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Greeks still resist smoking ban
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society
I got on a taxi recently. We had just drove a couple of meters when the driver asked my permission to smoke: “May I?” he asked, while he had already pulled a cigarette out of the box showing it to me. “Ehrrr.. I am a smoker, too”, I replied, “but how about the smoking ban?” The taxi driver, already litten the cigarete and inhaling deep, looked at me through the driver’s mirror and said at the same moment he expired the smoke “Tsyeee, who is gonna to control?”. When he finished his puffing, he explained to me that September is a “tolerance month” so business will slowly get accustomed to the circumstances. AHA!
Then I remember that the smoking ban of summer 2009 had a tolerance period of three months, extended to a whole year. In fact it was never applied until the new law came into force.
No, I wasn’t allowed to smoke in the smoking drivers’ taxi because …. “Smoking is banned ” and he couldn’t risk a penalty allowing a customer to smoke in his car, he told me. Am I a dude? Do I really live in a country of paradoxes, as people warned me? Do laws apply indeed for parts of the society, but not for all? Are really a drivers’ two legs better than my two? Are some pigs better than others?
Smoking in a smoke-free environment
I really wonder how will the government manage to apply the law. Greek smokers are blessed to live in a country with relative mild temperatures so we still sit outside to enjoy lunch or dinner at a restaurant, or beer and wine in a pub. Smoking ban in enclosed places do not affect us that much. Smokers decide anyway, where a bunch of people to go and have fun.
As I said, I am a smoker but I do enjoy a smoke free environment. I am Greek and I dare to be a paradox as the other Greeks.
No, electric cigarettes are not the solution. First, because they contain un-researched substances and second because I enjoy a good inhale of nicotine; this of my ultra light cigarettes. It’s gives me more or less the same pleasure as a bite of chocolate.
Intellectual Smokers
There is growing number of prominent Greek smokers resisting the ban. Only recently Stamatis Kraounakis, a famous composer, songwriter and entertainer together with artists and intellectuals had an open discussion about the issue in one of the central bookstores in Athens. “Smoking is culture, not disease” he said.
A writer considered as nonsense “to live like ill so you can die healthy“.
A music composer argued that the concept of passive smoking has not been verified.
And a cafe-bar owner asked the crucial question: “How comes the use is illegal but not the product?”
Do these aphorisms come from Greek philosophers or smoking talkers?
Proposals to diffuse the tension
As I said, I am a smoker! As we are in the month of tolerance I have following proposals:
First of all I support the discrimination of the society! Smokers should sit apart from the non-smokers. Is there one non-smoker in a company of four, he could be excluded by a democratic vote.
Smoking should be allowed in restaurants at night. A working lunch of 2 hours is unacceptable anyway. Any smoker who lunches in a restaurant can afford to be without nicotine for an hour, or not?
Smoking should also be allowed in bars. What’s the purpose of going to a bar and have only half of the pleasure?
Smoking should be banned at all public places. The ban should applied to customers/clients and civil servants equally. It is pretty unfair that I am not allowed to smoke in the Tax Office, but the tax officer blows his smoke right into my face.
All taxi drivers should smoke outside their cabs.
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I was surprised that there was so little real resistance to the smoking ban in Ireland. The changover was for new years day, thus in the middle of the miserably damp Irish winter. Since then, I’ve concluded that Irish people will complain loudly – except to anyone who makes decisions.
Probably the Irish need some more Mediterranean sunshine….
Well, if you “enjoy” your nikotine so much and since it’s “not a disease”, why don’t you use a syringe to shoot it up? That way your addiction won’t annoy others as much and endanger their health.
All those clever, oh so free smokers are just rag dolls on the strings pulled by the tobacco industry. But I guess you feel at home in their company, so don’t worry.
How about the industry emissions and smog released to the air we breathe whether we are smokers or not?
Well i took up smoking there for a few weeks after the ban cause bitching about having to smoke outside was a great way to pick up chicks, but not wanting yellow fingernails I quit again pretty fast.
I reckon there should be a certain number of smoking licences. The pubs willing to pay for the licence can have people smoke in them, those that aren’t can’t. Then people can choose either to go to a pub which allows you to smoke, or to one that doesn’t.