Ok...Rant vent...warning...Im PO'ED

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I smoke cigarettes. I know its not healthy. I know the risks and the warnings. I dont smoke in other peoples homes if they dont want me to and if a building is smoke free...I smoke outside...but...BUT....good god almighty...outside is OUTSIDE! The air is free.

Now someone has taken things just a tad bit too far in my opinion. Our hospital went smoke free last april. Goody for them. I wont be going to the hospital for anything now anyway. I refuse. I will die here at home before I step one foot in there.

Today I went to take my oldest to the mall which is across the street....actually across three streets from the hospital but some of the doctors have offices adjacent to the mall. And what do I see in the parking lot? A big huge banner stating Tobacco Free in April 2008! Yes...No kidding...I couldnt believe my eyes! In a mall parking lot...and it has the hospitals logo on it! Oh some of the hospital employees park over there and they get a shuttle to the hospital. Big whoop. So they think they can mandate that the rest of the human race cant smoke legal cigarettes in the parking lot? Oh I think not!
 

meowbunny

New Member
It says it all.

I'm a smoker. I wish I wasn't but I am. I try to be considerate of others. Heck, I don't even smoke in my own home or near doorways. But to say I can't smoke in the parking lot or in my car (the rules at our hospital) really irritates me to the extent I try to get petty acts of revenge. I can't smoke in your parking lot after seeing a dying frend? Fine, have my butts from the ashtray and I would rather die than litter normally

So, you go girl!
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I am sorry you are so upset. I think you need to send a letter to the mall. Let them know you are a frequent customer. You smoke. Tell them they need to at the least provide a designated smoking area if they are going to legislate outside smoking.

I do think this is unfair. I understand people not wanting to wait for busses in a bus shelter that is full of smoke. I understand not wanting to walk through a group of smokers around the doorway to a building.

but it is a fact that there are a lot of smokers in this country. And that smoking is legal. So if they want to keep the business of the smokers (and I believe your state has a high % of smokers - the actual % might be interesting in your letter) they are going to have to make a smoking area.

I can see how they will enforce it inside a building. But how do they intend to enforce it outside?

Again, I understand your being upset. I do hope you don't let this ruin the rest of your day.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
What is bad is I was just thinking about quitting...but oh no...now I will be damned if I will quit! LMAO. Nope...not gonna.

Just what do these people think built this great nation? Tobacco did...especially in the ummm...where do I live...the tobacco belt! I need a bumper sticker!

Did you know when I was in school they used to take us on field trips to Phillip Morris and we got a free pack of cigarettes if we wanted them? Yeppers. I am old!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Susie...we dont even have buses here! There isnt any waiting in a bus shelter to worry about. You are either in a building or out of one. We live in a rural area. No lack of open air here. Our tallest building IS the hospital. I think that is 5 stories in one tower the rest is 3.

If they make me give up cigarettes Im gonna take up pot, crack and smoking heroin...so there!
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
This is just another example of the fact that we are giving up our freedoms in this country, one by one. They are forcing this on us by convincing us it is for our own good but it is just a way to get more and more control over people. Once we have given up on the small things, they will start on the bigger ones and by that time it will be too late. I am not a smoker and I don't like to be around people who smoke but if you do smoke it is your own darned business and you should have a reasonable place to do it. In my state, they are trying to pass a law that you can be stopped for not wearing your seat belt. It is the same thing. I always wear my seat belt and I figure if you are dumb enough not to wear it and you get killed, it serves you right but it is not the government's business to tell you what you have to do. I agree with most traffic laws because they are to protect the other people on the road but not wearing your seat belt doesn't endanger anybody else and you should be allowed to make that choice. We are headed down a slippery slope with "Big Brother" deciding what is good for us and what is not and if people don't grow some spheres and stand up and fight back soon, we will be in another totalatarian state.
End of my rant for the day.
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
I know you're upset and I don't see how they can ban smoking outside. But....

