Smoking at 16 and under disco?

JDMC2

My daughter goes to a local disco for kids age 16 and under which prides itself on being alcohol free!
What bugs me is that they allow the 16 year old kids to smoke and facilitate by providing a smoking room. I emphasise that the 16 yo can smoke, the manager said he asks the smokers what age they are - oh come on!
Manager also says that kids are entitled to smoke at 16 so he provides them with the room!
Is there anything in law to prevent this?
Tia

benjilxp

JDMC2 wrote: »

My daughter goes to a local disco for kids age 16 and under which prides itself on being alcohol free!
What bugs me is that they allow the 16 year old kids to smoke and facilitate by providing a smoking room. I emphasise that the 16 yo can smoke, the manager said he asks the smokers what age they are - oh come on!
Manager also says that kids are entitled to smoke so he provides them with the room!
Is there anything in law to prevent this?
Tia

If used to go to a underage disco about 15 years ago which was run by the garda and it allowed smoking indoors but no drinking and that was aged 12-16 ,so that outdoor smoking policy is shocking tbh

silent_spark

You have to be 18 to buy cigarettes, and it's illegal to give cigarettes to a minor, so I presume you have to be 18 to smoke?

ArmaniJeanss

silent_spark wrote: »

You have to be 18 to buy cigarettes, and it's illegal to give cigarettes to a minor, so I presume you have to be 18 to smoke?

I don't think anyone under the age of 18 (or indeed under the age of 16) would be committing an offence by smoking.

seamus

My understanding is that only the purchase or supply of cigarettes to under 18s is illegal. It's not an actual offence for someone under 18 to smoke.

Of course, what's probably happening in this "smoking room" is a cottage industry where one or two kids bring a small stock of cigarettes and sell them to the others.

JDMC2

Yes that's probably happening but the issue I have is that the management are actually providing a room and allowing these '16' year olds to smoke.
It is 18 to buy cigarettes but, according to the manager, kids from 16 can legally smoke.

Riesen_Meal

JDMC2 wrote: »

Yes that's probably happening but the issue I have is that the management are actually providing a room and allowing these '16' year olds to smoke.
It is 18 to buy cigarettes but, according to the manager, kids from 16 can legally smoke.

If was 16 up to 1994, 18 after...


Funny enough when I started smoking, back then in our school we had a prefab just for smoking for 4th years and up....

Would not get away with that nowadays, very surprised to hear that at a teenager disco in this day and age in 2017...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_age

Check Ireland there

seamus

JDMC2 wrote: »

Yes that's probably happening but the issue I have is that the management are actually providing a room and allowing these '16' year olds to smoke.
It is 18 to buy cigarettes but, according to the manager, kids from 16 can legally smoke.

The bigger concern is the apparent provision of a smoking "room", in contravention of the smoking ban. Unless it's an outside smoking area, allowing them to smoke inside the facility is a reportable offence.

o1s1n

Fieldog wrote: »

If was 16 up to 1994, 18 after...

Fairly sure it was 16 up until about 2001/2002?

nuac

As father of four, now all adults, I know nobody over the age of 12 would patronise an "under 16" disco.

Smoking should not be allowed, period.

StupidLikeAFox

If its any consolation it probably isn't alcohol free either

Sleeper12

JDMC2 wrote:

My daughter goes to a local disco for kids age 16 and under which prides itself on being alcohol free! What bugs me is that they allow the 16 year old kids to smoke and facilitate by providing a smoking room. I emphasise that the 16 yo can smoke, the manager said he asks the smokers what age they are - oh come on! Manager also says that kids are entitled to smoke at 16 so he provides them with the room! Is there anything in law to prevent this? Tia

You say smoking room. It's illegal for them to smoke indoors. You can report this

JDMC2

Sorry, I should've clarified, the smoking room is actually the smoking area that is used when over 18s are in the disco - which I have no problem with at all - they are well able to make their own choices at that stage!
I have phoned the management and they said they can't stop 16 yo smoking. I suggested disallowing smoking full stop but it wasn't washing :mad:
I'm not brave enough to get on Joe Duffy or to get a petition signed by parents. I was hoping there was another route!

donegal.

silent_spark wrote: »

You have to be 18 to buy cigarettes, and it's illegal to give cigarettes to a minor, so I presume you have to be 18 to smoke?

could the same not be said of alcohol ?

benjilxp

JDMC2 wrote: »

Sorry, I should've clarified, the smoking room is actually the smoking area that is used when over 18s are in the disco - which I have no problem with at all - they are well able to make their own choices at that stage!
I have phoned the management and they said they can't stop 16 yo smoking. I suggested disallowing smoking full stop but it wasn't washing :mad:
I'm not brave enough to get on Joe Duffy or to get a petition signed by parents. I was hoping there was another route!

