Anti-smoking laws

[maxx england]

Overall, it was a good night and I got to meet Magic Dick and get his autograph. But I won't lie, I couldn't wait to pack up, get the frick outta there and get some fresh air. Even though we have sub zero temperatures in Michigan right now, I hung my stage clothes out on the line for a couple days before I would even bring them in the house to wash them!

Bosco

On the plus side, if you hang them up without airing, it will deter moths and kill any parasites.

[ricochet]

Or grow hideous monster-movie mutated moths and parasites.

Don't forget that tobacco smoke is said to be laden with radioactive polonium, among other things.

[grumpygroo]

Love that Polonium! According to reports, after Litvinov's death half of London seems to be polluted with it. Maybe we smokers are immune to the stuff

[grumpygroo]

Sorry, that should be Litvenenko (not Litvinov). Perhaps smoking does something to the brain!

[bluesmcgoo]

I love (smoked) puppies.

http://www.2wallpaper.com/weirdspot/smoking_dog.jpg

[ricochet]

Real hard keepin' them things lit, ain't it?

[MudcatMatt]

Politicians determine what's good for us? So, gambling is good for us? The money will decide what is or isn't good for us. Maybe they'll decide drinking or sausage pizza isn't good for us. or maybe Blues music. Yippee. It doesn't have a d*$n thing to do with what's good for us or we'd all have the same benefits they do..

Unlike drinking, eating sausage pizza, or grooving on the blues, smoking directly and adversely effects those around the smoker. As the old saying goes: You have rights. But your rights end where my nose begins.

I don't smoke. Never have. Never will. As a non-smoker, I have a right to go out to a restaurant or club without being subjected to your second-hand smoke and having it taint my clothing, my hair, and more importantly, my lungs.

You have every right to smoke if you so choose - in your own home, in your car, in most places outdoors - but not where your smoke assaults others.

I applaud my own town government as it was recently the third city our state to pass an across the-board ban on smoking in all public buildings. This includes restaurants and bars. Now I can finally go out to live music clubs again without having to subject myself a cloud of smoke so thick I can't even see the stage. Man, I don't know how I ever stood that crap back when I was playing clubs three to four nights a week.

[raiph]

Now that's a very typical attitude, encapsulating the opinion of the day, sadly shared by many, and only slightly less holier-than-thou than you might find in a rabid ex-smoker.

It is ripe with righteous condemnation and prejudice, and even flavoured with an "old saying" (Old saying?) to add credence.

I am a lifelong smoker, with some 60-odd years of addiction behind me.

Like many of my fellow addicts (and non-smokers, of course) I share the view that smoky places are not nice - I have spent my life avoiding smoking compartments in trains and buses, etc, and hated the smell of most pubs.

And like most of us, I accept, without question, that it is harmful, to others as well as to me (as are many other things which are selfishly clung to in spite of the third party consequences).

Like many of my fellow addicts, I have always - always - been considerate of non-smokers: I would never dream of lighting up in someone else's house or office, nor would I smoke in someone's presence (indoors or out) without asking if they had objection to my doing so.
(The idea of "going outside for a smoke" has been a practice of smokers from long before the anti-nicotine police were established.)

Born of two heavy smokers, I became hooked to the habit at an early age, when it was not only fashionable to smoke (82% of the population smoked tobacco) but society actively encouraged smoking:

- all serving armed forces (and some public services, eg, fire services and some police forces) issued serving men and women with a free, daily cigarette ration;

- many cigarette brands boasted their health-giving properties;

- a visit to a GP often meant sitting in a smoke-filled consulting room with a chain-smoking doctor... (There were more smokers in the medical profession than any other branch of society.)

(A friend of mine was advised by his doctor to take up smoking as a means of alleviating his asthma!)

One could continue indefinitely...

It would have been surprising had I (and many of my generation) not become a smoker, and so many of us wish that we were not so afflicted.

But (and again, like most of my fellow addicts) I don't bang a big drum demanding that non-smokers suffer the secondary effects of my handicap.

Nor do I, at every opportunity, try my damnedest to make non-smokers feel like filthy, diseased pariahs to be chastised and hounded at every opportunity. (Would you non-smokers have similar attitudes to alcoholics? Or even people in wheelchairs? And don't fly the "self-inflicted" flag - it won't flutter.)

So, to all you (I suspect young) non-smokers: have a little understanding, be a little less condemning of those you so easily dismiss as antisocial. Most of us are actually on your side, in spirit, and envy you the fact.

[ricochet]

Hey Matt, I'll bet I can eat sausage pizza and assault your nose!

