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Original poster

Do you think smoking will be outlawed in your lifetime?

87 replies

RobotNews · 09/07/2019 13:08

Obviously v.v. bad for you (directly or passively) - already banned in public places etc. Young people continue to start smoking (although I don’t know the figures for this anecdata)

My DM had been a smoker all her life and her lungs are giving up. Nothing official as she won’t go to the drs but wheezes and coughs all the time.

It’s gotten me thinking that a full ban on selling tobacco/smoking in public must be on the cards at some point - but when?

OP posts:

SoupDragon · 10/07/2019 07:35

Spot the smoker

Frownette · 10/07/2019 07:36

Hope so, if you don't start then you'll never know if you'll become addicted to it and won't know what you're 'missing'. Autocorrect tried to put kissing

From my experience some people dabble (often due to peers) then quit easily but others develop a proper addiction

Frownette · 10/07/2019 07:36

Strange to think it used to be legal in pubs, restaurants, train stations etc

SimplySteveRedux · 10/07/2019 07:43

I hope so. I still cannot believe it's not illegal to smoke in a car whilst driving...

redbigballoon · 10/07/2019 08:03

I wish. I can't stand it. And that includes polluting your garden because it's not in your garden when all the smoke is going over your fence.

People are always going to do illegal things but it's not as easy as popping to Tesco's and buying them.

MrsPear · 10/07/2019 10:55

Spot the fat people at least smokers pay for their care. Food addiction is as bad as nicotine addiction. Once opiates were ok then not and banned, now nicotine is bad and calls for it to be banned. When is obesity going to be stopped being socially acceptable? Ffgs we have doctors been disciplined for pointing out to people that they are fat. I agree that smokers should be shamed but I also think fat people should too. They are both addictions and they both require help. I don’t think it’s right that one group of addicts -which are smaller in number- is punished with extra tax when another isn’t.

TeapotofTerror · 10/07/2019 11:02

I was quite shocked to find that next door's two lovely, polite, grammar school teenagers have both started smoking. I didn't think it was "cool" anymore.
Quite apart from the health problems, I don't know how they afford it!

Loads of kids seem to be vaping round here too, I wonder how long it will be before the full effects of that are known.

SoupDragon · 10/07/2019 11:49

Spot the fat people

No, spot the person whose father died of lung cancer last year.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 10/07/2019 12:01

I do wonder about aspartame.. I’ve only read on mn that it’s a “dangerous” alternative to sugar..

There's a load about it online - could be completely true, could be complete lies, could be somewhere in between.

I'm not a medical person at all, but considering that type-1 diabetes is caused when your body gets confused and starts to attack and destroy your own insulin-producing cells, is it really such a ludicrous thing to wonder if tricking your body into dealing with a whole load of sugar that it mistakenly believes you're ingesting is possibly not the wisest thing to do?

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 10/07/2019 12:04

I was in Wales - where it had already been banned - to celebrate a significant birthday and I returned home to an England where it had just been banned too.

I've had much worse presents

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 10/07/2019 12:11

The problem with smoking is that it doesn't just affect the smoker, it affects those around them too.

That's basically it. I'd have no desire to force adults to stop smoking if it had no impact on me and other people, but that obviously isn't the case at all.

If an adult decided to go out and have 20 pints before driving, or being violent towards anybody, or whilst in charge of children, then I'm vehemently against preventing it or, if discovered after the event, severely punishing them for it; but it isn't the sinking of the booze that bothers me. If that same adult wanted to go on the massive binge, saunter along to the park and sleep it off on a bench until noon the next day - doesn't really bother me at all.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 10/07/2019 12:15

I'd have no desire to force adults to stop smoking

Not that I'm actually wanting to force smokers to stop - just to stop them from smoking anywhere apart from private premises where there is nobody else present other than adults who have full agency and ability to leave if they wish to.

foreverhanging · 10/07/2019 12:24

I hope so. It's just fucking stupid to do it!

Pinktinker · 10/07/2019 12:31

I hope so.

MysweetAudrina · 10/07/2019 12:36

No i don't agree with banning adults from doing what they want in their own time and I am not a smoker.

letsrunfar · 10/07/2019 12:56

I thought both smoking and drinking alcohol are a net loss to the country.
Taking away the losses from healthcare and lost working days from the tax revenue, it's a loss.

StCharlotte · 10/07/2019 13:01

I'm a smoker but I wish they would ban it. I'm such a natural law-abider, I'd be able to give up like that . I have no problem flying to the other side of the world without a fag because I'm simply not allowed. I need the decision to be taken out of my hands.

