A smoking ban?

[Phil Pascoe]

So I quit and it wasn't that difficult once I made my mind up.

Making my mind up was the difficult part.

I stopped for a couple of years and started again - why? who knows.
Years later I stopped for a while and saw a doctor who asked if I was still off them. No, I said, I started agin. Don't worry, he said, when you're ready you'll stop, until then you won't. I stopped not long afterwards - it was the most difficult thing I've ever done.

 

[Cobbs]

I asked myself that many times.
I smoked my first ciggy as a preteen, smoked regularly in secondary school, stopped for a year or so when I left school and then got down to some serious smoking from from say 17 to 24.

By that time I had a wife and child and found myself watching TV in the evenings and smoking while suffering from heartburn and not really enjoying it, but sometimes I'd have one lit and half smoked without realising.

So I quit and it wasn't that difficult once I made my mind up.

Making my mind up was the difficult part.

That's well over 40 years ago.

Why did I smoke, I think in the beginning it was to be one of the guys. In the sixties any group I found myself in 80-90-100% were smokers.

A lot of the interactions involved banter about who's" flash" it was. Who was too tight, or the guy who could bring them out of his pocked lit. etc, etc.

I can't say I ever got great pleasure from a cigarette. I got a little nag when a didn't smoke for a while which went away when I did.

I'm glad to see there are many less smokers nowadays it's a filthy habit with no upside I know of.

But if you're an adult I respect your right to smoke if you desire.

Peculiar isn't it? Tastes horrid, makes you stink, makes you feel sick the first few times you do it and for ever after that, just makes you feel bad if you don't get your hit. There are so many more pleasant drugs out there, it makes me wonder how it ever became popular. (30 years without and counting...)

 

[Spectric]

Those robots in the smash advert,

would laugh at us humans, why do they put a burning toxic thing in their mouth and inhale the toxic fumes, are they incapable of logical thinking or just stupid !

 

[isaac3d2]

Ha, I remember that advert. It made me laugh then and makes me laugh now!
(I don't think Smash was better and certainly not healthier, but they sure knew how to market a rubbish product!)

EDIT: OMG, the word C... R.....A... P... has been replaced by rubbish. Tell me if anyone reading this is offended by that word and I'll happily edit it

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Be interesting to see if they can pull it off.

I asked my Kiwi sister how they get on with the same ban -
Good question. Don't hear much about it. Generally though I think we're doing really well, the number of people smoking is going down and down.
Vaping is the new problem, they only recently made it illegal to sell to under 18s.

 

[Terrytpot]

I personally smoked far too many upto April 2015, vaped till Feb 2016 then gave the whole thing up as a daft idea. I’m still waiting for all those health benefits I was promised would happen after stopping but can’t say I’ve detected an abundance of them although the advertised weight increase did show up although I suspect that’s more down to my adversion to anything resembling exercise. Fiscally it made a huge difference and what was previously wasted now funds which ever vehicle I choose to use to get around in comfort avoiding the previously mentioned exercise which so far includes a Land Rover Discovery Sport, a BMW X3 30D and now a Skoda Enyaq (not content with stopping smoking myself I even stopped my car doing it too now).
Even though I work in an industry where access to the seedier side of the economy was easy to come across, I always bought my smokes through legitimate channels (refined taste and generally not available) and as such probably would have had to have stopped by now as I just wouldn’t be able to afford how much what I used to smoke would cost now! It annoys me that so many years after conclusively establishing a direct correlation between smoking and its detrimental effects that no government has had the balls to ban it in its entirety. Yes, that would push it underground and put funds where they shouldn’t go but it doesn’t mean you should condone it and profit from it yourselves.

 

[artie]

I’m still waiting for all those health benefits I was promised would happen after stopping but can’t say I’ve detected an abundance of them although the advertised weight increase did show

Immediately after I stopped. I found I was awake waiting for the alarm clock every morning.

After supper, instead of loafing around I would be out doing stuff. My appetite increased and over a few years I went from 11 stone to 14. Some would say just as unhealthy as smoking, I think not.

 

[Terrytpot]

Immediately after I stopped. I found I was awake waiting for the alarm clock every morning.

me too although in my case due to the inadequate capacity of one’s bladder’s

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Banning smoking will not work. Nicotine is addictive.

