New Anti Smoking Laws

Waylander · 30-01-2003 2:21pm #1

I am off the cigarettes now three months but I have to say the new laws banning smoking in restaraunts and pubs p*ss*s me off. Do not get me wrong I have no intention of becoming a smoker or a social smoker again I just think that there are few enough places left where a smoker can sit and enjoy a cigarette. I never had a problem not smoking on buses or all the other places where they were banned, and when I lived at home with my folks I did not have a problem not smoking there but I think this is too much. Besides any pubs I have been in that have a non smoking section, that section tends to be fairly empty even when the rest of the pub is busy. Anywya I am just wondering what the general concensus is on this point so please let me know.

meglome · 30-01-2003 2:48pm

The problem is waylander that it's all well and good for the people who want to smoke but I certainly have no desire to 'enjoy' a cigarette while I'm out. The reality is that when I go to the pub I'm probably having quite a number of cigarettes whether I like it or not... judging by the stink of smoke from my clothes. I won’t be sorry when smoking is banned across the board in public places. Maybe smokers are getting the same consideration that I'm currently getting when out i.e. none.

Waylander · 30-01-2003 3:24pm

I do appreciate what you are saying and even agree with it to a certain extent. But the fact is that the pub is one of the last places where a smoker can smoke. There is now no smoking in workplaces, excepting pubs and restaraunts, on buses, in shops, in cinemas where it is not so long ago when all this was allowable. So you are in fact getting consideration. I just think that in pubs a smoker should be allowed to smoke, I have no problem banning it in restaraunts and other public places.

Victor · 30-01-2003 3:41pm

And damnit, theres nowhere I can hit other people and get away with it either! :P

If the legislation wasn't introduced, sooner or later the insurance companies would have made public liability insurance for pubs so high that it would have stopped anyway. It is probably only greed and addiction that would have kept it going.

Meh · 30-01-2003 3:46pm

Originally posted by Waylander
I just think that in pubs a smoker should be allowed to smoke, I have no problem banning it in restaraunts and other public places.

Why should pubs be a special exception? Surely all the reasons for banning smoking in restaurants, cinemas etc. also apply to pubs?

Stark · 30-01-2003 4:04pm

Maybe smokers are getting the same consideration that I'm currently getting when out i.e. none.

Exactly, why is it that when someone smokes at the table the smoke always travels in the direction of a non-smoker's face?

Renton · 30-01-2003 4:21pm

while this may piss us smokers off, I reckon if it was made illegal now, then in twenty years time from now, people would look back on the decision as if it were the best decision ever made by the government.

Long term, I think the new laws are a good Idea.

Washout · 30-01-2003 4:27pm

The major problem is of course enforcing it...I can understand that what places that do have bouncers patrolling it wont be a problem but what about pubs in the suburbs.... Its more easily enforcable in restaurants but what about places like mcdonalds and burger king where you often get a gathering of scangers and such who dont even obey the law on buses.

flyz · 30-01-2003 4:32pm

Originally posted by Washout
Its more easily enforcable in restaurants but what about places like mcdonalds and burger king where you often get a gathering of scangers and such who dont even obey the law on buses.

McDonalds is already a non-smoking restaurant. has been for years.

They don't enforce it after 10pm, not that htey let ppl know this either, but I can't remember the last time I saw anyone smoke in Mcdonalds.

Snaga · 30-01-2003 4:48pm

In any mcdonalds with large boun... erm security guards (think city center) the no smoking rule is quite often enforced after hours.

Waylander, smoking is being banned for its adverse effect on people who do _not_ smoke. I go to a pub because its a place to drink and chat with friends, not to encase myself in cancer inducing fumes because some person has a right to do so. But from January 1st 2004 they wont have that right and I cant wait.

The no smoking areas in pubs did not work simply because if a group of 6 people have 2 smokers they will usually head to the smoking section rather than split a group, because the 2 usually 'damn well need a smoke!'.

Waylander · 30-01-2003 7:19pm

Waylander, smoking is being banned for its adverse effect on people who do _not_ smoke. I go to a pub because its a place to drink and chat with friends, not to encase myself in cancer inducing fumes because some person has a right to do so. But from January 1st 2004 they wont have that right and I cant wait.

Snaga thank you for explaining to me the function of a pub, because I really was not sure what they are here for. Similarly I did not know that cigarettes had such a bad effect on you or I would never have taken it up, fortunately I am off them now. Anyway the poll looks fairly comprehensive, I thought it would be but in the other direction. Maybe the smokers are stunned speechlees by the impact such a law would have. Thanks everyone for your contributions.

Snaga · 30-01-2003 10:13pm

Originally posted by Waylander
Snaga thank you for explaining to me the function of a pub, because I really was not sure what they are here for.

Well now that you know you wont feel so bad about smoking being banned in them eh?

p.s. (druss > waylander

)

PH01 · 31-01-2003 9:20am

I think that it is a bit over the top. I mean banning smoking in pubs? Yes, I know, it will make the air more breathable and your cloaths won't smell up like they do now. But overall it is a cop-out.

If these pubs had proper air conditioning/filtering smoking shouldn't be a problem.

The best solution, IMO, smoking should be banned in pubs where the air quality isn't maintained.

daveirl · 31-01-2003 9:31am

This post has been deleted.

rubadub · 31-01-2003 7:04pm

"I just think that there are few enough places left where a smoker can sit and enjoy a cigarette."
yeah, most drug addicts have the same problem, its a terrible shame they cant share/force their addictive drugs with everybody.

if heroin was still legal would you want people smoking it next to you in a pub? cigarettes are such a part of society people dont even view them as what they are. in 50 years i can see people saying "no way, people just lit up and smoked in the middle of a business meeting"

you should not be allowed to harm somebody physically. they have laws against assaulting people, at last they are coming around to laws against indirect/manslaughter style assault.

people were up in arms about water being radioactive in wicklow, what about the air we breath? smokeless fuel was brought in in dublin years back, they have only seriously gotten around to smokless buildings now.

"Yes, I know, it will make the air more breathable and your cloaths won't smell up like they do now. "
you left out the bit about not dying so young

New Anti Smoking Laws

What are your thoughts on the new anti smoking legislation? 31 votes

Comments