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Smokers have rights too and I'm fed up with the way we are now seen as second class citizens. As you may know, smoking in Scotland has now been banned. We are all pushed outside with little facilities to shelter ourselves in. Non-smokers claimed that they had nowhere to go to because if they went into a pub they would die several years later because of the inconsiderate people around them.
Come on, it's not like it's a surprise that people are going to be smoking there. But this is not the worst part of it. No, it's actually the government that I really want to have a gripe at. For example forcing this ban on local businesses, I don't see as fair at all!
Who are they to interfere with how a person should run their own lives. Why not offer incentives to become no smoking venues, grants for better ventilation. I'm sure that the government could do this just by cutting down their spending in other areas.
The adverts they place on the TV portray people who smoke as penniless, clumsy lepers to be avoided at all costs. After all who would want to be around us smelly, grubby people? I feel that us smokers are the easy targets, after all it's easier to get votes by banning smoking rather than preventing knife or drug related crimes.
For nonsmokers: I smoke and I like to smoke!
Well, for all the non smokers out there here's my conclusion. I smoke and I like to smoke. I also know that it causes cancer, I am not stupid. Now we can live in a world where groups are segregated even more and we can all sit in pubs which smell of sweat, vomit and urine. Ah, the great country that is Scotland.
By: ScubaSteve
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Good luck all you long time ciggy smokers with your " it's my right, and I like it".
I completely agree, you cannot educate a cabbage, but if I was a cabbage, then I must be an educated cabbage by virtue of the fact I'm using a computer.
Example -
Increased absenteeism (£2.9 billion) ?
Loss in economic output from deaths of smokers (£4.1 billion) ?
THE most ridiculous post I've ever read.
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/cancernews/2010-03-22-Tobacco-duty-must-rise-to-reflect-cost-of-smoking-to-society
"the cost of smoking is made up of the cost of treating smokers on the NHS (2.7 billion); loss in productivity due to smoking breaks (2.9 billion); increased absenteeism (2.9 billion); the cost of cleaning up cigarette butts (342 million); the cost of smoking-related fires (507 million); and the loss in economic output from the deaths of smokers and passive smokers (4.1 billion and 713 million respectively)."
The smoking in public places ban was one of the best things that Parliament has ever done. It is now time to extend this further - much further!
Jethro