smoking banned inside at end of the year!

.......and some said it would never happen in Spain?.   Should save much suffering which is the main thing, but no doubt will upset many bar owners etc. Probably just be ignored by many?

Being a smoker myself I could go on forever talking about this matter.

I find it ridiculous, people dont want to be surrounded by smokers so they ban smoking!

I dont want to be surrounded by drunks but they do not ban alcohol!

If they really want to do something about it than stop making cigarettes all together, oh wait! Thats no good as they would loose all that huge amount of tax money that they we smokers bring in!

Oh! and lets not forget that some of us may not be treated medically if we have a smoke related disease even though we pay 10 times for taxes than the non smokers!

Yipeeeeeeee! Another topic that causes loads of arguments and makes no sense!

Won't happen in my village...

 Nor mine.....not a chance..........!

Goodstich

Am I missing something?, where did this info come from?

The sooner the better!

bring it on !!!!!!!!!!  

Team GB

from the Lawbird website.

Hammersfan

quite agree. It's a pleasure to go in a UK pub knowing you wont come home smelling foul and haven't increased your chances of suffering some disgusting smoking related disease from somebody elses foul addiction. On the other hand, a couple of pints of real ale or lager , and nobody is hurt in any way as long as you don't drive!  Alchohol in moderation is harmless and can even be beneficial, smoking is bad for you in any quantity.

If smokers want to destroy their health in their own home or car then that's up to them. I don't think that anyone has the right to try and stop that. 

I have no problem at all if some people want to enjoy smoking, every one should be able to choose for themselves and if you want to pay huge amounts in tax while enjoying your self, so be it.

I tried smoking like lots of other kids, years ago, all it did for me was to make me cough and choke. It all also used up all my pocket money so I decided to stop and give it up as a bad joke.

 What I do have a problem with is, is having to share the smoke that is produced and my health threatened as well as the smokers.

We have a thoughtfull friend who smokes, she goes out side when she fancies a puff or two, but when she comes back, she trails the smoke and smell produced with her back into the room.

In my opinion, smoking should be allowed, but only in the middle of a cordened off area the size of a football pitch or in one of those air tight boxes like the ones used in some airports in Asia.

There really is no need for smoking inside of bars and restaurants in Spain.  The weather (down South particularly) is normally ok for people to sit outside and smoke.

We went to a coffee shop the other morning with some friends and all our young kids and the men right beside us were smoking practically into our kids faces.  Considering we were there first I was a bit miffed.  Susan did one of "her faces" and they pretty quicly realised we didn't appreciate our kids passively inhaling their smoke.  They stubbed them out pretty quickly.

I am known to have a smoke myself now and then but I will always make sure I don't bother anyone else with it and never smoke inside anywhere.

The whole "smoking ban" was very badly introduced in Spain and I for one do welcome this new legislation.  I just hope that people do respect it.

Justin

spain is in deep popo so now they are going to push more people into not bothering to go out,......personaly i think smoking is ok,it reduces stress,and somethink these governments and dogooders dont like to advertise is more people die from stress related problems than people that actually die of cancer and proven that the smoking caused their cancer....so put that in your pipe and smoke it

coolrunner?......I don't think so if you're a smoker!

you are right about Spain being in deep poopoo though, and much of that is through being in denial of ugly truths until it's all to late........ring any bells?

 I don't know why people post these things as smoking arguments are about as inflammatory as Religion and Politics.

It is very simple in Algorfa.......

There are four bars within 2 mins walk...........

2 smoking and 2 non smoking............

If you smoke you have a choice of 2.....

If you don't smoke you have a choice of 2..........

It's called freedom of choice

simple........

No problems,no arguments.................no point.

And please bare in mind,these have been the laws in Spain for years,if you are dead set against the ways here you know the answer.........

I think that Georgia is absolutely spot-on!  Freedom of choice - not the draconian 'Thou shalt not smoke' measures we have in the UK.  I always thought Spain's smoking laws were really sensible - the only problem is - where to buy fags if the Estanco's shut!

Didn't they try this a couple of years ago? If I recall worked for a couple of weeks before the small (Spanish) bar owners realised that none of their (mainly workmen) customers came in. I saw signs torn down in most of the little bars.