What is bad is I was just thinking about quitting...but oh no...now I will be damned if I will quit! LMAO. Nope...not gonna.

is what they call cutting off your nose to spite your face. :peaceful:
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Janet, I agree with you completely! This is a huge sore spot for me! I have smoked since I was 19 - I am now 62 - do the math! I know I should quit ... I'm not stupid ... and when I'm ready I will, but I cannot just quit because somebody else thinks I should or because it's the latest politically correct thing to do to go overboard with it! I am very considerate of others, I never smoke around non-smokers, I never smoke in someone else's home or car, I don't even litter with the cigarette butts or the empty packs. I do my best to be courteous and polite and not bother others with it ... so why does everyone else, even total strangers, seem to think that you're fair game to vent their feelings about smoking! I'm not hurting anyone but myself - if you don't like it then stay the hell away from me! People seem to think they have a right to be rude to you because you're a smoker! I could never even imagine myself walking up to an overweight stranger in public and saying, "You know all that extra weight is so BAD for you, dont you?" Same thing! I've had people I don't even know come up to me and say "Do you know how bad that is for your health?" Next time I'm going to look amazed, roll my eyes, and say, "OMG! No! I have never heard that before! I'm the most ignorant, isolated, uninformed person on the face of the earth and I did not know that! But now that you've enlightened me, I will stop immediately!"

I can see not smoking in buildings, or near the doorways. But when they try to police what you can do sitting in your own car in a huge parking lot, it gets a little silly! They've gotten ridiculous with it where I work, for the State. We used to have a designated area in the building where we could smoke - fine. We'd take paperwork over there and get a lot done while we had a cigarette or two. Then came the smoking ban. But instead of saying no smoking in the "buildings", they had to change it to say "property"! Now for the ones who work downtown, they can just go stand out on the sidewalk and be off of State "property". Not us! Our "property" is 52 acres out in the boonies! It's surrounded by thousands of acres of woods and wilderness! But I'm going to harm others if I smoke in my car on the far end of the parking lot! It's my car and even the air inside it is mine - I brought it with me! So three times a day we all go out, get in our cars, and drive 1.2 miles down the country road to a public side road where we can pull off and smoke! How stupid is that!

They have gone so overboard on some of this! I will never forget what happened three years ago when my son was in the hospital after his suicide attempt - he's fine now but at the time he was in the ICU of the regional trauma center and we didn't know if he would make it. It was 3:00 a.m. and his sweet little sister-in-law (the only non-looney one in that family!) and I had gone outside to talk. At the time you could smoke outside, you just had to stay so many feet away from the entrance. We were sitting on a bench talking and had both put out our cigarettes and were getting ready to go back in. Apparently the bench we were sitting on was only 499 ft. from the door instead of 500, and here comes a rent-a-cop on a golf cart - delighted that he finally had something to do! He reamed us out about smoking there and just kept on and on. We were telling him we were going back inside and he just kept on! He was a total :censored2: about it! I seriously wanted to hurt that man! I wanted to kick him and punch him and beat on him until they had to put him in the trauma center! You'd think he'd know ... anybody that is sitting outside of a trauma center at 3:00 a.m. with tears in their eyes is NOT having a good day! Apparently that never occurred to him! Maybe that's why this is a sensitive subject with me - but if I ever see that guy again ... he's toast!

And Janet, if you're ever driving through my little corner of Tennessee, stop by and come on in! We'll sit in my living room and smoke till we turn yellow if we want to!
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Standing right with you on that one Janet.

We're not supposed to smoke some 20 or 30 feet outside any public building. Funny thing is, it has yet to stop anyone from doing so. And I'm sorry but I'd like to see them try and stop me from smoking in my own private property of my car. I'm sure I could find a greedy lawyer to hop on that bandwagon.

They can even enforce it. They know they can't. Stupid. Ok. So I can't smoke, but some jerk can get drunk in public and drive home. Show me the logic. Prohibition all over again. Stupid.

Guess they didn't learn their lesson the first time around.

