Best news in ages! Smoking Ban Date set!

[Bazzlad]

Steady on kid, it was just commentary. I don't recall ever having lit up cigarette anywhere near you. People getting pissed up and passing out and having intensive hospital treatment and starting fights and vandalising and generally being a nuisence is directly correlated to alcohol though, I don't recall smoking being the cause of such a great deal of strife. Sorry I forgot, you go to a pub and come home smelling of someone's filthy and disgusting habit. I mean, you went to a pub where people tend to go to drink and smoke, it's not as if you expected to inhale cigarette smoke is it?

I don't pass out after drinking, I don't hit anyone after drinking, nor do I vandalise things. However because some people do you think we should bad alcohol? I know people who do all the above from sniffing aerosols.

Ban Deodorant?

Tobacco
It is estimated that each year in the UK around 114,000 people die from tobacco-related diseases, particularly from cancer, respiratory diseases and heart disease. [1]


Alcohol
Estimates of annual alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales vary from 5,000 to 40,000. This includes deaths from cirrhosis of the liver and other health problems from long-term drinking, deliberate and accidental overdose, traffic deaths, fatal accidents while drunk etc.

Either way, less than half AND my drinking doesn't affect other people.

Here comes the clue train, last stop - you.

[Knoxville]

Welcome to another notch on the nanny state's belt kids

[dangel]

Funny how the same old weak arguments that smoking is in the same classification as drinking are always punted out by smokers whenever a ban in mentioned. If I atomised my beer and sprayed it around the room like you do with a ciggy then you'd have a point, otherwise it's about the dumbest argument i've heard in a while. End of the day if you want (for some unknown reason other than addiction) to smoke then you'll still be able to do so - the only change is you won't be able to inflict your second hand smoke on others - so what?

[yamangman]

Here comes the clue train, last stop - you.

You attempts at being even remotely offensive are, well, stupid.

Anyway, back on point. it is immediately apparant I wasn't referring to you personally in my above post, so you first paragraph is a rather idiotic reply. You've quoted estimates of deaths from some random uncited source. Lets assume they are true, now why not find facts a figures for the other alcohol-related items on the aforementioned list? Why not start with crime and A&E?

Funny how the same old weak arguments that smoking is in the same classification as drinking are always punted out by smokers whenever a ban in mentioned. If I atomised my beer and sprayed it around the room like you do with a ciggy then you'd have a point, otherwise it's about the dumbest argument i've heard in a while. End of the day if you want (for some unknown reason other than addiction) to smoke then you'll still be able to do so - the only change is you won't be able to inflict your second hand smoke on others - so what?

That is of course not a reference to me, i'd rather see legislation that affected both as a non-drinker and non-smoker.

[Ferral]

I smoke myself and have to admit that I agree with smoking and non smoking sections in pubs and nightclubs. However an outright ban I think is pushing it a bit far. Most smokers will agree that when you get a few drinks inside you, you want to smoke. Kind of weird really.

On the other hand, I completely agree on no smoking in shopping centres etc and most definately in establishments that serve food. I hate it when someone is smoking near me when I am eating.

[jonnyniner]

Welcome to another notch on the nanny state's belt kids

I think it's hardly the nanny state...There are far worse things constituting the nanny state right now than banning smoking...

[Bazzlad]

Anyway, back on point. it is immediately apparant I wasn't referring to you personally in my above post, so you first paragraph is a rather idiotic reply. You've quoted estimates of deaths from some random uncited source. Lets assume they are true, now why not find facts a figures for the other alcohol-related items on the aforementioned list? Why not start with crime and A&E?

Source: http://www.drugscope.org.uk/druginfo...%5Cdeaths.html

Personally I think your argument about Alcohol based crime is a poor one.
I've never believed that alcohol can make you behave too far out of character. Aggressive people will get more so etc.

The "lots of fights" issue is the fact that you have 1000+ people in a very small space at the end of a night. Do you believe if you had exactly the same thing happen without any alcohol there would be no violence?

I've noticed in Stourbridge, since staggered leaving times the violence to be very much controlled and down to a stupid few.

Bear in mind, week in, week out THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of people go out, get drunk, don't assault anyone, don't vandalise anything and don't need A+E, the way you're speaking it's as if that's the minority.

If you don't drink that's down to you, but don't tar the majority of drinkers with your sweeping generalisms.

As I said, take the alcohol away from the chav, and you're left with a chav. Go to the cinema on a night to find that out.

[Ben_]

Source: http://www.drugscope.org.uk/druginfo...%5Cdeaths.html

The "lots of fights" issue is the fact that you have 1000+ people in a very small space at the end of a night. Do you believe if you had exactly the same thing happen without any alcohol there would be no violence?

how about shopping centres? conferences? outside of stourbridge these are perfectly safe

[yamangman]

So you are willing to believe controversial scientific evidence that passive smoking is the cause of numerous deaths, but aren't willing to believe more widely accepted scientific evidence that alcohol causes changes of mood and emotion? Not to mention alcohol itself is a carcinogen.

Thousands and thousands of people walk down a busy street each day, but scientific research methodology dosn't take on board the chemicals and carcinogens you breath in doing that into passive smoking studies (at least no study I have seen).

[yamangman]

I like the way I was first a smoker, so unfairly disposed towards the smoking-camp. Then I reveal i'm a non-smoker and an almost t-totaler so I can't tar drinkers with generalisms (not that I did of course).

[Digerati]

Who here has been to countries where this law has already passed and what was it like? I think current countries are Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada... can't think of any others.

[kasavien]

I was going to post this -

flame me for this if you like people usually ignore me anyway, but i can't wait for the smoking ban to come in. And for those that think it's losing a civil liberty to ban smoking, no-one has ever had the liberty to decide if they want taxes to pay for NHS treatment for self inflicted drug/smoking/alcohol/weight related health issues.

but then i realised the taxes from cigarretes/alcohol/food probably pay for people's hospital treatment, ah well.

[Bazzlad]

Who here has been to countries where this law has already passed and what was it like? I think current countries are Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada... can't think of any others.

America. New Jersey 5 times a year, I loved it mate. Amazing.

Half of the hangover disappears.

I've worked out hangovers are made of 3 parts:

Beer
Lack of sleep
Smoke.

It was nice to lose a piece.

[IBM]

People are essentially stupid, and don't know what's good for them. Should they be allowed to kill themselves by smoking? No, of course not, no more than you'd allow a kid to play with a pocket knife. Met many people dying of smoking related diseases still happy that they took up smoking? Would you advise your younger brother/sister/nephew/neice to take up smoking? It's a stupid habit, and I for one would be glad if the government banned it....I used to hope they would when I smoked, but then I had a kid and found the will power to stop. Civil liberties my arse, if you think killing yourself through smoking is a thing worth fighting over, then you need to read the first line of my post again.



Ooooooo, I'm gonna get flamed for that one. It's the stress & caffine talking, honest folks.

[jonnyniner]

Who here has been to countries where this law has already passed and what was it like? I think current countries are Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada... can't think of any others.

I went to Edinburgh for the fringe festival In August. It seems to work OK there although the pubs reported an initial loss in profits, It seems to be on the rise again. They have systems in place like drink reservers for when people go out for a cigarette. The general feedback from when I was there was very good and smokers even say they weren't bothered anymore.

[Moby-Dick]

Thread cleaned up. Stop willy waving at each other and start posting like adults and I'll treat you like them