Spain - great at making laws, just who enforces them?

Maybe this time around they'll take it seriously ? Fortunately I stopped Smoking using a local company doing Bioresonance therapy in Costa Blanca. Plugged me into a weird machine and after they had finished with me an hour later I didn't desire a cigarette any more (cravings disappeared?) - not quite sure how it worked - but it did! 

I'd also tried a couple of the local hynotherapy companies, but did not find them to work - €140 for half an hour and they wouldn't pick up the phone for their 'supposed' guarantee??

Eitherway if the ban helps people stop, its a good thing - I certainly feel much better for it.

Paul

Paul

good for you, whatever works eh!. 

Sadly I have made many trips to a cancer ward and a heart surgery ward recently, which is why I was pleased to read of the ban in Spain.  If I was a smoker before, I'd like to think those visits would have bought me to my senses pretty quickly!!  I realise though that it takes a strong person to admit that their smoking addiction is really bad, that alone do something about it, and many smokers don't have that strength of character sadly, preffering to use the tired old excuse of  'freedom of choice' . In reality, that freedom to regognise right and wrong is lost as soon as they become addicted........but of course they don't see it that way. As long as they have 'their' choice then that's ok.

Blimey goodstich!! and i thought my explanation was quite easy to get......?

You really are too used to the nanny state.

You see if you don't want to smell smoke here you go in a non smoking bar...if you do want to smoke then you go in a smoking bar,if i simplify it anymore we will breaking out the crayola!!!!!!

I have heard there are gay bars in England and also straight bars, are you saying that we should ban one or the other as it will turn straight people gay and vica versa.

Anyone would think you just like a good moan?!

I have the perfect solution for you if you do not like the Spanish laws and ways of thinking.........

Stay in England and then it won't concern you!

there.....simple.

A long time ago I was a forty a day addict. I gave up - successfully after the umpteenth attempt. I tried a new trick; it worked. That is beside the point. The irony is that having friends who smoke I end up inhaling more of their cigarettes than they do. They take the occasional drag. I always seem to be downwind so the fumes from their coffin nails drift constantly into my face and become part of the air I choke on.

When I was in a relationship my other half, who couldn't stand the habit, loved bingo (yes, it has its fanatics). Oh dear! When she returned from a bingo session she; her clothes, her hair, was rancid with the stuff.

I am sorry but I have to agree that it is nigh on impossible to put forward a valid argument in defence of smoking. I wish I had never started but thankfully doctors tell me that so long has passed since I did so my air passages, lungs are those of a non-smoker. If I (and others) can do it so can you. Sorry to preach.

georgia

so you say I don't get your explanation?, yet there's no sign of you getting the message about cancer and heart problems..  Do I have to get out the crayola to spell that out for you???.  If you want to stay in denial of facts that is indeed your choice.  As for a nanny state?, well yes in some ways, but on this issue it's called consideration for your own health and others, but I doubt that really matters to you as long as you have your choice?  I do pretty much as I like in the UK, where are the restrictions??. Laws and ways in Spain are changing, you may have to move to a country more backward soon if you want somewhere that ignores the smoking issue and the other common sense issues in Spain that we all know about that are long overdue for change.

Mike

once again 'well done'. To go from 40 a day to giving up shows real strength and resolve. Don't worry about preaching, if your story saves one person from ending up in a dreadful cancer ward then it will have been well worth it.  As you say there is no real defence for smoking now we know the hideous health risks. Just denial through addiction or ignorance. Great to hear your lungs are now clear and cancer or some other horrible smoking related disease didn't get you!  Sadly many kids still smoke as they think it's ''cool''?. When I think of how many of them will suffer, it really seems crazy that we can't prevent it somehow?

sorry geogia.

I am with Goodstich on this one, nothing good comes out of smoking and if you want to know who I would rather my taxes went to help it certainly would not be a 40 a day smoker.  I personally would withdraw all treatment from these people if it was connected to there smoking.  Just remember poor Roy Castle never smoked a cig in this life but due to the filthy habit of others he contracted lung cancer, enough said.

Much as I agree with you Goddstich on all other issues I do disagree with you on the smoking issue.

I choose not to go to non smoking bars. I go where I am wanted, where I can smoke, that is my choice & my money.

