don't smoke, then why are you so mad?  I don't think this is about respect but finding an excuse to fume.

Ha, ha - "fume"! My point is that even if I don't agree with someone, I will still defend his right to express his opinion. I believe that government is getting more than a wedge into people's private lives through the loophole of prohibiting smoking. It is an erosion of freedom. If left to the free market, this could get sorted out with a voluntary exclusion of smoking on one's premises (as this may be more attractive to a certain clientele), if there is a demand for it, restaurants and pubs where you can fume all you want.

Is liquor better or worse than smoking? Do more people get killed because of DUI or lighting up? Prohibition of alcohol in the US was supposed to make people virtuous from about 1917 to 1933.  Drinking only went underground, became infinitely more profitable like drugs are today.

I really despise the nanny state with its false self-righteousness.  There is so much toxicity and downright destruction coming from government (you know, like war and all) that to focus on tobacco as the cause of all evil is but a futile distraction.

ZB

[karlhenning]

Well, I totally disagree here with you, David.  Respectfully so.

Ray, what new movies have people smoking? I guess I'm not watching them.  I suppose the hobbits in LOTR must smoke pipeweed, of course . . . .

I have thought, at least half a dozen times, "If this scene had been in a movie made 20 years ago, there would be cigarettes, smoke and ashtrays. But not now"

[karlhenning]

Could well be.  I've noticed that current smokers tend to be less considerate of non-smokers than in past decades.

Well, we cannot expect anyone in public to be considerate of others, can we? Not when it's a question of nursing one's own addiction.  We're entitled to be asses, then.

[karlhenning]

Is liquor better or worse than smoking?

As Sarge points out, the mere act of partaking of liquor does not affect those in your vicinity; but of smoking does.  Arguing for smoking in public, because the intoxicating effects of liquor can be objectionable, is a non sequitur.