smoking ban

[smokesingdance]

As many of you will have heard our MPs today voted in favour of a complete ban on smoking in public places due to come into effect in the summer of 2007. I intend to make the most of being allowed to smoke for the next year and a half after which I will hopefully be emigrating to a smoker friendly country.

But so far the only country I've found that's smoker friendly and likely to remain that way is China - anyone know of any others? I'm going to look into emigrating to China but I am not sure I can stand the politics. Otherwise we smokers need to form an underground cybercommunity and arrange to get together in private to enjoy smoking parties.

I'd like to hear the views of other UK members and what they now plan to do.

[pezzzuk_PREV (deleted)]

Actually I think a partial ban would have been the right thing to do - have licensed smoking venues like they do in NY but New Labour had to go to the extreme.

Leaving the Uk is giving in! I'm dreading the ban coming in as I have quite an active social life.

I can see a lot of pubs opening outdoor areas with heaters though, so it's not all doom and gloom !!

[bigbelly83 (deleted)]

I am actually quite excited about the smoking ban. Having to stand outside around large numbers of female smokers sounds really appealing. That's one of the reasons I decided to go back to college (UK meaning).

Anyway, if smoking's that good then what's wrong with going to a bit of trouble to get your fix. Look at how hard a heroin addict has to work for their reward.

[smokesingdance]

I live in England and am losing sleep over the impending smoking ban which is due to take effect here from next summer. I felt that Smoking Passions was the one place where I could air my grievance and where the other members of the group will understand what I’m going through and be sympathetic to my plight.

The reason I am so extremely upset about the smoking ban is because, like many of you, I have the smoke fet--- such that my s----l orientation is primarily towards women who are heavy smokers. I am not particularly concerned about the implications of the ban for myself having to go outside to smoke but about the implications for all the women I fancy and also about the implications for my favourite pubs, clubs and bars where most of the clientele are smokers. Every time I go and admire the smoking women it rips my heart apart to think that they will soon be prohibited by law from doing the very thing I admire so much about them.

The anti-smokers have already made women of my type a critically endangered species and I can’t help but think that the smoking ban will ultimately make them virtually non-existent in this country. Many will quit smoking when they otherwise wouldn’t and even the hardcore smokers are almost certainly going to end up smoking less. I am also fretting over the fact that my favourite haunts will never be the same again when they are forced to become non-smoking, and that’s assuming they don’t go out of business as a result of the smoking ban.

To make matters worse far too many people in the real world, even well meaning friends of mine, are not at all sympathetic towards my plight and I all too often come up against anti-smoking prejudice. I have to explain my smoke fet--- to them in order for them to understand why I’m so cut up about the ban and all too often I then get told that having the smoke fet--- is immoral even though my s----l orientation is not a matter of choice but is hard wired in my brain. I frequently get accused of encouraging people to smoke when in fact my fet--- is for women who choose to smoke heavily despite being fully aware of all the health risks. Other people tell me that smoking is a matter of choice but in my case it wasn’t a matter of choice but was dictated by my s----lity.

I also find that I have a serious ethical dilemma where the smoking ban is concerned. Before I reached puberty and found that I was predominantly attracted to girls who smoke and especially to girls who smoke a lot I was an outspoken anti-smoker. If I’m honest I would almost certainly support a ban on smoking in public places if I didn’t have the smoke fetish. I am now asking myself if the smoking ban is in fact progress and that as a smoke fetishist I’m one of the few who is going to have to lose out for the benefit of the majority.

In fact it emerged during a discussion on another smoke fet--- site that we smoke fetishists are the only people who are really bothered about smoking bans. But as a smoke fetishist part of me feels that the smoking ban is a violation of my human rights because it discriminates against me because of my s----l orientation which is supposed to be illegal but this law does not seem to apply to smoke fetishists. It is going to severely restrict my freedom of s----l expression and in some ways it feels like being gay in a country where homosexuality is about to be outlawed, but few people in the real world agree with me on this.

Some of you will know from my earlier posting that I previously considered leaving the country to escape the ban but virtually every country I’ve checked out has introduced some form of smoking restrictions or is likely to in the near future. I therefore find myself resigned to the fact that the smoking ban is going to happen and that there is nothing that I can do about it. So I badly need some advice on how to deal with the smoking ban and would particularly like to hear from smoke fetishists who live in places where smoking in public places has already been banned and how you coped.

Peter Bibby

[smokerec33]

`Does anyone remember when people smoked and no one B----ed about it? God take me back to those days!

[allenepanek]

`Smoking bans, especially in the developed world, are becoming wide spread.

[allenepanek]

Smoking bans, especially in the developed world, are becoming wide spread.

[wetpuppy22 (deleted)]

`I am still a heavy smoker, even with bans, I will wait for someone to ask me to stop or go outside before I do.

[lagalzakable]

`Nowadays anti-smoking laws are very annoying for us. We complain about be unalowed to smoke in bars, pubs, restaurants...but in Japan they can't even smoke in the street (they have smoking points where you can, but you have to stop there so you lose time). The problem of the bans is that they go further & further, and next generations will definaely smoke much less because society will make them think it is a disgusting & too expensive habit, & instead is something you can enjoy very much. It is a pitty but that's the way it is...