Friday 2 July 2010

Common Sense



The shortest smoking ban in Europe has taken place in Bulgaria. All of three days! They come on a par with Spain which has a sensible approach to those who use nicotine.

Why can't the UK use such common sense or are they angling towards an alcohol ban soon? I doubt that myself but we never can tell as it's proven alcohol causes more serious problems than nicotine within our society.

8 comments:

J. R. Tomlin said...

I have mixed feelings about this whole thing and a pretty emotional attachment to it.

My father (a heavy smoker from the age of 12) died at an early age from lung cancer.

Let me tell you, watching someone die in that was is--excruciating.

I can not stand to be around cigarette smoke and I despise cigarette corporations for making obscene profits on convincing people to use products which they have known for decades would kill the user. Try to find a cigarette company executive who smokes! Ha! It won't happen. They KNOW exactly how bad their products are.

That doesn't mean that people who want to court horrible diseases shouldn't have the right to do so--although *I* do not want to breath the by-products they choose to produce. A mixed bag of rights that is difficult to untangle.

I ABSOLUTELY support bans on advertising these products, especially to children and young people.

Beyond that, I am generally pretty happy with laws that keep me (and my children and my ASTHMATIC granddaughter) from being forced to breath other people's smoke, but I can understand that smokers see it differently.

I do believe that my rights end where your nose begins. The opposite is also true.

subrosa said...

I'm fairly sure that your asthmatic granddaughter is more badly affected from the fumes off cars and buses Jeanne, but let's not go there.

In my lifetime I've never known a smoker to puff smoke into someone's face or, if told a person in the room didn't like smoking around them, remove themselves from the upsetting environment. Then again, maybe the smokers I know are just genuinely pleasant and courteous people.

Unfortunately it's not always so that rights begin at the nose. Some people have to do jobs which involved hellish smells yet they have to make a living.

Must agree about the advertising though. Any death from cancer is distressing. Watching a drinker die from cancer of the esophagus was also distressing. Auch drink will be banned shortly and then we'll be back to prohibition. Except for the rich of course. :)

Dick Puddlecote said...

Common sense is thin on the ground over here, Rosie. Incredibly intolerant people, on the other hand, are very thick.

Err, on the ground, I meant ... of course. ;-)

Billy Carlin said...

Dick Puddlecote

That will be the incredibly intolerant people who judge other "junkies" as if somehow they themselves were different!

Yes common sense is thin on the ground!

Dick Puddlecote said...

Far too cryptic for me, Billy, please explain.

subrosa said...

Aye Dick, I knew you meant on the ground. :)

English Pensioner said...

I think the smoking ban is merely a step on the way to an alcohol ban. My usual pub is likely to close soon because without the smokers it has had to increase its prices, and with increased prices, more non-smokers are also drinking at home.
I go there every Friday, after bell-ringing practice (a strange English custom!) and we now have a contingency plan of going to the ringers' homes on a rota basis if it closes. Just more profit for Tesco. The suggestion that drink-driving limits should be decreased is merely another prong of the same attack.

subrosa said...

That doesn't surprise me English Pensioner. It's strange isn't it that folk can take drugs in pubs but smoking is banned. Just a silly thought.

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