Last smoking day in Holland
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Dear remus,
Its living itself that kills you eventuely.
Suposingly, the less you spoil yourself,the longer you live.But I like Strong coffie ,a nice piece of meat, sigarets, (Sketchup), All kinds of alcohol, driving faster than the speed limits and burning petrol, having my own sexual preferences, and being a atheist.
Trough history it has bin a sinn to seek comfort in anything else than the excepted relegion.
Sinners are there to convert, burn them on a stake, or let them pay off there sins.(taxes)There are only a few budhist monks from whom is claimed they are not addicted to anything.
But they cant stop meditating.Bep
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I'm a smoker as many of you know. If I could take a 'magic pill'
to stop, I would, most smoker would also. We don't really enjoy
them, we only enjoy for a short time (approx 20 mins)to satisfying
our mental and physical addictions.I saw a news item about the ban in Holland tonight. Its seems
that the Coffee Shops will be allowed to partition areas so
that smokers can indulge provided staff do not have to enter.
I think that's a fair compromise, its the same in Spain but
without the requirement for partitioning just dedicated areas
in premises that are over a certain size. Small bars have the
option to go Smoking or Non Smoke, well at least for the present.In the news item about Holland it mentioned that the weed can
be taken in the coffee shops provided no tobacco is involved,
there are lots of devices for the operation so I imagine it will
not effect business too much. It might even increase business
as non smokers might give it a try!From what I understand, while marijuana is not legal in Holland
it is 'overlooked' and tolerated in Amsterdam in particular. One
interviewee commented that in order to ban pot, they would first
have to legalise it
I imagine if alcohol consumption by humans was not a practice
today there would be NO possibility of it being legalised by
any Governments. It does cause a lot more premature deaths in
society than tobacco or pot does after all
Mike
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I think of the smoking ban in public buildings as a very good idea!
not only because I am a non smoker, but simply because of the following fact:if you smoke, you affect people surrounding you (in contrast to drinking, where you may become an unpleasant fellow... but you only harm yourself).
if someone drinks alkohol, I can decide not to drink.
if someone smokes however, I am forced to inhale the smoke of his cigarets, if I want or not. and besides the fact that even passive smoking is highly unhealthy (of course not every cigaret lover dies from lung cancer and of course not everyone, dying from lung cancer is a cigaret lover - but it is without a question unhealthy) it is simply disgusting how my clothes always stank, when I was out for a drink! thank god the ban became active in Germany and England some time ago. I really enjoy going out now.and the fear of pub owners, that their customers would abandon them, is completely causeless. people simply go outside to have a cigaret and then go back inside to have another pint.
I think eventually it will help people (like my flatmates, who desperately try) to reduce the amount of cigarets they are smoking - simply out of lazyness.
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Eventually anything in excess will kill you (or so I believe). To say driving your car around does no harm....what about the exhaust that is blasted into the air for everyone to breathe? So as long as you are not smoking in your diesel blowing black smoke you are better than someone enjoying a smoke outside? I would say not. As far as the legalization of pot or anything else, if the government wants to fix a budget....legalize pot and many other drugs and tax the hell out of them. There are more gated communities out where I live that have their fair share of powered noses living inside. While I am a smoker and do enjoy it at times, I will be quitting. Not so much for myself, but for my daughter. She needs me and I do understand that taking in smoke (in any form) has never been shown to be good. So for that reason alone I will quit. Not because or all the ranting or crap I get but because of that little one.
Scott
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@unknownuser said:
...you are better than someone enjoying a smoke outside?
thats the point. nobody will complain, if people smoke outside.
I even experienced that it is a nice addition to the normal evenings behavour. before that people simply sat at the table, drinking (and smoking).
now once in a while people stand up to get a bit of fresh air (well, fresh?
).
I acompany friends outside very often. not only because we are in the middle of a discussion, but because I do enjoy a bit of activity. that is something I didn't use to do previous to the smoking ban... -
Where I live we are definitely moving of the direction of banning smoking from outdoor public areas. No more just going outside for a smoke if outside means a public sidewalk. We already have bans of smoking on many public properties. If a teacher wants a smoke on her break she is expected to get completely off the school property to do so. As you drive around, even rural areas, you may see a small group of people standing around at the end of the driveway many metres away from the buildings. They are the smokers and you'll see them even in the blustery winter weather, standing in the slush.
We have zero smoking in bars and restaurants -- no smoking areas at all - indoors or out. No smokers decks or patios. The mood of many is definitely towards further restrictions on smokers. Many (and not just anti-smoking activists) are really bothered by smokers who toss their butts out car windows or who stomp them out on the sidewalk. There are calls to arrest such smokers for littering & hit them with significant fines.
Some places in Canada now even have bans on smoking in your own car if there are children on board. Activists want bans if there are pets in the car.
Stores selling cigarettes here aren't allowed to have them on display. The retailers keep them in cabinets behind the cash -- buyers have to ask for a brand as retailers can't open the cabinets to show them the selection. The packages have huge health warnings that take up a significant portion of the package 'real estate'. They'll have very bold messages like "Smoking Kills" or "Smoking Causes Impotence".
Regards, Ross
PS - I should add that in my adult years it would seem there has been a significant decline in the numbers of smokers here. The stereotypical smoker here now is either a poor low-educated person or a teenage girl. I work in an office of twelve people - nobody smokes. When I think of the people in my neighborhood - nobody smokes.
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I read in the paper today puffing weed in coffeeshops will remain legal (well... "legal"
), but one can only smoke weed - there's no tobacco allowed in your joint. Which is fairly strange, as weed's even unhealthier than tobacco.In the long run, I realize that, all these new laws are for the better. But this is idiotic: "If a teacher wants a smoke on her break she is expected to get completely off the school property to do so." There's really no rational reason for this.