Everywhere I go in Spain, there is a choice, some bars allow smoking & so they get my money. Those that don't, & that is fine, it their choice, don't! That is called freedom of choice, & that applies to smokers as much as non smokers.

I quite understand that some people don't like smoking, OK, go then to a bar that isn't a smoking bar, what is the problem?

This makes interesting reading but peronally I think smoking is a terribel habit.  I tried it myself as a teenager as you do and just as well I thought it was nasty but I think what put me off most was seeing my parents smoke so heavily as a child and having to put up with the horrible smell of smoke around the house and on clothes etc. and seeing how they got if they didn't have a fag in their hand.

Unfortunately througout my teenage years and twenties I had to watch my father get sicker and sicker over the years because of effects of cigarettes ie. smokers cough, difficulty breathing, asthma and he finally died in 2006 from emphysema even though he gave up the habit 10 years before that.  Obviously for him it was 10 years too late.

I think people are irresponsible to themselves and their friends/family to deny the effects smoking will have on their health and to tell themselves that they actually enjoy doing it when they know the risks and the future they have to look forward to I think is awful.  My father didn't get any medical treatment for his condition because I think he knew he was never going to be cured and maybe he felt guilty about what he had done to his body and I really think that maybe people shouldn't receive medical treatment for conditions connected to smoking which are obviously self inflicted.  He was only 64 when he died and I think that he and a lot of people now live for years in denial to themselves about what they are doing to their bodies.

I for one will jump for joy when it is banned inside all public areas here in Spain 'cos I think it's disgusting that I have to breath in other peoples' smoke and think people really need a wake up call because many of them are obviously incapable of taking in and accepting the health information they are given about cigarettes so the choice needs to be taken away for them and I think that for many this ban will do that.

Luckily most of my friends are now also non-smokers and the last few who were clinging onto it for one reason or another are starting to realise that it's no longer worth the expense, health risks and being social outcasts etc.

In fact my best friend has recently stopped probably at the same place that Paul one of the previous posters went to using something called a Bioresonance machine (the company they used was called stop smoking in costa blanca I think) and I went with her to make sure she really went through with it!  Luckily she went from smoking over 40 a day to none at all and it only took 1 hour.  It was amazing and obviously pretty effective because after 2 months or so she is still off the cigarettes and now that I tell her it's gonna be banned completely I can't see her every going back to it.  

I really don't understand why more people don't make the effort to stop and continue telling themselves there is no problem with it and it's their choice etc.  I think really they are in denial and it actually makes me quite angry.  My mother still chews Nicotine gum and has been doing so for the past 5 years but next time she comes to visit I am determined to get her off Nicotine once and for all hopefully using the same method as my friend did.

rob6578

I can see where you, georgia and most addicts are coming from with regards to choice, but if you saw someone self harming an external part of their body, you would want to help them in some way wouldn't you?, despite it being their 'choice', especially if that harm was likely to lead to something life threatening. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have sadly spent quite alot of time visiting a very sick relative in a cancer ward recently, and when I see kids smoking it sickens me to know that through their 'choice' they stand a fair chance of ruining their life and ending up in state I saw some cancer victims in hospital, and probably doing much the same to friends and family?. 

We all have the choice, but is that a good enough excuse for not choosing the choice that you know full well will improve your health and anyone else's who is is influenced or comes in to contact with cancerous smoke? 

J Turner

sorry to hear you had to learn the hard way, I think we all tried fags as teenagers and we have to work out right and wrong for ourself. I wish it was considered 'uncool' by kids, and regognised as the filthy expensive addiction it can become.   I know how you feel regarding family history, having recently watched someone very close die of cancer.

Bottom line, smoking kills, so yes you have freedom of choice to kill yourself. Of course you do.

But when it's others that have to pick up the pieces from shattered lives ruined by the effects of smoking (and they are not pleasant having witnessed a close family member die of lung cancer related to smoking, to witness his regret based on the realities of this evil weed decimating his relatively young life by believing that it would never happen to him, and coming to terms with the harsh reality of being denied the priviledge to watch and share his future life with his family and wonderful grandchildren, it's only then that you realise that this is nothing to do with freedom of choice, but everything to do with facing up to the fact that you are being incredibly selfish by potentially killling yourself (from choice) in full view and knowledge of those closest to you. 

