North Sydney council bans smoking in all public places

The last gasp: Australian council bans smoking in public places

Quote:

Vote hailed as long overdue by mayor of North Sydney, but greeted with despair by area’s dwindling number of smokers The lunchtime smokers of North Sydney gathered under a cloud this week after their local council became the first in Australia to vote to ban smoking in all public places within its CBD. Speaking after the decision the local mayor, Jilly Gibson, said the move was long overdue. “I believe it is the time of the non-smoker,” she declared. The ban doesn’t come into force for a few months and Guardian Australia managed to find a few smokers furtively lighting up in the doorways of fire escapes, or hidden in the shadow of alcoves. A large group of them took refuge in an alleyway behind an Aldi supermarket; in these troubled times, there is safety in numbers. “We were just talking about it,” Terry Lee, a vaper, says when I ask him if he’s heard the news. “We’re sad mate, we’re sad,” his colleague Bosco Dcosta tells me.

Do you support this kind of action in the name of public health? Would you agree to such a ban in your home town? I'm an ex-smoker, and I'd say this goes a little too far. There should be spaces where smokers can still light up - we all know that nicotine addiction causes cravings that can be hard to resist for a full work day, and planning for that avoids criminalising what in the end is a substance dependence disorder. But at the same time, this sends a strong message that it is probably time to quit for your own health.

What's your opinion?

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2MecovW