Smokers will still indulge even when the price is stratospheric
83% of the population want smoking to be phased out, according to a recent poll.
When the then Health Minister Micheál Martin banned smoking in workplaces, including bars and restaurants, back in 2004, it was hugely progressive, although I cursed him from a height as I was in the grip of nicotine addiction.
Immediately, I and my ilk got the lowdown on what pubs had beer gardens and what restaurants had outdoor seating (very few). There was no way we were going to give up our fags.
We complained about the nanny state and of being deprived of a basic freedom.
We were martyrs to our habit. If anyone tried to admonish us, we’d trot out inanities like ‘we’re all going to go sometime’ or ‘something will kill us anyway’.
But we never actually thought about quality of life. Wheezing and gasping our way up hills and staircases, we should have projected ahead and multiplied the discomfort several times to try and imagine our latter years.
Who wants to be connected to a nebuliser after a feckless smoking career? But that’s the reality – assuming you actually live to experience the serious downsides of smoking as an elderly person.
I still miss the damned things. I gave up cigarettes six years ago when I was hospitalised after a fall.
I knew that any demands from me to be wheeled down to the outside area of the hospital to smoke would be met with opposition. Forbidden to smoke in the grounds of CUH, I accepted defeat.
The strange thing was that I didn’t have any withdrawal symptoms. But I still have a six-year-old packet of menthol cigarettes in my house – just in case. In case of what? Armageddon, I guess.
Thanks to the Budget, a packet of cigarettes now costs €16.75. That should be one hell of a deterrent.
A recent HSE poll found that 83% of the population want smoking to be phased out. But, depressingly, the youth smoking rate is actually rising.
As Chris Macey of the Irish Heart Foundation said: “We’re one of the last countries in Europe where it’s legal to sell vapes to children, and our Tobacco Free Ireland policy of reducing the smoking rate to 5% by 2025 is going to fail by a margin of around half a million smokers.”
In the UK, proposals to raise the legal age of smoking annually by one year mean children now aged 14 or younger will never be allowed to legally buy cigarettes there.
Wander around Cork city and amid the dereliction you’ll see a proliferation of vaping shops. They seem to be the only businesses opening and thriving.
There has been an explosion in youth use of e-cigarettes that has been further fuelled by the advent of disposable vapes, said Chris Macey. It’s truly depressing.
Nevertheless, I still love stories of people who smoked and drank their way through life – and got away with it.
In the Sunday Times recently, the British artist, David Hockney, wrote about being 86 – and still smoking, having done so for 70 years. He is tired of bossy people who try to take the joy out of life.
“...I’m reasonably fine, thank you. I just love tobacco and I will go on smoking until I fall over.”
David Hockney took delight in telling his doctor that he had three doctors in the last 50 years.
“Each of them recommended I give up. But each of them has died; the last one only a year older than me. My new doctor laughed and said nothing. He has a good sense of humour.”
But really, smoking is no laughing matter. Take Belfast-based 12-year-old Sarah Griffin who recently suffered a lung collapse and spent four days in an induced coma. She told the BBC that children should never start vaping.
Despite having asthma, Sarah was a heavy vaper when she was rushed to hospital with breathing problems.
Her mother feared she was going to lose her daughter. Sarah used to hide her vapes from her mother, even going so far as to cut holes in the carpet to keep them out of sight. She had started vaping at nine years of age. Her mother did all she could to try and stop her. But nothing worked.
Towards the end of my smoking career, I tried vaping thinking it would be the lesser of two evils. But it made me cough more than cigarettes ever did. Our young people deserve to be protected from smoking. If that’s a fun-spoiler, so be it.
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