The Freedom of Choice argument hides the undeniable fact that you are partaking of a well researched self inflicted killing machine.

So carry on with the habit if you will, but don't pretend to yoursefl that it's based on any other reasons other  than purely selfish motives.

J Turner, your Dad's medical history is identical to my Dad's and my Mum died of lung cancer, they were both aged 71.  My husband smoked 60 a day and 10 years ago he stopped, with no help, he was like a bear with a sore head but being the determined and stubborn b****r he is he did it and has never looked back, and although his lung capacity has been reduced he thinks he'd be dead now if he hadn't stopped. I was a bit slower of the mark  giving up as I smoked very little, but the smoking ban in the UK has certainly helped me finally stop, it is much easier to stop smoking when the places you can smoke are restricted reducing the temptation (I stopped smoking in the house when OH stopped to help him in his quest) . I am now happily a non smoker and certainly feel better for it.

But, if smokers want to go to smoking bars who am I to say they shouldn't.? And they should receive medical treatment as they have contributed a fortune in the tax paid on cigarettes, unlike the drug addicts who get treatment.  I do wonder why so many young people start to smoke nowadays, perhaps there needs to be more education about the damage it can do.

It's worth the pain to give up, there are the financial savings, the health benefits and the convenience of not having to check you've got enough fags in! Give it a go.

ads said

''So carry on with the habit if you will, but don't pretend to yoursefl that it's based on any other reasons other  than purely selfish motives.''

I feel that's indeed the bottom line ads, well said!!

With the greatest respect Goodstich & others: I am an adult & quite capable of making my own decisions & I choose to smoke! Terrible I know but shock horror, I like it!

I don't care what other people do, it is their choice. I believe in live & let live. My choice happens to be legal, & very important to every government through the taxes I & other smokers pay.

The UK would be in even greater trouble if smoking is banned. How would the treasury replace the 11 billion in tax paid by smokers every year? Smoking related problems cost the Uk NHS 2.5 billion per year, so who is subsidising whom?

I quite understand & respect your point of view, please respect mine.

In Spain we all have a choice,no one has to go into a bar that allows smoking unless you really want to.

I believe in live & let live.

That's the problem unfortunately, you may not live........ but at least you would go down coughing.

Seriously though it is an informed choice at the end of the day, but I think those who have witnessed the devastating effects firsthand almost feel compelled to pass on the message, especially to youngsters who have their whole lives in front of them.

Don't mean to show disrespect, merely to communicate the awful realities.

Dear me, can you please use the search facility?  This subject has been done to death (no pun intended) several times.  In fact, the first time it came up I was still a smoker so that must be some years ago, now.  Think every argument (on both sides) has been given, debated and discussed ad nauseum.  Non-smoker, ex-smokers and smokers all gave their (sometimes heated) views which are simply being repeated.  (And although I've stopped, you can still come and sit on my patio and have a puff, if you wish.  Might even give you a beer or two to go with it).

Smoking is a disgraceful habit but one I happen to enjoy in the comfort of my own surroundings. It may surprise many to know that even smokers detest other peoples fumes in their faces.

However I am perplexed as to why smokers always get the blame for other peoples diseases.

I grew up in an era where smoking was very common and at gatherings everyone would be surrounded by a sea of fog. This nasty habit being thrust upon those in the forces fighting against Hitler et al. From November onwards for a few months London could be in the grip of pea souper smogs. Very unhealthy but banning smoke from household chimneys and factories soon overcame this.

Of course in those days few people had those horrendous polutants called cars, exhaust fumes from which I have seen leave a child choking, or travelled constantly by air.

Now I appreciate I am deemed, among many other adjectives, to be selfish but in my opinion so are those who needlessly use poluting transport. Any of you with the must have 4/4  or in households where there are more cars than bedrooms?

Smoking , drug taking, daily tipples of alcohol or unnecessary road or air travel is neither a health benefit for the consumer or anyone who is subjected from the polutants thereof .

Like Rob I respect others who may desire to drink or partake in illegal habits which change peoples personalities, usually not for the better, or those who constantly forget what legs are for but will only accept stones thrown by those whose way of life is beyond reproach.

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