Smoking Ban
The “Smoking Ban” debate has been going on and on and on, and now that it is in place, ink (and bytes) is still flowing about it: Daily Moiders is the latest contribution to this discussion. Marc Mulholland sounds quite unhappy with the ban and in fairness to him, when all this started, I had the same view about the topic. But not anymore.
Maybe passive smokers are not that affected by smoke in public places. But smokers themselves, wherever they are, are in danger. I think – as a smoker – that it is a good law: it makes the smoker be aware that smoking is unhealthy (not to say worse). The smoker is going to feel guilty to smoke, even more that he or she probably already feels for in the past decades, smoking has become a fairly anti-social habit. The fact that the law now unwelcomes cigarettes in public places in Ireland is going to ostracize even more the smokers.
At first, it sounds dreadful – sounds like secluding a group of people. But at the end of the day, all this should have positive result on us (smokers) and make us quit. If all warnings about cancers, both on television and on the packs don’t manage to help us, maybe using this means (guilt) is a more efficient one.¶
