Writer's Block: Smoke screen

[nimeth_nimora]

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Personally I think smoking is a nasty habit. Why do people wanna make themselves sick smoking something that they know isn't good for them?

I liked the smoking ban that England brought in, meaning that non-smokers can go down to the pub now and not have smoke blown in their faces. Pubs used to be full up of people lighting up, now they're not. It bugs me though that smokers are getting all uptight about it, saying they can't enjoy their time down the pub anymore. Hey if you wanna smoke, fine, you can go outside and not blow your second-hand smoke in my face. You choose to smoke, not me and I don't want cancer because you think you ought to be allowed to blow smoke in my face.

Comments

[raeyn.livejournal.com]

Sure you're not an ex-smoker, dear? I tease, in that ex-smokers who try to convince themselves of the 'horror' of the habit tend to get that sort of vehement, more vehement than non-smokers. Minus my sister, who is just a dramatastic bitch who thinks all smokers should be shipped to leper colonies.

Anyways, as a smoker on hiatus (I hope to keep off of it once the kiddo is born; it's a bit too pricy here! Doesn't mean I miss the habit. :p), I actually don't object to having to go outside to smoke; most places don't have adequate ventilation to deal with the heavy clouds of smoke a full pub generates, and it's a bit uber-grody. I do object, however, to the government trying to legislate against people having the option to go outside even; god forbid a small child somehow ran into the beer garden and got a lungful.

As for the health repercussions - taxes are freaking ludicrous on tobacco; I can say with a fair degree of confidence that I feel smokers pay for their own future care in taxes alone (and it's not like every smoker or person near a smoker gets lung cancer, mind!). And that really, anyone who has any vice really doesn't have a place to knock someone poisoning themselves if they do the same on any substance... though I concur you have every right to be annoyed if someone sticks your face in it, same as if someone held you down and forced chocolate down your throat, or booze. ;)

Anyways, I hope you don't mind me taking advantage of your posting to bring it to a semi-debate stage. It's a subject that I do enjoy discussing to some degree. :D

[nimeth-nimora.livejournal.com]

No, it's fine. :)

I'm not an ex-smoker, no, lol. I do wonder why people smoke if they know they do run the risk of getting sick (I know not everyone gets seriously ill, but hey they just don't know do they till it happens?) but I don't really get annoyed with it though, if that's their choice, it's their choice, until yeah, someone starts actually blowing smoke in my face. I don't object to smokers being outside in the beer garden either, you're a lot less likely to get a faceful than you would in an enclosed space.

Plus, I watched my sis-in-law smoke (and drink) through both her pregnancies and now the oldest is having breathing problems. I was not impressed by that.

[raeyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely quit as soon as I was sure I was pregnant with the smoking. My mother smoked during her pregnancy with me, and while I've had an excellent/above average lung capacity my entire life, I don't think it fair to -risk- poisoning my sprog.

As for drinking.. half a cider every other month or so doesn't count. ;) That's been my personal alcohol ration, and more for the om nom taste of Brother's Strawberry than booze content, fo' sho'!

But in general, I think that it's prudent and respectful to avoid substances when it's not just one body in the equation. *nodnods*