Others around us may not always appreciate our "grooving on the blues," either, especially at high volume. I certainly dislike the "boom box" bass issuing from other cars around town. We all have our own tastes.

It would certainly be nice if everyone tried to practice "The Golden Rule" and be considerate of others.

[Pickin'4memories]

raiph, you said it. i dont smoke, i'm too young and dont really care to smoke cigarettes, but I am DAMN tired of people treating smokers like lepers. It's not fair, its cruel, and its completely ridiculous. Some might say that they dont like having smoke blown in their face-- its been a VERY long time since ive seen any one light up, purposefully find a non-smoker and exhale directly at him. just dont happen much, smokers are just as good of people as non-smokers.

Try just asking the smoker to put it out once, they just might oblige. they are normal people, and they cant help but be normal people, despite the way that the non-smoking majority treats them constantly.

[grumpygroo]

Like raiph, I'm a lifelong smoker, been puffing away for 45 years now. I've been trying to give it for at least the last five years with no success (I end up like Krusty the Klown in the Simpsons, covered in patches, chewing away, and spraying the nasal sprays everywhere and I still want a fag). Anyway, went to the doc's the other day and after discussing the merits of various brands of hemorrhoid ointment, he asked me, for the first time ever, if I wanted to give up smoking. Yes, I replied, cautiously. "Well we've just started to employ a counsellor to help people just like you". So, I've got a counsellor.

I really hope it works. The anti-smoking laws are a real pain. Nothing worse than sitting in a pub, not being able to smoke. I spose, if you can't beat the health fascists you just gotta join 'em.

Such is the way of the world

[gcd revue]

I'm a heavy smoker. Have been since I was 12. It's not gonna change. However, I don't inflict my vices (or my faith) on others. Even in establishments that allow smoking, I'll usually go outside. The only issue I have with the anti-smoking zealots is that they'll complain about the smoke in a DESIGNATED smoking area. If you choose to occupy a place where smoking is permitted, don't gripe. That is the ONLY circumstance in which I have EVER deliberately blown smoke on a non-smoker. He came directly to the smoking area (outside work, halfway across the parking lot) and read me the riot act for smoking. It's kinda like messin' with a man's hat. Looking for a confrontation will usually get you one, REGARDLESS of the excuse.

And, back to the real topic -- I really PREFER gigs in non-smoking places. My vocals go south a LOT less quickly, and the smoke residue is bad for electronics. I can always go outside on the break.

[rustyslide]

re: young anti-smokers.

I think as the number of smokers had decreased, or at least, the public venues in which to be exposed to cigarette smoke has decreased, people's sensitivity went up.

That's at least my experience, and a sample size of one is of course infallible (I should probably go edit Wikipedia now...).

My father smoked when I was a child, not very much, two or three a daym but he still smoked. When we visited my grandmother, who smokes like an industrial plant, it never used to bother me. Since my father quit when I was a teenager, I would invariably get a sore throat within five minutes of being in my grandmother's house, and find it very unpleasant to be downwind from smokers even outside today (many of my co-workers smoke).

This doesn't excuse the sanctimonious attitude of many, but might explain why people are increasingly bothered by it.

[Reverend Mojo]

Ok, I'm clearly on the wrong side of this, but I prefer a smoky bar. I've quit smoking a number of times, and always start back up. You know where I usually have that first cigarette that gets me started again? In a bar (probably because it sucks being a non-smoker in a smoking bar). When I wake up the next morning reeking of whiskey and stale smoke, there is a certain miserable satisfaction to it. I know I've done wrong, but at least I did it right. It's like the place lacks atmosphere if the atmosphere ain't polluted.

There's a bar around here that flies in the face of the city ordinance and allows smoking anyway. They just tell you that you're paying a portion of the fine if they get busted again that night before they give you an ashtray.

I'm not saying that I don't understand the non-smoker's point of view, I just object to having it legislated.

[jaybee]

I think there should be a law against people nagging to me about the fact that I smoke, after all it's bad for my health:
they get on my nerves = stress
my blood pressure goes up = health hazard
they make me go out to smoke = catch a cold, and be at risk of being either mugged while standing there or run over by some bad driver who decides THIS is the moment go drive on the sidewalk...

as for telling me I should stop smoking, I have only one reply "I smoke, you nag, I'll quit right after you did"

and if asked when I'll finally give up smoking... "I'll stop, right after I stopped breathing" and don't come and tell me "but it'll shorten your life..." it'll only get you what you want sooner, won't it