Smoke hides drugs problem
Saturday 1st September 2007, 9:17AM BST.
The government has taken strong action against cigarette smoking and banned it from all public places on health grounds, writes our Teen Blogger Rhian.
The authorities also seem to be getting really involved to ensure that the law is observed, so what about drugs and alcohol? Aren’t they just as dangerous? Personally, I think they’re even worse.
Cigarette smoking might cause an individual bad health and endanger passive smokers, it may also be a burden on the NHS, but speaking as a non-smoker, I think it poses far less of a problem to the stability of our society than drugs and alcohol do!
Addaction – Britain’s largest specialist drug and alcohol treatment charity recently did a survey which seems to support my view.
It found that teenage drug and alcohol abuse is becoming a significant cause of family breakdowns, through divorce, separation, children leaving home or being taken into care.
I can see how that could be. People’s personalities change under the influence of drugs and drink.
They can lie cheat and steal from there families and even get violent towards there own parents and siblings whilst “Under the influence”!
As a result of being desperate for another “hit” of drugs or booze, and on top of any other problems in the family, this can easily be enough to break the family apart.
It’s mad, because the sad truth is that it’s often easier for teenagers to buy cannabis and other drugs from the nearest underpass or street corner than it is for them to buy cigarettes from their local shop!
Also I’m inclined to think that big businesses can’t be trusted to be ethical.
I personally reckon that when alcoholic drink manufacturers began producing alcopops and fruit flavored shots, they knew very well that they were likely to edge into a new market, that of the underage drinker!
This is very illegal and irresponsible, but also easily denied and a clever way of increasing those all so important profits and hooking in a new generation of customers in the face of competition from the health and nutrition sector!
Street violence and gun gangs seem to be an increasing problem for the authorities and the government is inclined to think that children from one parent families are more likely to become involved in crime.
So I put this, if the stability of traditional family units is now also under attack from the menace of teenage drug and alcohol abuse, why isn’t it of a great concern, or perhaps even greater concern to the government than cigarette smoking!?
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At the moment,it seems that smokerss are fair game for everyone.The new law is bad enough but the fines that could be imposed are nothing less than crazy.
You don’t put a sign in your company car and you can get fined.
What about a sign for drinking,a sign for drugs,a sign for obesity,a sign for anger management? Before long you cannot see out of the car windows for signs and get fined for driving under the influence of signs.
This smoking ban stinks,far worse for this government to deal with.
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It’s the easy way out.
Those law abiding citizens who have never disobeyed could be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time having a cigarette.
Lock them up and throw away the key.
Surely that tells you something ?
public correctness is out of control and the real criminals have the law on their side.
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I hate to think that during the winter when it’s cold outside and folk traditionally gather in our traditional pubs, smokers will have nowhere to go and will be at stuck at home, especially at politically incorrect, racist Christmas.
Perhaps that’s one of the ideas behind the ban.
They don’t like the idea of us gathering together and talking about all manner of unPC things anyway.
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I think the two things are totally seperate issues. Of course the pro-smokers are going to jump at anything to knock the ban, but most non-smokers are much appreciative of it.
Yes more should be done to combat drug addiction, but that has nothing to do with enforcing the smoking ban.
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I agree with David. There is nothing to say that the smoking ban has any impact on drug taking and anti-social behaviour.
The Government and their pussy foot approach to crime and young people is responsible. The Government have taken away the powers from the police, the parents, the schools, the teachers, those who come into contact with young people on a regular basis and have replaced them with the human rights act which serves as a free for all for a lot of young people and criminals. They know that if they committ an illegal act and get caught that there is always a silver lining somewhere that will bail them out.
Until this changes then nothing else will!
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Arthur – You will be quite welcome to go to the pub and socialise at Christmas, you just wont be able to inflict your anti-social filthy habit on the rest of us while you’re there. But please dont feel picked upon, the law applies to us all, us non-smokers wont be allowed to light up either :)
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Nothing easy about getting drugs from the nearest underpass or street corner as you put it. You’re blog reminds me of an article from The Sun.
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The point is – drug-taking is already illegal. Drinking in public places in many towns is illegal. Drink-driving is illegal, as is under-age drinking. So the legislation already exists to control alcohol consumption without the need for any more.
Moderate consumption of alcohol does the patricipant no harm – there’s even some evidence to suggest that it might do some good. On the other hand, smoking, even in limited quantities, always does harm – causing many non-fatal respiratory complaints as well as the well-publicised fatal ones. This is why it has been banned in enclosed public places – to protect those that don’t wish to participate.
No one forces alcohol down my throat in a pub – but up until now, that’s exactly what smokers have done with their smoke (note the spelling of ‘their’ Rhian!)
That’s why the smoking ban was a) necessary, and b) the right thing to do.
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I quite agree that this smoking ban has gone out of control. I agree that most enclosed public places should be non smoking but pubs should have more diversity, e.g. non smoking is pubs that serve food and the choice to be non smoking or smoking in others. Pubs that allow smoking should then employ people who smoke themselves or state on a contract that they are happy to work in a smoking atmosphere.
It seems that everything these days is bad for you. Every week there is a report in the papers telling us that we should not eat this or drink that. Then 5 years down the line they change there mind!
When it comes to drugs and alochol, these should have been dealt with before adding in yet another ban, e.g underage drinking – everyone knows that corner shops attract kids drinking alcohol – do we ever see any police doing regular checks to make sure they are not drinking or coursing trouble???
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“Nothing easy about getting drugs from the nearest underpass or street corner” – it must be nice where you live , Harry. Is that your yardstick for the rest of the country?
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Helen
The smoking ban was not brought in because it is bad for you – it was brought in because it is bad for everyone else !
The majority of people in the UK are non-smokers who do not want to have their health affected by selfish addicts. That is why smoking has been banned in all indoor public places.
Now we are finding that stupid smokers are standing around entrances to buildings, too lazy to walk a few yards away. The result is that we have to walk through a curtain of smoke to get in and out. I say the smokers are stupid because they clearly do not realise their actions will merely result in an adjustment to the law banning them from smoking in the vicinity of such buildings. Then they will all moan even more about it. If they had the intelligence to only smoke where it does not affect others, there would be no need for such laws.
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Exactly, the smokers are not considering what they are doing is not only harming themselves but others around them aswell! but thats not the point of the blog, the point is that they are spending so much time and effort in enforcing the smoking law they are forgetting the bigger problems! ok everything else like drugs was illegal before and now smoking in public places is added to the list, but the drugs are much more serious! the police need to get there act together and target the underage drinkers and the drug abusers more than the common smokers! thats not saying don’t enforce the smoke law I’m all for it, just that remember there are more serious crimes.
oh and Peter, I’m sure you’re not the perfect golden boy who spells every single thing correctly so shut up about a little misspelling of “their” cause everyones allowed to make mistakes every now and then!
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