This is just something I've been considering for some time. Somewhere since 07/2007 when the smoking ban came in. Now all smokers know, whether they choose to admit it or not that it's a bit of a dirty habit. What non-smokers seem to forget is that it's more than just a habit. It's an addiction. If you hear someone was addicted to alcohol or to some sort of classified illegal drug then it's really bad. Although smoking has no real affect on your mentality directly (which is why it's legal) it does make you want cigarettes all the time.
I am what I like to call a considerate smoker. I don't like to exhale smoke so the wind blows it in somebody's face. I never smoke in public doorways and I don't smoke in front of or around kids. There are some, well lots of smokers who are arrogant and inconsiderate of those around them. Those people are probably just rude anyway and the smoking is just an add on.
So as far as the addiction goes, I quit. I was a former smoker (only people who have never smoked can be called non-smokers) and went almost 7 months without smoking but all that needed to get me started again was stressing over being ill and a bad decision. I didn't think I would start smoking for the sake of it, without really realising I'd gone to the shop and bought some cigarettes to 'ease the stress'. Now I am intelligent enough to understand that even though I hadn't smoked in so long my former addiction kicked in and convinced me it was the 'right' thing to do.
I got dizzy with nicotine rush and it made me feel a bit sick but I can't deny that I enjoyed it. My comfort mechanism just kicked in and told me that this was my way of dealing with stress. And so three months later I am still smoking.
I didn't find quitting very difficult the first time, I had been telling my self for months leading up to New Years I wasn't going to smoke anymore. When New Years day came round, I didn't even crave one. I may have tried to take a drag a couple of times, one I can remember for sure but all in all my former smoker-ness went well.
So now that I am smoking again I have started thinking about how biased the smoking ban is. Like I said I know that its a bad habit. It's not a very nice smell to start with and then obviously there is the passive smoking aspect of it all. There is also smoking around food (which I also don't like), I will have a cigarette after a meal as my own little pudding but I don't like to eat when someone else is smoking. I can absolutely appreciate a non-smokers opinion on that.
But, is banning smoking in pubs and clubs really fair and/or the right thing to do? I have said from the off, why not allow a smoking licence? That way people could have the prior knowledge of smokers in the establishment and choose whether or not to go into it. That's a little bit biased on my part I'll grant you but as silly as it sounds it's all about the equality of it. When I wasn't smoking I didn't mind sitting in the company of other smokers and I know people who don't smoke and have no problem with it either.
We all choose to smoke, when you first get offered one by whoever it might be we could just say no. It isn't difficult but for me there was always something that made me want to try it. I think it started when my mom used to smoke in the house. I loved the smell of a lit cigarette and I used to sort of sit in the living room so I could be there when she lit up.
As it goes my point will probably fall on deaf ears to most non-smokers but I would still like you to look at it with an open mind. I think what I am trying to get towards is that I don't think that smokers are catered to properly. Smoking shelters are never what they should be, which I think is my main source of feeling a little hard done to. I was in Merry Hill a little earlier on, and I went to have a smoke while I was just waiting around. On my way out there was a man smoking in the doorway of the Sainsbury's exit/entrance. Granted this person was probably just someone of caveman level intelligence who has no other concerns than his own. Those kind of people are what give the rest of us bad press. Most smokers would never intentionally block others paths and make them inhale smoke but it still brings up the question of whether or not you non-smokers would have to deal with imbeciles such as the Sainsbury's man if there was a smoking shelter in the first place.
Now I know you think I'm being a bit selfish but I don't think that it would be too much to ask for large shopping centres, supermarkets and businesses to shell out what would be an insignificant sum (for them) to make better and more adequate smoking facilities. You might well disagree with everything I've said and that's fine, but like many others I don't want to smoke for the rest of my life. I plan to start smoke free me 2.0 this New Year again and my mental preparation for it is well under way, but my stand point on this subject will not change. Let the smokers have a smoking shelter and please put seats in it.
In fact I wouldn’t mind if there was some adequate shelter full stop. What I don’t get is why has a smoking shelter got to be less than fifty percent covered sort of thing? If it’s only smokers that are going to use it in the first place why does that even matter? It’s just another thing about the smoking laws that just don’t make sense to me. I don’t want to be treated like some sort of segregated society but I think that the laws and legislations that have been put in place are for the ‘benefit’ of non-smokers and there has been little to no consideration for people who do smoke.
It is all a little political and I might well be taking it all a little bit too seriously but I would just like things to be a little fairer. I mean after all the government raises taxes on cigarettes every year so why can’t they use some of that to make everything a little more smoker convenient. And before you start I am not trying to say that I want to walk around pub, clubs and shopping complexes with a cigarette in my hand, I would like to be able to go and sit somewhere comfortable and enjoy the little break I allow myself.
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