The UK smoking ban causes people to take up smoking

The exerpt below is taken from a longer article, written on the subject of the smoking ban in general -

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CAUSING PEOPLE TO TAKE UP SMOKING

You're down the pub, all your mates have nipped out for a cigarette, you don't smoke but don't want to sit on your own - what do you do? Join them. For some, standing outside while mates smoke has resulted in them taking up the habit.

"If the smoking ban in Scotland had not been introduced I would still be a non-smoker," says Andy Hughes of Edinburgh, where the ban came into force in March last year. "I started because I was being left in pubs and clubs alone for long periods of time, while the rest of my group were outside chatting and having a smoke.

"I put up with it for a few weeks but in the end I decided to join them. Being an asthmatic, I had always been against smoking. I never used to let anyone smoke in my car or house. When someone smoked in my company in a pub, I couldn't wait until they had finished their cigarette. It was still something I had a real dislike of and a habit I considered to be disgusting.

"Now I'll regularly smoke up to 20 cigarettes on a night out. I still don't smoke when not out having a drink and I hope it stays that way. There's no doubt a lot of good has come from the smoking ban, it's a lot more pleasurable having a drink in a smoke-free atmosphere and I'm sure healthier for bar staff and non-smokers, but for myself it has come at a price."

Source :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6664871.stm

Seriously... is this guy a total pussy, or what !


"If the smoking ban in Scotland had not been introduced I would still be a non-smoker," says Andy Hughes of Edinburgh, where the ban came into force in March last year. "I started because I was being left in pubs and clubs alone for long periods of time, while the rest of my group were outside chatting and having a smoke.

What the... ?

So, I have two questions right from the start.

Firstly, why on earth are all of his friends so addicted to tobacco smoking that they all need to trample off en masse to fill up on fags ?

I guess that if the whole lot of them are just "into" this peer pressure / smoking palaver, then it could be like a pyramid reaction where anybody who tries to join the group but doesn't smoke is abandoned as everyone else goes up to do their nicotine-intake thing outside.

... but why on earth are people so cliquey , anyway ?

There must (surely !) be other people , from other cliques, sat about not smoking (and maybe being fascinating people, quietly to themselves !) in clubs and bars all up and down the nation.... so why don't they get together with each other a bit more maybe, rather than slouching off out with their ciggy chums, to puff away like a good comformist component of the group.

I'm sure that it can't be making it very easy for anyone trying to socialise without a clique, in the first place (especially if they don't smoke) if even now there's a smoking ban, so many people are behaving like devoted ingesters of the almighty tobacco plant.


"I put up with it for a few weeks but in the end I decided to join them. Being an asthmatic, I had always been against smoking. I never used to let anyone smoke in my car or house. When someone smoked in my company in a pub, I couldn't wait until they had finished their cigarette. It was still something I had a real dislike of and a habit I considered to be disgusting.

Great move to start smoking , then.


"Now I'll regularly smoke up to 20 cigarettes on a night out."

20 !


"I still don't smoke when not out having a drink and I hope it stays that way."

I hope so, too.
I also hope that his hope becomes a bit more concrete than a mere hope, before he takes a notion that he feels like smoking more.


"There's no doubt a lot of good has come from the smoking ban, it's a lot more pleasurable having a drink in a smoke-free atmosphere and I'm sure healthier for bar staff and non-smokers, but for myself it has come at a price."

Maybe all the drinks have gone to his head...


It seems to me, that the smoking ban is an entirely innocent scapegoat in this whole exchange.
It hasn't even been given a chance to put its' side across !

Everyone chooses for themselves which drugs to take recreationally, and develops their own personal policy on peer pressure and how to respond to it. If this man regrets his decision, or feels unable to assert himself or make new friends outside of his smokey social group, then maybe there's some emotional work he could do there, to help develop some more assertivity and self-control in social contexts.

But just sitting (or standing ) about smoking, while blaming the smoking ban for their smoke-fuelled plight, well... I think that's just silly !

Have you ever tried cigarettes? Maybe a few people like them right from the start... but I don't think so. I tried them to see what the fuss was about... back in 1993. I smoked maybe 5 to 10 cigarettes over a day or two. I suppose it was sort of neat to have this thing on fire sticking out of my mouth (lol). Maybe especially because it was winter in Germany at the time and extremely cold.

But mostly they were just awful. Left this disgusting film in my throat that I spent weeks trying to hack back out.

Yet, so many people smoke?

What does that say about conformity?

It seemed very depressing at the time.

But it's surely just a sensationalized article. I doubt a smoking ban is really causing a net increase in smoking.

The Health Education Board of Scotland produced two really good smoking-themed campaigns, back around when I was towards the end of secondary school -

Planet of the Blue Sticks -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f22wSJ8mslQ

Stinx : "Why do you keep on running, boy ?" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcJy5m36n4o&feature=related


I think these two advertising campaigns are really well-made, and are produced in a way which is both engaging and memorable.

They achieved their goal of penetrating youth culture on a level they could understand, and in a way that many young people could relate to without feeling spoon-fed or patronised.


ETA : I've also just found this Scottish anti-smoking advert which I'd not seen before -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvw56xmyhlY

The Scottish NHS can be downright strange, sometimes.

While being a bit fucked-up and abstract, this hard-hitting campaign is sure to have grabbed a bit of attention in its time.