UK Could Be A 'No Smoking Nation' By 2032....

[B-17engineer]

Like second hand smoke bothers me purely of cause of the smell, I don't really care about the health affects at this point.

What others are worried about though is the fact that they don't smoke and in most cases are worse off if they inhale the smoke which doesn't seem fair.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Alcohol is far worse than smoking....much worse.

Only for the one doing the drinking. When you drink it does not effect my liver. Your smoking makes me smell like **** and hurts my lungs.

 

[mikewint]

Again, in my opinion, Chris has it spot on. We all have our vices. Be free to indulge in yours unless or until they harm another. At that point your "Right" ceases.
The only problem with those designated areas is that often they are often right outside the entrance that I have to pass through. I also recall restuarants that have smoking and non-smoking areas. We asked for non-smoking, were seated, and noticed that the people at the table next to ours were smoking. The waitress responded that that was a smoking allowed table!

 

[GrauGeist]

Only for the one doing the drinking. When you drink it does not effect my liver. Your smoking makes me smell like **** and hurts my lungs.

Well, on the other hand, I can't think of a time where a smoker had too many cigarettes and blasted through an intersection and t-boned another car

 

[Lucky13]

Unless they're high as a kite...

 

[GrauGeist]

Unless they're high as a kite...

LMAO...I was referring to the regular tobacco type cigarettes

 

[Lucky13]

What's the fun in those!? pmsl!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Well, on the other hand, I can't think of a time where a smoker had too many cigarettes and blasted through an intersection and t-boned another car

Yes of course, but drinking and driving is against the law. A smoker who is to arrogant or not polite enough not to pollute my lungs is not.

Like I said, I can understand both sides of the story. I used to smoke, and I was one of those smokers who played the "It is my right to smoke!" card.

 

[Matt308]

I grew up in a household of chain smokers. Never bothered me. Never thought my clothes smelled nor anything. How I escaped that vice is beyond me. I remember trying smoking a cig as a young kid and thought, "WTF?". But then I was the same kid who put on rollerskates, fell on his azz, tied a pillow to my azz, tried to rollerskate. fell, hurt and said Eff this!

Now that I'm out of the smoking house, I'm hyper sensative to smoking. Not only do my clothes reek, but I literally have to shower after being around smokers in enclosed spaces for any significant amount of time.

Having said that, I think it is ridiculous that smokers are ostracized as much as they are for doing something that is completely legal (e.g., must be 25ft from any doorway to a business, cannot smoke in an outdoor park...wtf?!, cannot have a business where the owner decides if smoking is permitted or not, etc.). We are becoming the Nanny State. And don't get me started about smokers are more expensive to our healthcare thus we have rights to shove them around. What's next, fat people? Oh yeah that is already underway. How about people who do not exercise under govt supervision. Motorcycle riders who have a higher fatality rate per accident? Skiers? Mountain bikers? Bacon eaters?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Like I said, I believe in the smokers right. I just don't believe it should be allowed in restaurants and bars.

In restaurants, I even hated it when I was a smoker. I would be trying to enjoy a good quality meal, and then some jackass behind me would be blowing his smoke all around my plate, and not giving a damn either! And that was when I was a smoker...

What I don't have a problem with, is in open places (concerts, parks or the street), and I don't have a problem with bars that are considered smoking lounges. As a non smoker, if I don't want to smell like it, or inhale it, then I just don't go in there. Should every bar be a smokers lounge however? No...

 

[GrauGeist]

I was being a smartass (big surprise there!) about the smoking and driving thing!

But I do agree about the Pandora's Box effect when people draw government into anything "for the good of the people"...not making a political comment here as much as an observation that anything taxed, in this case cigarettes, won't really produce any positive results as it was originally proposed before being a law. Overall, in the U.S., less than 1/2 of 1% of tobacco tax revenues have been applied to tobacco cessation and health benefits, which was the original reason for the increased tax in the first place. The builk of the revenue ends up in the local agency's general fund for use as they see fit.

And in recent years, various gov. agencies have applied for an emergency tax increase because of falling tax revenues. In other words, people are quitting and the tax revenues are dropping (wow...who would have guessed?) and they have to up the tax to maintain targeted expense levels.

So bottom line is that adults should be able to choose when to start and when to stop something without being villified or seperated into a target group. Once the public gets comfortable doing this over time, it'll be easy to pick any group or activity that's deemed "unacceptable" to remove or restrict.

 

[Catch22]

I don't like being around people smoking. I have lung problems as it is, and I don't particularly want to be breathing in what they're putting out. I understand and agree that they should be able to, but really, they should be doing it in private, or with consideration to others. My favourite here are people outside hospital doors, sitting beside a no smoking sign smoking away! Though I suppose there's more fault on enforcement, but still, that's where the consideration bit comes in.

 

[Lucky13]

Why not put the dollar/pound bills in your mouth and light up?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I understand and agree that they should be able to, but really, they should be doing it in private, or with consideration to others. My favourite here are people outside hospital doors, sitting beside a no smoking sign smoking away! Though I suppose there's more fault on enforcement, but still, that's where the consideration bit comes in.

Agreed.

At my old work, the smokers used to hang out right in front of my office window. I would come home from work smelling like smoke, and I had not even been smoking. The worst part, was they would throw there cigarette buts on the ground. I was the one having to clean it up, because the Base Commander did not give a **** who was doing it, just that it was clean.

That is where consideration comes into place as well.

When I was a smoker, I never smoked in confined places around non smokers. I never smoked in restaurant (even if smoking was allowed), I took into consideration my environment, and I always through my cigarette butts in the thrash.

Why not put the dollar/pound bills in your mouth and light up?

If I recall, about 10 or 15 years ago there was a study done about the cost of smoking. A smoker who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, could buy a round trip plane ticket to anywhere in the world if he/she were to save the money they spent on the smokes.

Imagine what it would be today, with the costs of cigarettes going up as much as they have.

On another note, something I do disagree with is, is all the idiots who sue the tobacco companies because they get lung cancer. Sorry the day's of not knowing the health risks associated with smoking are long gone. Everyone knows what the risks are. I for one know the risks I took. If I develop a smoking related disease at some point, well it was my choice...

 

[Lucky13]

Totally agree with you mate!

 

[buffnut453]

Me too.

 

[stona]

Whilst it is true that a reduction in smoking will entail a corresponding fall in revenue raised by taxes on tobacco there will also be a fall in expenditure on health services which have to deal with the inevitable chronic health problems caused by smoking.

Figures for the UK for 2010 give the revenue to the exchequer from tobacco taxes as £10 billion but this is off set by a cost to the economy, due to everything from loss of productivity caused by smoking breaks to the cost off treating the health problems caused by smoking, of £13.74 billion.

You don't have to be Einstein to do the maths! If everyone quit we'd all be better off.

I personally quit 19 years ago and it's the best thing I ever did.

For the "I'm just as likely to be run over by a bus as to die of lung cancer" or "Grandad smoked sixty Capstan Full Strength a day for sixty years and died aged ninety in a parachute accident" brigade, remember this. Smoking causes one in four cancer deaths and kills half its long-term users.

Steve

 

[Matt308]

Why not put the dollar/pound bills in your mouth and light up?

Hah, that is exactly what I told my Mom! I told her she should smoke pot. It's cheaper and she would get more bang for her buck!

 

[Lucky13]

 

[mikewint]

The Govt has the key, as was said by Chief Justice John Marshall: The power to tax is the powder to destroy. You do not have to ban tobacco, just tax it out of existance