NYC Mayor wants to ban smoking in all bars and restaurants.

[- Groucho -]

Yep - I quit for seven years, but as they say - once you start you can never be an ex-smoker, all you can do is be a smoker who doesn't currently smoke. I forgot that bit of wisdom and slippery sloped my way back into the habit.

[bigvic]

i thought california was the only place on earth that thought if u don't smoke, don't eat anything yummy, and excercise religiously u can live forever. NY city too? Damn, thought those rude ass mf's had some sense up there. well the mayor of NY is apparantly a b!tcha$$ motherfXXXer after all. seeloinburger's poll

[alva]

So when are you non-smokers gonna give up your car??
I don't drive and i 'm getting sick off their fumes.
I want everybody to stop driving cars , ride a bike for chrstssake!
stop using electricity!! etc....

you are on the politicians side because THIS time it suits you, but what about the next time???

this shouldn't be made a law.

[Ethelred]

I see dead people.

Dead people that are posting what the nicotine tells them to.

[bigvic]

things i've found out about smoking - it sucks, its horridly addictive, people will do it no matter what anyone tries to do to stop it, and....

whether u smoke or not, when you are dead u are dead. non smokers will be dead for eternity minus a little bit less than smokers

ie
td-tlns>td-tls

where td = time dead, tlns = time living non smokers and tls = time living, smokers

by the way, eternity - tl is still eternity

[bigvic]

puff puff, aghh.....

[Jac de Molay]

by the way, eternity - tl is still eternity

Ahhh, but would a just God(s) admit those into Heaven/Eternal Bliss if those people poisoned their bodies with a substance they knew was harmful to them? I hope that was the case for my Mom-she died 25 years too young from smoking.

Dave

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by bigvic
things i've found out about smoking - it sucks, its

whether u smoke or not, when you are dead u are dead. non smokers will be dead for eternity minus a little bit less than smokers

I hear nicotine talking. Just like it spoke through my mother's mouth. It stopped talking for her after she knew she was dying.

Its not worth it. You will never notice the eternity. You will notice what a fool you had been all the years you told yourself that lie. Its the years you live that count not the ones you aren't alive. Smokers have less of them. That become old sooner. They are sick more often.

[Loif]

Originally posted by Peacemaker


Well then I guess you should put your efforts into a total ban on the sale and posession of tobacco. If you want to argue about anything then argue this rather than a ban on public smoking.

In Alberta merchants are fined $2 000 for selling cigarettes to minors (minors here are under the age of 18). I think that's about as close to banning cigarettes as our government is going to get.

[alva]

Originally posted by DetroitDave


Ahhh, but would a just God(s) admit those into Heaven/Eternal Bliss if those people poisoned their bodies with a substance they knew was harmful to them? I hope that was the case for my Mom-she died 25 years too young from smoking.

Dave

Don't even think about going there

{|@#{religious#{|#cr*p#{{@|{

btw: if so no-one will get to heaven/bliss

[Jac de Molay]

btw: if so no-one will get to heaven/bliss

Point well taken, considering the multitude of bad things we inflict upon ourselves It's just when I've watched so many smoking casualties, friends and family, drop dead, even my own agnostic self is forced to take on some semblance of faith.

BTW, the more I think about the measure, the more I support it. This is still the number one public health priority in the country, IMO.

Dave

[Boris Godunov]

I think there can be a compromise, such as the city issuing a limited number of licences to certain bars and clubs to allow them to be smoker-friendly, while making sure most are totally non-smoking.

What I really want them to crack down on is smokers who seem to think they have the right to goddamn litter. If I threw my trash on the sidewalk, it would be called litter. But, for some inexplicable reason, smokers think they can just toss their butts anywhere. WTF?

And another thing...if you smoke, PLEASE have the courtesy to 1) not smoke while walking down the sidewalk, and 2) not smoke standing in a doorway. The first means you're blowing your noxious smoke and ashes on the people walking behind you. The second requires people to pass through a gauntlet of your nasty smoke.

Thank you.

[Gatekeeper]

Smoking has never contributed anything positive to humanity.

It has been a bane since it was taken out of its ceremonial use context in the New World and turned into a mass produced means to hook untold millions of people into an addiction that will only lead to their deaths, along with those who breathe in the second-hand chemical-laden fumes.

It makes you wonder, sometimes, what the world would have been like had cocaine, crack or heroin gotten the same early benefits that tobacco had in order to get where it is today.

Gatekeeper

[drake]

Boris, I had a thread about people throwing butts on the ground months back.....

It's one of the more dispicable things people do that is, for some reason still socially acceptable. Cops do it too. I've seen it.

One of my favorite fantasies regarding this issue is to collect up a nice big bagful of these butts off the street and when I see someone drop one from their car or something (happens atleast a half dozen times on my commute), walk up to their car and dump the whole bag into their lap. And say something clever along the lines of how this is about how many butts you toss on the ground in a year.

Then maybe a smack for good measure

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
What I really want them to crack down on is smokers who seem to think they have the right to goddamn litter. If I threw my trash on the sidewalk, it would be called litter. But, for some inexplicable reason, smokers think they can just toss their butts anywhere. WTF?

I second that! At work, there's a labeled receptacle for the addicts who need their fix, yet a good number of them simply crush their butts out on the ground. It's gross!