Ok. So it's not good for me. Guess what? I know that. According to current medical theory 99 percent of everything around me is gonna kill me. Same for what I eat, breathe, and drink.

Yes, I try to be considerate of others and I always have. One has nothing to do with the other. Why? Because no one is being equally considerate of smokers. Well, they'd better wake up and smell the coffee soon or they'll discover the hard way just how many of us there really are. OOPs, sorry. Coffee's a drug now, don'tcha know. :faint:

In case you couldn't tell this really burns me up. And I don't wanna hear about second hand smoke. Believe me, you don't want to get me started on THAT one.:mad:

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
 

amazeofgrace

A maze of Grace - that about sums it up
hmmmmm, I agree it's a bit over kill, but there are towns fining "boys" like my son, for having their pants too low! Cuckle I think they just need the revenue for additional fines and summons
 

meowbunny

New Member
What is bad is I was just thinking about quitting...but oh no...now I will be damned if I will quit! LMAO. Nope...not gonna.

Okay, I understand you're angry and resentful and all that ****, but don't you dare cut off your nose to spite your face! If you'd planned to quit, don't you dare not because of a bunch of idiots. Quit for the same reasons you were going to quit before that stupid sign cropped out. Sorry, but some things are just dumb. Who are you showing anything by continuing to smoke? The hospital doesn't care. The people at the shopping mall don't care. You, your family and friends will appreciate your quitting (once you get over the cravings). Having an attitude that stops you from doing something that will save you money and help you physically (we'll just ignore the social aspects) and that you wanted to do is just plain dumb!
 

mom_in_training

New Member
Ohhhh Nooooooo, I'm a druggy and did not know it, Lol!!! "Coffee's a drug now, don'tcha know" I agree that this is just ridiculous. I too am very considerate when it comes others. I will go out of my way to do just that just out of respect for others. I smoke outdoors period. Not in my house or car and have done it for so long that even if someone smokes in their house I will not go there. I would stick my middle finger up to that sign too!!!!! Talk about huge efforts to control the smoking population, Huh?
 

Marguerite

Active Member
I'm a non-smoker. I have never smoked. My father did - that was enough for me.

BUT - I think you have a genuine grievance, Janet.

In Australia, smoking is now illegal in all public buildings and even near the doorways of all public buildings. No restaurants can permit smoking now, not even in the outside areas.

But the rights of smokers to have somewhere that they CAN smoke are also protected.

I do get annoyed with people who smoke where they're not supposed to, but I haven't got a problem with someone smoking where they are legally entitled to do so.

There is less smoking in Australia than the US, I think. Perhaps because we haven't got the same historical connections to it. We have raised our kids to be non-smokers. So have most of our friends.

On Tuesday we travelled in to the city with friends (and their kids also). At one point we stopped to feed the kids at a table in the grounds of the UTS (University of Technology, Sydney). As the kids began to eat, one of the small boys commented that he could smell cigarettes - it was the workers at the next table, taking their work break from the landscaping job they were on. There wasn't a lot of smoke, just enough to notice, so I explained to the boy that the man wasn't breaking the law, he was allowed to smoke there and had been sitting there before we got to the next table. We would just have to accept this. We always have the choice to move.
The workers finished their cigarettes (about ten workers sitting together; only two smokers). The kids finished eating. No problems.

My father was a smoker. I hated having to sit at the table to finish my dinner, while he lit up. I couldn't taste my food, only the smoke. Then years later he gave up smoking when a doctor told him he was dying of emphysema. He had been given about two years to live.
After he gave up, he took up exercise to build as much lung power as he could. It gave him good quality of life and he lived another 20 years. But both he and my mother needed to avoid cigarette smoke, or suffer dire consequences often involving hospitalisation (especially my mother who had severe asthma). That is when I became aware of just how important it was to ensure that when they were out in public, they were not in any enclosed space with tobacco smoke. Of course, their politeness meant they would say nothing. I became adept at being polite to people while still avoiding exposing my parents to smoke.

