Mental hospitals get smoking ban
Finally i’ve found some time to write about this news item. As of the 1st July 2008 all mental hospitals will be fully smoke-free. This is in stark contrast to prisons which for some reason are exempt of this. I think this an outrage.
Normally i’m strictly no smoking, it’s bad for you and the people around you, yadda yadda. But this is another story in the news where i compelled to go against my stance and complain the other way round (the other one being about needing a smoking license).
I happen to have experienced life in a mental hospital first hand as a patient, i’m not ashamed to admit it, it wasn’t fun but it got me better. I’ve rebuilt my life after those dark times and now it’s quite frankly rosy at the moment. I myself turned to smoking roll ups in there. Why? I don’t know i was rather ill. But smoking is like a form of security, of normality as it were. You go in smoky room with others and it’s almost therapeutic and you feel you belong to the other group of smokers, a simple stress relieving right. Without a shadow of a doubt the smoking room was the busiest room in the hospital. Your symptoms multiplied by the side effects of medication means that smoking is a sanctuary away from your situation. Put it this way i certainly wouldn’t want patients to be bereft of this freedom.
70% of mental health patients are smokers. That’s a lot of people’s liberties taken away! Also lets point out that it isn’t just the patients that use the smoking rooms. The staff are as much frequent smokers as they are.
I really feel for the patients after 1st July. Mental episodes are stressful enough without this being enforced.
BBC – Smoking ban in mental hospitals
3 comments
Taking away the patients smokerooms in mental hospitals or forcing cessation advice down their throats is State Approved Torture and should not be allowed.
I think to do this to people who have enough trouble trying to cope with everyday life is out of order. Smoking to some people is their only stress relief and taking this away from them will only lead to more stress on the patients and even the staff.
Well ive been a smoker for about 10 years now and ive been kinda blow away about these bans, so my friend introduced me to this CROWN7 smokeless cigarette. I fell in love with it. I still get the same effect as i would a regular cigarette, and i dont smell like an ashtray. And best of all i think is that they all come in flavors. Id highly recommend CROWN7 to anyone who thinks these bans are as unfair as i do.
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