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They know what is good for us — 27 Comments

  1. Okay, I’m extremely anti-smoking and I was thrilled with the smoking ban (I could breath in the pub), but I have to agree with you on this. It’s crazy to expect patients (whose only pleasure in their day might be their cigarette) to walk, as you say, half a mile for it.

    In my ideal world everyone would quit smoking and morons in the street wouldn’t burn my hand as they walk past me, but this is not an ideal world and to cause such unnecessary misery to hospital patients is disgraceful.

  2. I saw the news report on this last week and felt exactly the same as you. People are big and stupid enough to know that they shouldn’t smoke (I’m a smoker myself btw) and won’t stop unless *they* want to, not because you tell them they should. Making them trawl half a mile away in their pyjamas and slippers in the miserable Irish weather won’t stop anyone but the ones who physically can’t. It’s ridiculous and as Darren says, causes misery to those already in fairly downtrodden conditions.

  3. Seems over the odds alright. Would it not be more effective to just lace all tobacco products with arsenic?

  4. “They can kiss my smoking arse”

    That’s pretty impressive. I was once up to 50 fags a day, but no smoke ever came out of my arse…

    Maybe I wasn’t inhaling properly?

  5. Seriously though, smokers should have their own fucking hospitals. We contribute more to the economy than most people and that should be reflected when it comes to our health care.

    The government should remove all taxes and excise on fags and replace it with a ‘smokers health care contribution’ levy. This money should then go directly into building and servicing hospitals exclusively for smokers, equipped with all the necessary machines to treat the most common diseases/ailments that smokers suffer from. The hospitals could also run clinics for those who, for some bizarre reason, want to quit.

    You know it makes sense…

  6. Darren – In an ideal world there would be no smoking, booze, drugs or anything. However we have to be realistic, and as you say, a cigarette is a major pleasure for some people. To deny them that pleasure is arrogant and morally wrong.

    Annie – Ask any addiction councilor and they will say the same thing – you cannot force someone to give up something against their will. They filmed the piece in sunshine, but when I watched it, it was dark, and pissing down outside. I tried to imagine myself walking a mile in the rain and cold for a smoke……!!!!

    Thrifty – Drastic, but effective. There is arsenic in cigarettes, isn’t there?

    H – Maybe I’m a bum puffer? If they channeled all the revenue from tobacco products, the government would go bust [buster than it is at the moment]. There would be nothing left for the non-smoking hospitals.

  7. Yeah, this bugs me too. I don’t smoke but I echo what Darren says. We all make our own choices etc but that said when I see heavily pregnant mothers outside maternity wards puffing away I do be greatly annoyed!

    On another, vaguely related, note… I saw on BBC news this lunchtime that British MP’s are calling for a ban on pub happy hour and low cost supermarket alcohol promos. We’ve had similar outcries here from the righteous brigade. I say fuck them all and the moral high horse they rode in on. If people want to buy 7 cocktails for the price of one it’s their choice.

  8. i notice there are no comments from the good ole u s of a on this one. that’s because they have already pushed us smokers into oblivion. hospitals banned smoking over here 20 or longer years ago. there are entire towns and cities here where you can not smoke in public. after a meal…forgettaboutit. about the only place you can smoke over here is inside your own home or your own car. but yet when asked about banning cell phone usage when driving…more dangerous to the general public…at least a more violent death…they just shrug their shoulders and move onto another subject…what can we do next to screw with smokers…i fully expect to one day be pulled over and hauled off to jail for smoking in my car.

  9. Grandad,

    The hospitals sent out a mailing to clergy about this a while ago. I stuck the gist of it into our parish magazine

    Prin,

    I am not a smoker. Garrison Keillor wrote a pertinent piece published in the New Yorker back in 1984 under the title ‘End of the Trail’ (there’s an excerpt on the web, I know, because I used if for a blog).

  10. NaRocRoc – I’m not too happy when I see pregnant women [or men; we mustn’t be sexist here] smoking, but that is down to education, not enforcement. To be frank, I would be more in favour of restrictions on drink sales! Alcohol can have much worse effects on society as any trip through the city at night will testify.

    Prin – Yet another reason you won’t get me crossing The Pond. It’s not that I couldn’t manage the smoking regime, but I abhor this mentality of crushing smokers just because they are an easy target.

  11. Grandad, I certainly see the effects of alcohol on society. Not just on a night-time trip through the city. But every single day. But surely that also comes down to education as opposed to just enforcement? Why should responsible drinkers suffer because of the actions of those who overdo it etc?

  12. NaRocRoc – Sadly, after a few alchopops, education seems to be forgotten. It is one of the many insidious effects of alcohol. Now, if they all stuck to Guinness…… ?

  13. Smoking is allowed in pubs in my town. As long as they don’t let under 18 year olds in. It’s up to the individual proprietor

  14. Not a smoker and my father died of lung cancer. However, this is bloody ridiculous. This is a democracy for gods sake, not a dictatorship. Did they not learn from the medical card debacle???

  15. If all the world drank Guinness the effects on the environment would be catastrophic. All that increased methane would surely spell the end?

  16. Yes you can. You can sit and drink your Guinness or your Midleton and puff on your pipe to your heart’s content in our local Irish pub. $5 a pint mind.

  17. Interestingly Grandad, my mother was a nurse and commented many times that people recovered better from major surgery if they smoked because they were more likely to be willing to get out of bed and move about when hanging out for a smoke! So see, smoking can be good for you after all!

  18. Well all’s I know is that I was pricing pipes Peterson’s yesterday. The Sherlock Holmes Smooth is way out of my league at 150 bucks, so I have my eye on a a Black Spigot at sub 60 euro.

    What piece you packing yourself grandad? And oh, I’ll be seeking smoking tips from you soon I reckon.

  19. I don’t grasp this. How will they prevent the patients from smoking outside the door? Will they arrest them? Will they throw them out of the hospital? Will they give them some unused cancer?

  20. Who wants to go on vacation,but you brought up smoking and hospitals ! Most hospitals at the VA {Veterans Administration} were i go we are going to smoke!!!

  21. @ #Bock the Robber…. 1 Yes it is a federal facility,2 see above,3 no there is no unused cancer # watch the nurse when they give you smoke she may have a shot of Thorazine.

  22. Terence – I bought my current pipe from Elie [link on the sidebar under Websites]. It’s an Elie’s Comrade, but I think he has stopped selling them. Can’t remember how much, but mention my name if you are in touch… 😉

    Bock – They need somewhere to put the Guantanamo inmates when the place is closed down….

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