Better to tackle obesity and drink than smoking

Isuppose it was inevitable. However I, along with many others, have realistic doubts about its effectiveness. The “holier than thou” and the “I can’t understand why” brigades will naturally be delighted at the thought of yet another curb on individuals’ behaviour.

I speak, of course about the proposed ban on smoking in the town centre and other public places.

The idea that banning smoking in the town centre will act as a disincentive suggests that Dr Faiza Khan (KCC’s public health consultant) and his supporters have little or no understanding of the motivation of tobacco addicts.

As soon as a smoker emerges from a “no smoke” zone, he or she will light up. Having, perhaps, been deprived of the opportunity to smoke for a couple of hours, there is an unconscious need to make up the nicotine shortfall – so the first cigarette will very soon be followed by a second and, perhaps, a third.

I know whereof I speak. I was throughout most of my adult life a heavy – up to 80 a day – smoker.

I gave up several times, usually for about 12 weeks. Upon resuming the habit, I found that my daily intake increased well beyond the pre-abstinence level.

I have spoken to many others who followed exactly the same pattern. Because smoking is an addiction (harder to kick than heroin), no ban can have any effect on the user other than to cause resentment and a hardening of attitude. It will certainly not reduce the amount of tobacco consumed and the cost to the health service will remain unchanged.

The annual cost was, according to figures for 2006/07 published by the Journal of Public Health, £3.3 billion.

The figure for dealing with alcohol abuse was the same. Obesity, on the other hand, cost £5.1 billion. If cost to the NHS is truly the overriding factor in the anti-smoking campaign, might it not be better to concentrate on alcohol abuse with its additional cost to the police and courts – and even better to take a serious look at the cost of obesity?

Park Mall has, apparently, been a no-smoking zone for a long time. Curious, then to see an absurd “vote-casting” butt-bin sited there – X Factor (whatever that may be) versus something called Strictly.

And do our masters really believe that their subjects are really as lame-brained as the scheme suggests?

Or is it our masters who are the lame-brains?

‘No ban can have any effect on the user other than to cause resentment’