And another thing...if you smoke, PLEASE have the courtesy to 1) not smoke while walking down the sidewalk, and 2) not smoke standing in a doorway. The first means you're blowing your noxious smoke and ashes on the people walking behind you. The second requires people to pass through a gauntlet of your nasty smoke.

Thank you.

Heh. You can smell a smoker a mile away when you're walking or in a vehicle near one. It really drives me up the wall when they flick their ashes and butts out of a moving vehicle.

As for that gauntlet of smoke ... yep, it's true. Almost on cue — every 45 minutes to an hour (about when the dopamine high triggered by nicotine wears off) — the smokers congregate outside near the employee entrance and clouds of butt smoke fill the area. I always take a deep breath of air from afar and then hold it while desperately running the "Smokers' Gauntlet."

It must be nice having regular breaks (lunch/supper) and then getting smoking breaks every hour for 3 to 5 minutes (this depends on the puffer's habit).

And, for some reason, I get really upset when smokers call in sick. Usually 'cause I end having to do their work in addition to mine, and I can only envision them sitting at home (that's where they'd better be!!!!) smoking while popping aspirin and whatnot. Sheesh.

Gatekeeper

[alva]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper


It makes you wonder, sometimes, what the world would have been like had cocaine, crack or heroin gotten the same early benefits that tobacco had in order to get where it is today.

Gatekeeper

about 50 years ago, coke was used as a painkiller and distributed regularly, while aspirine was thought of
as being to dangerouse

I know, not quite what you ment, but admit it was close

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by alva848
about 50 years ago, coke was used as a painkiller and distributed regularly,

It was also a main ingredient in a popular soft drink that is still sold today. I'll let you figure out which one for yourself.

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by Sprayber



Then they should keep stupid people from driving. Ban fast food, Ban cars that go over 30 MPH, Ban microwave ovens, Ban people from going out at night, Ban the Jerry Springer Show, and Ban women from wearing thight fitting clothing.

Get a clue.

Smoking is much worse than anything you stated there.

[- Groucho -]

Worse than fast food? Hmmm.

Worse than Jerry Springer? Not bloody likely. Smoking kills people. Jerry Springer kills civilization as we know it.

Boris: Ok, I can see not smoking in an office. But no smoking on the street?!?!? In NYC?!?! What, do you have a bubble you roll to work inside of? How else is it that the charcoal from the pretzel guys, the noxious fumes from the sewers and the diesel gunk belching from the trucks doesn't warrant your wrath and the cigarette smoke does?

[Imran Siddiqui]

What ever happened to the great liberal cry: "Stop legislating your morality on me"?

Oh and Bloomburg is a RINO (Republican in Name Only). Before the election he was a Democrat.

[- Groucho -]

During and after the election he was/has been a democrat as well. It was just a brief period when the republicans were "willfully blind" and set out to get him on the ballot that anyone said anything different with a straight face.

But I'm not complaining. Hevesi or Green would have been awful.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
What ever happened to the great liberal cry: "Stop legislating your morality on me"?

Smoking has a direct effect on the others around them. Its is not a matter of personal morality in private. Go shoot up with nicotine in private. Don't make others partake of your coffin nails.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Echinda
And if it is true, you would expect that market forces would dictate that a larger and larger percentage of restaurants would go non-smoking. So there is no need for regulation.

Unfortunately, most people are still brainwashed by the Tobacco Lobby, fearing that they would lose money if they go non-smoking. We are having the same debate here and the same people sprout the same nonsense without any evidence backing them up.

[Gatekeeper]

CHICAGO (AP) — Drug companies toned down marketing campaigns for smoking-cessation products like nicotine-based gum and a skin patch in the 1980s and 1990s because of pressure from the tobacco industry, according to a medical journal report.

The report is based on documents posted on a tobacco industry Web site offering public access to materials involved in the 1998 national tobacco settlement. That case ended states‚ lawsuits filed over smoking-related health costs.

The documents provide an inside view of tobacco industry efforts to influence drug company campaigns involving two nicotine-based products designed to help people stop smoking: gum and the skin patch.

AWWW!!! Big Tobacco was looking out for its addic, er, customers! Isn't that SWEEEEEET of them?! More likely:

Gatekeeper

[Timexwatch]

Forgeive me if this is disjointed, I'm a bit tired....

Anyone ever do bar/restaurant work here?

I have, and in my experience, 75% of the employees already smoke, regardless of education/age/gender. In every smoking place I've worked or been to, the staff smokes at least one to five times an hour, depending on how busy it is.

The usual non-smokers are the young kids or Uni students on break. I'm in the latter category.

The past two summers I've worked in a restaurant/bar that prohibits smoking inside the building but permits it outside on the patio. It's a healthy middleground. The inside stays neat and clean to breathe while the smokers outside blow into the open air. For me, it's a much more pleasant work environment and beats coming home smelling like an ashtray.

Whether or not the tabacco lobby has brainwashed the owners, I don't know. I've seen that more often than not that smokers spend their disposeable income on items like restaurant food and alcohol. Generally the tips are better.

The only places that I can conceiveably see going under are bars/clubs/restaurants that lack a patio or easily accessable exit to smoke at (I.E. Huge/Underground Clubs and Bars). Most smokers, when confronted with a ban, simply take it outside and maybe stay around a bit less.

In the average town, one or two smoke-free restaurants can survive no problem. They'll draw a more family oriented crowd who'll bring kids / other non-smoking friends. Smoke free bars will probably be shorter lived....