Perversely, I would legalise cannabis* (but only cannabis) so that it is sold and controlled properly and the "gateway" to other drugs would no longer be there as the criminal element of drug dealing would have been removed from most people's orbit.

*The old fashioned not unpleasantly fragrant kind - not this foul stinking psycho-inducing skunk they're all on these days.

NameChangeNugget · 10/07/2019 13:05

It should be banned in all public spaces, both indoors & out but, if people want to feed their habit in their own home, I can’t see an issue.

TheSacredCow · 10/07/2019 15:34

There was talk about legalising cannabis not so long ago. I don't see how cannabis can be legalised, when it is usually smoked, but cigarettes banned.

MrsTerryPratchett · 10/07/2019 15:49

I agree that smokers should be shamed but I also think fat people should too. They are both addictions and they both require help.

You do know those two sentences are completely at odds with each other. Right? Astoundingly, shame doesn't actually make people give things up. IKR? Shame and guilt feed addictions. Which is one of the reasons why heroin use including first time use plummeted in Portugal when they decriminalised it.

dustarr73 · 10/07/2019 15:53

I agree that smokers should be shamed but I also think fat people should too. They are both addictions and they both require help.

No.One is a choice.People choose to smoke whereas food you need food to live.Plus people have complex relationships with food.Its not the same at all.

Its really weird seeing younger people smoke,they have the education.So why do they do it.

NoCauseRebel · 10/07/2019 16:08

I think that people are too quick to excuse obesity on the basis that people have MH/medical conditions/complex relationships with food etc etc.

Yes, there is a minority of people who have conditions which have caused them to become obese, but the reality is that most people are obese because they eat too much. And of course it’s hard to lose weight once you get past a certain point, because weight comes off far more slowly than it goes on, but people need to start taking personal responsibility for their own health and that includes their weight. Now it seems that anyone and everyone can hide behind the excuse of having “a condition/being big boned/having MH issues.” If that was truly the case then obesity would have always been an issue in society and it hasn’t been.

As for smoking, It’s a disgusting habit and I can never understand these people who say things like “the first time I tried one it was revolting, but my second was better and it became gradually better until I love it now,” if it was so disgusting the first time then why in God’s name would you try it again? Once you’re addicted it’s easy to see why it’s so hard to give it up, but it’s not one of those things where you’re addicted after one puff, so starting in the first place is also a choice.

But no, I don’t think it will be banned because the government earn too much from it in taxes. Also, and I hate to say it, I have heard it said that smoking means that some people will die far younger, and this means cost savings for the government in terms of nhs resources and pensions etc.

MrsTerryPratchett · 10/07/2019 16:16

excuse obesity

You sound horribly judgmental. Which is fine if you just want a warm glow of righteousness. But actually dealing with health problems takes a little more nuance. If it were easy, then most people would be thin. They aren't. Ergo, there are reasons people overeat and under-exercise.

Just because you don't understand why someone does something, doesn't mean there isn't a reason. FWIW I have given up smoking, lost weight and started exercising regularly at various points. None of it is about food/tobacco/laziness. It's about an extremely complex mixture of personality, genetics, upbringing, class, sex, situation, culture, geography... Unless you actually understand that, you're just talking about irrelevancies.

Chovihano · 10/07/2019 17:45

I smoke but am not obese.
I work hard because my bones are sort of med sized and I know I put on weight easily, I could so easily become obese, but I don't, there's no excuse. Just the same as no excuse for smoking.

Lots of my ancestors went into the concentration camps, rounded up like sheep, of those that weren't gassed, none came out obese or overweight. In fact I've never seen a photo/image of any fatties coming out. In comparison there weren't any fatties when rationing existed. I'm sure some of those had issues that could make them fat if they filled their faces.
So yes, I think both should be shamed as both self inflicting.

NoCauseRebel · 10/07/2019 18:09

MrsTerryPratchett I know plenty about health issues and some of the consequences of them. And while there are some people who may have health problems which lead to them gaining weight, if we are to believe that all obesity is a consequence of serious health problems/MH issues then we need to accept that society as a whole is in a pretty bad state, given that obesity has risen significantly over the past couple of decades.

If you look at the third world where there is significantly more poverty/life problems/infant mortality etc you don’t see the people there as overweight, so why is it that in the western world our problems is so much more significant as to warrant the level of overeating that apparently comes with serious body issues/health problems.

It is a fact that we as a society overeat, and eat too many of the wrong things. Of course some people have issues which mean that they will gain weight and find it harder to lose it again, but it is naive to suggest that all obesity is down to personal issues and that it can’t be helped.

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