Despite the huge sums spent on trying to slow or stop the supply of illegal drugs, there is a thriving black market. I suspect banning tobacco would create a similar market with a far greater number of current users looking fo a fix.

Making the transition age related makes sense - folk do not get addicted to that which they have never tried.

Personally I smoked cigarettes and then cigars from the age of about 12. I was always aware that it was foolish but knew the resolve to stop had to come from within. I had the good (or possibly bad) fortune to end up in hospital for several weeks 30 years ago.

They didn't appreciate patients lighting up on the ward and I had no choice but to ceasedfor the duration. On returning home I came to the conclusion that having by default done the difficult bit, there was no sense in restarting. I haven't had even a puff in 30 years.

 

[MikeJhn]

 

[steve355]

“You don’t *look* 49”
”I know, I am only 47. But here’s a note from my mum. They are for her”
”are you sure?”
”Oh definitely.”
”Just this once then. But next time ask her to buy them herself”.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It annoys me that so many years after conclusively establishing a direct correlation between smoking and its detrimental effects that no government has had the balls to ban it in its entirety. Yes, that would push it underground and put funds where they shouldn’t go but it doesn’t mean you should condone it and profit from it yourselves.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Scruples]

There is far more raised in taxes than smoking costs the Country.

That might have been true once...

 

[John on the Wirral]

A ban would,of course,also hopefully save on cleaning up litter. For some reason smokers seem to think it OK to drop their butt ends on the pavement - sometimes even the empty packets are also discarded in this way. When it comes to street litter there are,IMO,two curses - chewing gum and fag ends. Some cities ban chewing gum so why don't we? Then we could be proud of pavements when tourists come here!

 

[Glenhyrst]

Fully banning it just wouldn’t work, especially for those who have been smoking for 20, 30, 40 years. This way the smokers die off without being replaced. Tax income reduces but so would the healthcare costs.

Not sure how the NHS savings figured are calculated but older folk cost the NHS more per head than do the young.
The cheapest option for the NHS as well as Govt pension costs is for us all to pop off the day before we reach pensionable age.

 

[Scruples]

Peculiar isn't it? Tastes horrid, makes you stink, makes you feel sick the first few times you do it and for ever after that, just makes you feel bad if you don't get your hit. There are so many more pleasant drugs out there, it makes me wonder how it ever became popular. (30 years without and counting...)

It sounds like you didn't enjoy smoking, so it begs the question: Why did you ever smoke?
Personally, I liked smoking and I liked smoking cigars particularly. Sitting by a lake, fishing, while contemplating the world, watching the kingfisher criss-crossing the water, the moorhens bickering, the mallards coming and going, and smoking the odd cigar was heaven of Earth.

 

[Scruples]

A ban would,of course,also hopefully save on cleaning up litter. For some reason smokers seem to think it OK to drop their butt ends on the pavement - sometimes even the empty packets are also discarded in this way. When it comes to street litter there are,IMO,two curses - chewing gum and fag ends. Some cities ban chewing gum so why don't we? Then we could be proud of pavements when tourists come here!

It goes back to the days when we had street cleaners and most people smoked or accepted smokers. Don't see many cigarette butts these days but I do see clouds of vapour rising from open car windows.

 

[Scruples]

Not sure how the NHS savings figured are calculated but older folk cost the NHS more per head than do the young.
The cheapest option for the NHS as well as Govt pension costs is for us all to pop off the day before we reach pensionable age.

The pensions department certainly gained from the early demise of smokers.

 

[Cobbs]

It sounds like you didn't enjoy smoking, so it begs the question: Why did you ever smoke?
Personally, I liked smoking and I liked smoking cigars particularly. Sitting by a lake, fishing, while contemplating the world, watching the kingfisher criss-crossing the water, the moorhens bickering, the mallards coming and going, and smoking the odd cigar was heaven of Earth.

A wish to look cool when I was a kid. I suspect the same is true of a lot of people. I carried on because it only takes the very first few to get addicted.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That might have been true once...

Cost to the NHS (from the NHS site) £2.6b. Income from tax £10.4b.
That's without the savings on pensions from people dying younger.