Smoking rooms are great! They have them in pubs in Germany, Sometimes Constucted as a Perspex cage and you can communicate with your pals in sign language or gebädensprache as we call it :smug:

I think smokers should have a designated place - its silly to ban it on hospital grounds for instance.

Designated areas for smokers(pub/restaurants) but a complete ban on anyone smoking outside a hospital entrance .

I attended a course about Deprivation of Liberty (part of Mental capacity)

 

I argued that i could be seen as a deprivation of a patient's liberty to smoke whilst in hospital. Those addicted may refuse treatment as a result of the ban on land we as tax payers, own.

I'm a smoker. . only asda's cheap rolling/pipe baccy nowadays ... but it has been a lifelong habit and about all I have left as a 'treat' and is a habit that I enjoy so I am against cutting us smokers out of what little bit of public space we can smoke in.. and yes I would like a room in a pub I could smoke in..

 

In fact when they stopped smoking in pubs etc it added to my already growing agoraphobia problems..  previously, if I did try to go out occasionally, I could at least feel relaxed with a ciggie, then they changed the rules so I panicked more about going out as I couldn't have a fag so I stopped even trying to attempt outings.. it isn't relaxing having to keep getting up to go out for a fag and sitting outside isn't always possible if you have friends that feel the cold or you are going for a meal..  I went out twice for social occasion the whole of last year and because of lack of practice, due to barely doing things like that for a few yrs because of the ban,  I was really stressed and in a right panic and was home within 2 hrs or less both times and exhausted from fighting the aggy so not really enjoyable....

 

this stopping smoking in outside public areas is a joke. .what about all the bloomin car fumes going on out there. . unless you are blowing smoke in someone's face when outside there are hardly likely to be any 'passive' smokers.. 

 

I know I am in a minority now so doubt many will feel the same as me ..  

Olly i agree.

Imagine also the patients in hospital. Stressed and told they cannot spark up anywhere to calm themselves.

I also think most have been brainwashed about a tiny stick of tobacco when a huge jet roars overhead dumping ten times more toxins but goes on without any complaints.

At Derriford Hospital you can't even smoke in your car while parked up on the premises. Personally I think that should be made illegal. What next? A camera in the toilet of my home? I've had it with the holier than thou brigade (although I agree that ppl should not descend on the front of hospitals; places should be made available). I don't smoke anymore, but can still fume over these draconian measures.

It's raking the government in millions yet they want to make doing it as hard as possible.  Banning it completely in hospitals is a terrible idea.  If there's one place you're going to need a smoke it's a hospital!  People will be hearing bad news, waiting on news, visiting really sick friends or relatives or have to be camped out at a childs bedside yet they can't have a smoke to release stress or calm their nerves?  Ridiculous.

 

I'm a former smoker so I know how disgusting it is but I also know how it is a great stress reliever and how a quick puff can clear your head or help you calm down so banning it everywhere isn't a great solution.  

Some hospitals are so bad you have to hold your breath at the front doors to get in.

as an ex smoker (on the efags now) I think its disgusting that smokers are meant to feel like anti-social lepers.. they bsell fags openly so let peopkle smoke if they want,, fair enough not in a retaurant maybe but they can have a smoking room in pubs/ malls etc...

TBF they originally supplied sand boxes for smokers outside the main doors, not the smokers fault.

 

I really fear for my children and their children's liberty. Anything somebody can object to will be deemed antisocial and banned. Life as we know it will cease to exist. Ppl might think I'm over-reacting, but the trend is obvious.

But they don't anymore .

Smokers need to go to a designated area well away from the hospital entrance, that's my only beef..

 

 

another ex smoker on e-shisha's now and I really feel sorry for smokers  I smoked for years and was pleased when I eventually gave up, its really difficult to do. Designated area's should be in place for people who need to smoke and yes its a need that they can't break much like any addiction. 

That's fair Erin, no need to smoke right at the doors but a designated area isn't even being offered now.

 

Our hospital has always had a no smoking policy at the front of the hospital with signs up saying if you wanted to smoke then go to the smoking area......no-one every paid attention to it, they just smoked outside and I never saw anyone being told off.  

I so agree with Olly, and Saint Renton. As Zappa said, "they think if they ban smoking in California then everyone will live forever." Alas no, as JM Keynes said, "in the long run we are all dead."

We were in Prince Bishops Precinct in Durham

An open air street

But were approached by a community womble and told to stub it out!!

I hope you knocked yer pipe out against BHS.

