Smoking in Scotland

[JPaul]

....or maybe we can have alcohol only pubs where you have to have an alcoholic beverage in at your station at all times.

It's a requirement.

Makes more sense than your last idea.

[j2k4]

This thread has come to try my very soul.

You know what I mean.

[JPaul]

This thread has come to try my very soul.

You know what I mean.

No, no I don't

[j2k4]

This thread has come to try my very soul.

You know what I mean.

No, no I don't

Oh, okay.

[Busyman™]

This thread has come to try my very soul.

You know what I mean.

Is it that some folks act like they are stupid or are stupid?

[Everose]

I will say that it used to make me angry when I felt others put me down for smoking. It didn't happen often because I mostly smoked on my own property. But sometimes at meetings I would go outside on break with the other smokers (great people, btw) and I noticed the disgusted looks thrown our way by the non smokers. It made me angry, what gave them the right to judge a smoker in that way!

This anger I felt actually kept me smoking longer than I should have. Kind of like a defiance thing.

I guess that anger went away when I realized it was myself I was angry with. Angry at myself because I couldn't stop something that I felt was taking years off my life. And even angry at myself for having an addiction so strong that I couldn't control it.

So basically I was really judging myself a lot harder than others judged me for it, and when I realized that it seemed kind of silly to be mad at them for doing the same thing I was doing.

Skweeky1.........I have stayed away from bars, and even people I used to smoke with. Even doing that, I have backslid. But I am just trying to keep focused on not having one.

I may have posted this before, but what really hit me is that hand surgeons will not even attempt to reattach severed fingers on a smoker. And then recently I started reading a book by a Dr. Amen from Fairfield, CA. He does SPECT on brains and he has pictures in his book of how smoking affects the brain. Scared me. I need every last brain cell I can muster some days.

If constant second hand smoke can do the same thing to non smokers, then I would have to say that I don't blame them for not wanting to be around it.

[Busyman™]

I will say that it used to make me angry when I felt others put me down for smoking. It didn't happen often because I mostly smoked on my own property. But sometimes at meetings I would go outside on break with the other smokers (great people, btw) and I noticed the disgusted looks thrown our way by the non smokers. It made me angry, what gave them the right to judge a smoker in that way!

This anger I felt actually kept me smoking longer than I should have. Kind of like a defiance thing.

I guess that anger went away when I realized it was myself I was angry with. Angry at myself because I couldn't stop something that I felt was taking years off my life. And even angry at myself for having an addiction so strong that I couldn't control it.

So basically I was really judging myself a lot harder than others judged me for it, and when I realized that it seemed kind of silly to be mad at them for doing the same thing I was doing.

Skweeky1.........I have stayed away from bars, and even people I used to smoke with. Even doing that, I have backslid. But I am just trying to keep focused on not having one.

I may have posted this before, but what really hit me is that hand surgeons will not even attempt to reattach severed fingers on a smoker. And then recently I started reading a book by a Dr. Amen from Fairfield, CA. He does SPECT on brains and he has pictures in his book of how smoking affects the brain. Scared me. I need every last brain cell I can muster some days.

If constant second hand smoke can do the same thing to non smokers, then I would have to say that I don't blame them for not wanting to be around it.

Nice post. I used to hate when my mother smoked around me as a teenager. I don't blame folks for not wanting to be around it. In almost all cases, however, they have a choice absent of a ban, even.

The fact is that at bars where smoking is known to be present, the non-smoker knows this beforehand and made a choice.....to be around it. On the surface, I am for a ban in public places. However, I believe if a proprietor so chooses to have a smoking-only establishment in which smokers and folks who don't mind the smoke can patronize then that right should not be taken away. That way non-smokers who can't stand smoke can fuck off elsewhere and smokers can stay in their own fucked smog.

If it doesn't work financially for the proprietor in that case, so be it. Let the market decide. Not getting non-smoker business and he may fuck himself over....or he may not. Smokers may flock to his establishment as a refuge. This outright ban stuff has already fucked over many businesses over this side.

[j2k4]

This thread has come to try my very soul.

You know what I mean.

Is it that some folks act like they are stupid or are stupid?

Both, and that whichever it is doesn't even matter.

[Everose]

Busy, I actually agree with you here. If someone wants a smokers only bar, and if all his employees smoke too, I have no problem with that, either.

As crazy as things have gotten, though, I would have to give some thought to any possible legal implications.

Haven't there been cases where bartenders are actually sued because they let someone drink too much and that person left driving and killed someone? With our liquor laws here the way they are......bars do have some liability there. (I am not saying this is fair)

As out of kilter as things have become, I could see someone that frequented a smokers only establishment developing lung cancer and suing the establishment because the smoker wouldn't have smoked so much more because that establishment allowed it where others didn't.

Most laws and ordinances are written for the betterment of the majority of the population. It bites big time when you aren't in that majority.

[lynx]

One of the crazy arguments I've heard put forward by those who support the ban on smoking in bars, is that people who currently don't go to the bars because of the smoke will start frequenting them and consequently profits will rise.

If that's the case, there must be such a demand for non-smoking bars that anyone opening one will get rich rapidly. However, real life doesn't seem to bear that out.

I suspect that the truth is that while a lot of non-smokers might prefer a smoke free environment, they aren't actually that bothered about it one way or the other. A lot of those that really make a fuss about it are probably anti-social b****** and don't go to bars anyway.