Are You Ready To Stub It Out (from Thisisbradford)

The Government has announced the date for the smoking ban in enclosed public places. Here SAEED BUTT, of the Intention to Action Team, which helps people quit, and author of a guide on how to give up cigarettes, offers his view.
So it is official!

July 1 is the date that many smokers may now live in dread of. Still, for others it is a target date by which they will have to bring their smoking habits under control.
This is the date on which the ban on smoking in confined public places will take effect in England.

Wales is to bring in a ban on April 2, 2007, while Scotland and Ireland have already brought in similar bans.
The ban on smoking in confined public places will mean that people will only be able to smoke in places such as the great big smoke room called the outdoors, in their own transport if travelling and within the confines of their own homes.
At the very least there will be a decision that would need to be made by the smoker and that is, should the smoker take the opportunity to aim to stop smoking per se, or should the smoker only aim to stop smoking in all types of confined public places?

While the ban will prohibit smoking in public areas such as shopping malls and the like, it will also mean that people in the confined public place of the workplace will not be able to smoke anywhere in the working environment, except outdoors.
However, some employers have already given notice to smokers that even this will be unacceptable, which will effectively mean that smoking will not be permissible in some places during working hours.
It will also mean a ban on smoking in virtually all places of social and recreational activity and so it is easy to understand how smokers will be hit very hard, especially those who have been both physically and psychologically dependent on smoking for many years.

It is hard to imagine that some 30 years ago and especially in the 1960s, smoking was considered to be a habit of the sociable. Those who did not smoke were considered to be unsociable. Young people's heroes and heroines, notably in the fields of sports, music, television and the big screen, were all part of the drive to be part of this sociable habit which anyone that was to be considered to be someone had to be a part of.

Tobacco companies were allowed to advertise their products on a national stage in a drive to encourage others to purchase their products. Little was known of the harmful effects of smoking. Even now it is difficult to imagine that smoking was at one time permitted in hospital wards and that the mood-altering chemicals in cigarettes were considered to have some beneficial effects - the ability to calm nerves and induce a feeling of relaxation.

So why the shift from one extreme to the other? How have smoking habits changed and how has this silent revolution been achieved? The answer may lie in the advancement of medical research that has led to a greater understanding of the harmful effects of smoking.

It is now well known that the tar in cigarettes is made up of a wide range of chemicals and is inhaled directly into the lungs through smoking, leading to a number of smoking related diseases. It is also well known that the addictive substance in cigarettes is nicotine.
Smoking leads to the raising of blood pressure and can lead to heart failure.

It is also known that smoking leads to death. It is now also widely accepted that passive smoking, whereby non-smokers inhale the smoke of others, can cause the same ailments as it does to a smoker, especially if they inhale smoke on a regular basis.
While this progression in medical research has reached medically sound conclusions, the slow changing of attitudes to affect behaviour has not only been led by the medical profession.

Personalities and iconic figures have also played a large part with many advertising that they have or intend to give up smoking.
Sadly, for some it is too little and too late; a whole generation have come to be plagued by smoking-related illnesses which may have been entirely preventable. During this time there are also hundreds of thousands who have stopped what is generally accepted as a harmful and expensive habit, although there continue to be many hundreds of thousands who continue to smoke.

Not to mention those who take up the habit afresh on a regular basis.
So what is it about smoking that will make it so hard for smokers to refrain from smoking once the ban is enforced? Surely refraining from a behaviour that is both harmful and expensive is encouragement enough?

That is like saying that smoking is driven by common sense.
It is generally recognised that telling a smoker about all the harmful effects of smoking and the possibility of being plagued by smoking-related illnesses will not necessarily lead to a change in behaviour. So for the many non-smokers, or those who have never taken up the habit of smoking, it is difficult to understand the psyche of the smoker or the habit of smoking.

Irrespective of how sympathetic or well-intentioned one may be.
A smoker does not need to be told that he or she must stop smoking. They already know that they should.

It is just that some appear to be unwilling or unable to take action to stop their harmful and expensive habit.
There is the additional factor in human behaviour which shows that we are more likely to take up action when we want to rather than when someone else requires us to.

Because of the draconian measures taken here in the US over the years I have been working at home, make most purchases on the internet, and avoid social occations. As I am precluded from participation in the discussions about government I can only vote for candidates in elections. I no longer feel like a member of society but can only support society thru taxes.

This is not what a democracy or republic is suppose to be. I have as much choice about governance as a citizen in the former communist block, at least I can buy toilet paper in bulk.
The ideology of the anti-smoking movement is flawed or at least is a fraud.

No facts to support their views, only fantasies created by false gods to cooerce the people into believing in them.