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I heard that scratching your ass in public will soon be illegal.
Also having 1 finger up your nose while talking to a stranger will be illegal.
Two fingers, no problem.
Damn rules.
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@kwistenbiebel said:
Also having 1 finger up your nose while talking to a stranger will be illegal.
but thats only because you dont emmit harmful substances when both your nostrils are blocked...
no, honestly. as long as your actions do not harm others (or yourself beyond tolerable measure (what is tolerable?
)they won't be prohibited.
and of course things, that may harm your surroundings, but are inevitalbe, will still be legal (the average human farts 15 times a day
) -
@unknownuser said:
But this is idiotic: "If a teacher wants a smoke on her break she is expected to get completely off the school property to do so." There's really no rational reason for this.
Well, before the ban when the nonsmoker visited a public building they'd often have to move through a huddle of smokers camped outside the front door under the canopy. The ground would be littered with butts. In the case of schools, the children entering the school could also face this.
Furthermore, in buildings with operable windows (remember them?) the smoke would enter the building. Depending on the design the smoke could also enter the fresh air intakes of the building.
Harassing smokers like this (plus taxing the hell out of them) does result in smoking being far less socially acceptable. Rates of smoking are in decline.
By the way the main reason banning all smoking from restaurants from bars & restaurants succeded is to protect the health of staff at the establishments. Most people here would agree it is isn't right to make a waitress have to serve patrons in a smoking area and it isn't right to only give jobs to smokers. I don't believe it is legal for an employer to ask a job applicant if they smoke - as doing so could result in discrimination.
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@plot-paris said:
the average human farts 15 times a day
Not me. I fart only once. A piano fart. Really big and heavy.
Makes you wonder how 'Stinkie' got his name.
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@coen said:
Today, Monday June 30th, is the last day before the nationwide smoking ban in public places.
we have this thing in italy yet. here smoking in public places was banned more than 3 yeras ago, the only good thing berlusconi did.
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@unknownuser said:
but still she stayed alive until she was 93 years old...!!
50 % of smokers die by smoking, so your grand-mother was very lucky
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i've never been a smoker. . .(I onced puffed at the age of 11--bein' real sneaky. Made me sick. I hated it) quite frankly. . . I never really got it. Remember the old Bob Newhart routine about Crazy Wally? Sir Walter Raleigh--talkin' to the Dutch East India Company? Classic!
%(#8000BF)[*"Wo wally. . you're saying we take the leaves, roll them up in tissue paper, stick it in our mouth. . ..And SET IT ON FIRE??Uh Wally? Why would I wanna do this? Uh-huh. . .uh-huh. . . .Cuz it is tastes good?"
You call this stuff TO-BAC-C0? And you 've sent us 50 tons of the stuff?
*]Of course, Newhart was a 5 pack a day smoker himself before he quit. Johnny carson, Yul Brynner, Nat Cole, Bogart, etc etc. All died from Smoking. Very sad.
Anyway. . .Thats How I have always thought of Smoking. I jsut never really got it. Why not Just put your mouth around the tailpipe of car or something? The tragedy of smoking is that we've know about the dangers since the sixties and yet I see young people more and more doing it--despite all the knowledge that we have gained in the past 2 generations. I understand how addictive it can be tho, so I applaud those who can quit. For your Daughter's sake.
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Ross, even as a non smoker the laws you describe seem pretty strict. I can understand banning smoking indoors but banning it outside buildings seems ludicrous. The argument that the smoke could get sucked in through vents and open windows is plain madness. Yes it does happen but its not going to have an effect as anything reomtely harmful will be diluted to the extent that it is immeasurable.
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We have the smoking ban here in South Africa as well. It is not banned outside in open (ventilated) spaces, however there is a restriction of something like 20m around building openings and such.
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We too have a public indoor smoking ban in Dallas which pretty my renders everywhere unsmokable as going outside to smoke in 100 plus degrees is just not an option.
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I'd suggest the trend is towards more and more restrictions on smokers. Just because you can smoke walking down the sidewalk now where you live doesn't mean it will always be that way. Ideas like making it illegal to smoke around kids (even your own kids) have a way of catching the imagination of the non-smoking community. If they are the majority then their will can result in laws.
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Well, I was in Fargo, North dakota, 2 years ago (I know, Fargo
) and I was smoking a cigarette outside on the parking lot of a mall.Suddenly, some 'security' 4X4 drives by and shouts 'you can't smoke here'.
He looked as if he was going to mace or taze me being the next most wanted criminal.
Even my answer 'Oh, am I not allowed? I will put it out then..' made him even more agressive as if I had to pay severely for the enormous crime I just committed.I needed two minutes to explain him I am from Europe and we don't have such rules, and that I am really REALLY sorry bla bla...before he drove of.
I have a different view on the USA since that experience...
(not because of the rule you can't smoke there,but because of the power abuse ) -
A few years back . . .and I was never in favor of this, even though I do think there should be smoking restrictions. . .anyway somebody thought it would be a good idaea to criminilize smoking as an assault by forcing Some innocent bystander to breathe a smoker's second hand smoke. In a radio debate the prig and prissy Anti-smoker said. . .
"When I am forced to breathe someone else's toxins how is that any different than Union Carbide killing 3000 indians with their toxic gas. ..blah blah blah . .therefore, I should be able to charge taht person with assault"
The smoker on the other side of the debate said. . ."Lady if you can charge me with assault for a brief whiff of 2nd hand smoke .. what's next? Is farting in an elevator ATTEMPTED MURDER?
I laughed so hard I about p**d myself.
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