My father had a guest arrive unexpectedly. They invited the man to lunch in their home. After lunch, the man leaned back and lit a cigarette. My parents said nothing. I was desperately anxious. Finally I suggested, "Dad, why don't you take your friend out to the deck outside and you both sit there and enjoy the view? I'll bring you both some coffee and do the washing up."
Good on dad - he took the hint and ushered his friend outside. I had saved both my parents a hospital trip, but without their friend being any the wiser, for the possible damage his innocent cigarette could have caused.

I wonder if the hospital, in it's 'wisdom', is thinking of patients like my parents, who need to be kept away from cigarette smoke. It is important that a hospital at least, be a place where such people can be safe. However, to extend that ban to the car park of another location, which is outdoors and merely a transit place for transport (and not the only option) is, I think, taking the Nanny State a bit too far. My parents were quite safe if they were able to be outdoors with enough air circulation. And their problem with cigarettes was fairly extreme.

If cigarette smoking is banned in too many locations, then smokers will soon just give up and break the law wherever. It is better to have some designated areas which make it feasible to continue to smoke without being too greatly inconvenienced, than to make obeying the law just too difficult.

As a non-smoker, I would rather KNOW that certain areas are guaranteed to be smoke-free, I will happily put up with those areas where smokers are free to indulge because that makes it easier to be sure I can breathe freely inside when I need to. It just makes sense to give smokers a fair go and to be reasonable. Too many bans - people give up and ignore them. Then we ALL lose.

I watched my father die. It wasn't pretty. He had done an amazing job reclaiming his health - he would have kept going even longer, if a long-dormant TB hadn't moved in and complicated the picture. That's when his emphysema became a huge problem again.
I watched my mother's brother die from emphysema. And husband's uncle. Again, not pretty. Of them all, my father coped best, because he exercised. He fought. It all confirmed for me, that looking after my lungs was a good thing.

But I also have seen people try to quit. You REALLY need to be sure it's what you want to do, it can be done but it's not easy. I have great admiration for those who succeed, and no shame for those who try but just can't make it. Not yet.

Banning places to smoke is not how to make people quit. My father quit because it became personal. He had his own good reasons. That also made it easier for him.

I never started. I knew quitting is hard, and I never wanted to have to go through it.

Janet, go fight. You're entitled to smoke in the car park. I doubt the legality of the hospital enforcing a ban like this. Even if they can quite laws, chances are there are civil rights laws that over-ride, in the case of the car park at the mall.

But don't let the hospital's actions be an excuse to keep smoking - if you want to keep smoking, that is YOUR choice. Not the hospital's. Same with quitting - it has to be YOUR choice. Anything less than your choice - you won't succeed.

Marg
 

Estherfromjerusalem

Well-Known Member
I'm with you, Janet. I'm coping with similar problems myself, and for my own personal health I have to stop smoking. I did stop for three months after my second operation (clogged main arteries in my neck), but am gradually smoking again, although no longer is anyone smoking inside the house which makes it easier to smoke less, and when winter comes it will be even less.

I discovered that I can go without cigarettes for a day or two, and certainly for a few hours, which I couldn't do before. If I must, I suppose I will stop, but life is so difficult most of the time, and smoking is simply something that I enjoy and I want to grab that enjoyment while I can.

Love, Esther
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
See....Im a bit of a difficult child (I know...WHO would have thunk it?) If someone tells me I cant do something, I am hell bent for high water that I WILL do that very thing! Yes, ODD to the max...lol.

I am that way about my house. It is mine, I paid for it, I will smoke in it. If someone doesnt like it, dont come here. I will make attempts to smoke in my room for the period of time that Jamie and Billie are here with Hailie but expect me to spend most of their visit...IN MY ROOM! I do smoke two packs a day so that takes up most of my day...lol. That is probably why I cant spend more than two days at their house. I am so used to sitting on the computer and smoking that I go into withdrawals. From both.
 
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