New access debate: Inclusion also applies to smokers

2024-09-09 14:43:04

In Great Britain, cigarettes are banned outside restaurants and pubs. What we forget is the social function of such meeting places. If addicts are at all, there is a risk of other drugs in widespread disease increasing.

The debate about the smoking ban is entering the next round. Great Britain started there wants a new Labor government Smoking is prohibited in the outdoor areas of restaurants and pubs, especially on the sidewalks in front of bars and clubs, football stadiums and sports facilities, hospitals and schools. high. Smoking should be banned even in small parks.

The goal, a representative of the Ministry of Health said publicly, is to make the country “smoke-free.” As usual, both opponents and supporters use numbers: “80,000 deaths a year” (Keith Starmer) against the hundreds of pubs that are already closed every year.

The activities of the state

Anyone who now warns about the patriarchy that sees freedom as threatened should pause for a moment. It is one of the tasks of the state to take care of public health, not because everyone eventually has to bear the explosive treatment and maintenance costs. The state must also protect its citizens from itself.

Read again

• Cultural criticism

The right of every person to be free from stigma by the apostles of health appointed by the government, to live a healthy life and to give in to various temptations is limited. But exactly where they go is very controversial during the Corona period;

The question is instead whether this protection can really be achieved through spatial constraints. Does the smoke-free access circle solve the problem – or just push it out of sight? Aren’t nicotine addicts just smoking elsewhere? Or do they stay at the bar and drink even more?

The difficult thing about addictions is that they respond to a need that is deeply embedded in the soul. Anyone who wants one Dry January or if you allow yourself a period of fasting, you know: addiction always changes the thing. Instead of beer after work, people turn to chocolates. You can become expert with licorice salt just like you can with single malt.

When I was in school in the 80s, when the good boys and girls stood on the corner drinking, I wasn’t there. I have not smoked, my addictions are different, whether they are healthier in the long term remains to be seen. Nevertheless, sometimes I join those who smoke in front of the bar; Groups mix, there is flirting, the fire is shared, the ritual of the past. Trust also binds together.

These places are becoming more and more common in our society, which is threatened by a completely different phenomenon: depression, which is also a widespread disease. Who are pubs and similar meeting places for? holy place If you want to do something where people don’t smoke anymore and maybe even don’t drink alcohol at some point, you ruin the meeting places.

In reality, smokers are simply excluded. Doesn’t the much-promoted social inclusion apply to people who suffer from addiction? Smoking areas in front of bars or hospitals (even there!) are social places, especially social participation. They are in danger of extinction if the clean room becomes the new standard: smoke-free and sterile, sterile, perfectly healthy, all-round. safety and awfully boring.

Richard Kämmerlingsliterary reporter for WELT, is a non-smoker himself, but he smoked a lot in student schools and clubs in the 90s and 00s enough to last a lifetime.