I can't stand the smell, I really hate it when I have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get in to a restaurant or the cinema. I'm not against people smoking but I think there should be designated areas for it, preferably not outside main entrances where non smokers & kids have to walk through it

I wish

Me mate was smoking a lil rollie.

She just continued to smoke after he walked away - ha ha ha!!

I've been there saint, it is open air! I know it's narrow but it's not enclosed, surely that's not illegal

It's a hopeless shopping centre if you are shopping for Mothering Sunday gifts but luckily someone pointed me on the direction of TK Maxx on the estate.

The guy said it wasn't allowed in that U-shaped precinct area!!

Maybe its privately owned? but the street above it ... isn't?

How strange! You sure he was an official community officer type person and not a drunk student?

The point about Durham is that everyone is either, a very posh student, or a pit yacker but.

you're probably right joe!

Did you walk up towards the Cathedral, there are (or used to be some lovely little shops up there).  To be honest it's been a while since I shopped in Durham. The Prince Bishops always makes me laugh as I have an embarrassing memory of when I bumped in to one of my degree tutors in the car park lift as Master Cinds was having a tantrum on the floor because I hadn't fed him McDonalds. (his age at the time, 15), haha no, he was 3.

WHAT!!! 

 

I was was born and raised in Durham, and I went to the University. Does that make me a posh pit yacker?

 

 

I know it sounds awful but for shopping, i prefer the metrocentre. I love Durham for pottering about & getting lunch etc. but I wouldn't set out to shop there, there's hardly any choice.

Are you sure Cinds? I thought you were from the tops.

Ha ha - yep, quite sure - uniform n all that.

Never seen them there before . . . or since come to think of it

Oh no cinds lol how embarrassing, I'm sure the teacher thought no less of you though, all kiddies do that

Well, if Meadowfield is the tops. But seeing as it's only 3 miles from the city centre, I class me as a Durham a girl.

You've described it to a T sweet, it's a great exploring shops city, but not a serious shopping place.

Anyway, getting back on topic. I smoke, I like that we can't smoke inside public spaces, because to be honest other people smoking near me annoys me. I know it sounds odd, but smoke drifting across my face annoys me. 

 

However, when I go outside of a restaurant etc to smoke, I do try to stand away from the door, BUT, quite a few places put the ashtray right next to the door, so unless I want to be a litter bug I have to go back to the door to stub out and dispose of my cigarette butt.

I do enjoy going to Durham once a month or so. Whilst Mrs Jer conducts her business I hit the charity shops and I particularly enjoy the Oxfam music one on the bridge. One of my favourite oriental eating houses is up by the bus station too. Special mention for the M&S which has to be the dingiest in the UK.

Smokers in hospital are treated so badly, everyone knows it's really bad for you and people end up in hospital as a result but it's an addiction. Drug addicts get weaned off or some sort of replacement... Smokers on the other hand are told to deal with it.

I haven't been in Durhams M&S for years (probably 15 or more), so couldn't comment on that. I do however know the Oxfam music shop you're talking about, but if you go back up towards the market place from that shop, and instead of going right towards the market place and head off to the left up saddlers steps, the continue left as if you were gojng up to the Cathedral, about 50 ft or so on your left should be shop called Mugwump, a lovely place (or it used to be) for finding those just a little but different gifts. Opposite, used to be The a University Bookshop, a great place for shoplifting stationary items as a very young teen.

No doesn't sound odd at all... I hate it too .. .I also hate people that don't put a ciggy out properly...  I've always blown my smoke up in the air or away from anyone near me.. and always made sure the ciggy is put out properly too

 

Tho with the cheap baccy rolleys I have to use now  it is harder to keep the things alight  rather than worrying about making sure they are put out properly..  I think it's probably pipe tobacco so is always going out but only tis £8.75 for 50g so cheap as chips especially as I use 1 1/2 filters per rolley as well so even less tobacco per ciggy. .and half always falls out too, usually onto my old tops to create lovely little burn holes 

 

I have a special proper ciggies stash for special occasions... duty free ones various people have got for me.. sometimes it is just nice to have a real cig that stays alight and you don't have to roll yourself

 

I have e cigs but so far cannot make the move over..  they just make me crave a proper cig..  and they are too heavy I find so feel odd, plus I like to know when I have finished my cig and with ecigs you haven't got a clue cos every puff gives you a vape and you never reach the end unless the liquid runs out

I turtelly agree with olly's last para.