Not much you can do then.its the same with most underage discos but back in my day we didn't have to go outside to smoke

JDMC2

JDMC2 wrote: »

Sorry, I should've clarified, the smoking room is actually the smoking area that is used when over 18s are in the disco - which I have no problem with at all - they are well able to make their own choices at that stage!
I have phoned the management and they said they can't stop 16 yo smoking. I suggested disallowing smoking full stop but it wasn't washing :mad:
I'm not brave enough to get on Joe Duffy or to get a petition signed by parents. I was hoping there was another route!

Who runs the under age disco? Is it voluntary? If it is voluntary and you put together a petition all that will happen is they will stop doing the underage discos. It wont be worth the hassle for them.

When you are dealing with kids in the 14,15,16 age bracket who smoke you can either:

1. ban them from smoking and then put up with them sneaking a smoke in the toilets, which has fire safety implications
2. give them a safe outdoor place for them to smoke in

If you are concerned about your own daughter/son, you will know if they have been smoking the minute they get in the car. You can then talk to them about their choices.

seamus

In all seriousness, if it's a smoking area I'm not sure there's very much you can do. You can ask the manager to close the doors to it, but there's no legal reason why under-18s can't go into the smoking area. And if they choose to smoke there, the manager is under no obligation to stop them.

And as denartha says, you're not going to stop them. Lock the smoking area, they'll smoke in the toilets. And then the management get a headache with security constantly chasing smokers out of the toilets because that's an actual problem.

Have one of the kids go in and take a look. Are cigarettes being sold out there during the course of the night? If so, make a complaint to the Gardai. Otherwise, just leave it alone. You can't force other parents to pay attention to what their kids are doing.

xavier8228

If you close the smoking area the kids will go outside to smoke. I know at our local disco they won't allow anyone outside without having a parent or guardian ready to collect them but it might not be the case for all discos. So you would have kids standing outside on their own which could be a security issue or could lead to them drinking outside too. I would think that although you don't want your child to be smoking at all you would want them at least to be in a safe place if they were doing so.

Samuel T. Cogley

Smoking is 30% cooler than not. Closing the smoking area will make it at least 50% cooler again.


Note from nuac

I thought with all the interest in sports and fitness that smoking was on the decline.

I told my four that I regarded smoking to be more dangerous than drinking

ED E

seamus wrote: »

The bigger concern is the apparent provision of a smoking "room", in contravention of the smoking ban. Unless it's an outside smoking area, allowing them to smoke inside the facility is a reportable offence.

The now closed Twisted Pepper had for several years an attic smoking area. Closed on all six sides but with a high volume extraction system. Always wondered how AGS turned a blind eye to that one.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Samuel T. Cogley

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Note from nuac

I thought with all the interest in sports and fitness that smoking was on the decline.

I told my four that I regarded smoking to be more dangerous than drinking

I never smoked, because of my interest (at the time in fitness and Athletics) but no one ever told me not too. Well my Father told me how he'd quit and my mother's 20 a day habit wasn't all that pleasant, but I imagine being told no would have only increased the allure.

I applaud parents that can steer the line because it's a really rock and a hard place. Once they start (My mother started at 11 and carried on for 50 years - she's still alive and kicking but vapes now) it's almost impossible to stop and the silly buggers don't notice the effects on their health until 20 years in.

I suppose the two points I'd make is I wouldn't like to the kids of the parents that put the kibosh on it and kids will always do the 'forbidden'. I'd suggest that it might just be easier to keep them home but then that's very difficult for a number of reasons also.

In the grand scheme of things they're going to make stupid mistakes and all one can do OP is as per Nuac's point is try and give them a steer. In my unqualified and unchilded opinion anyway.

Legally though - smoking indoors is illegal if you want to report it, report it.