Bhutan Boo-Boo

Posted on January 21, 2011 by sensiblesmoker

Some really sweet stuff has come out of Bhutan, a constitutional monarchy of 700,000 souls nestled in the Himalayas.

Bhutan’s progressive monarch (until this January when his son was crowned)  constructed a Gross National Happiness index, to be used alongside the Gross Domestic Product index. The countryside is largely untouched by globalization and by most of the 20th Century. Bhutan has become a symbol of an unspoiled Shangri-La-ish place the Millennials can put down the heavy mantles of their multi-tasking century.

But look fast, guys, I heard a radio news story about break dancers in Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital.

And there’s a danger that threatens the Happiness quotient even more than butt cracks from low-riding pants: The Evil Weed, Tobacco.

Bhutan has enacted some of the harshest laws and penalties in the world for tobacco use Smokers are limited to 200 cigarettes per month, 15 cigars or 150 grams of loose tobacco.

Bhutan’s smoking rate is 12 percent, about half of that in highly regulated Western countries like the U.S.

Bhutanese smokers may be required to show receipts that they obtained their tobacco legally. Merchants will have to show their records to police, too. They better. Selling or possessing illegally imported tobacco is a felony in Bhutan, subject to three or five years in prison.

Bhutan’s leaders say they want to be the first smoke-free country in the world. To that end, the country is training tobacco-sniffing dogs to ferret out contraband in people’s homes and businesses.

The Bhutanese authorities argue convincingly that plenty of countries ban other drugs (like heroin and/or alcohol) that kill fewer people than tobacco.

To those authorities, the Sensible Smoker might say: “The government should not persecute what any individual does that is risky – and should not assume that individuals do not have good reasons for the choices they make.”

For government authorities to promote, subsidize, even cajole people into making “good” choices is great. But our leaders must always remember that “One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.” Or more precisely, “One man’s toxin may be another man’s medicine.”

“Tobacco is garbage, ” they answer. “Garbage in – Garbage out!”

But GIGO doesn’t work when assessing human beings, who may have a vastly different view of what constitutes “Garbage.”

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Bring Back the Smoking Parlor

Posted on January 9, 2011 by sensiblesmoker

After dinner, the men would retire to the parlor with their cigars and brandy, while the women sipped tea and sherry in the drawing room.

This seems quaint, but practical, to the Sensible Smoker.

Why not designate one room of the house as a smoking parlor?

The amount of airflow to the rest of the house is up to you to design and implement.

One old man smoked in his parked car in the rainy dark at night. His loving wife was so concerned about his health, she forbade smoking anywhere in the house. He shivered and sneezed.

Here’s a wooden sign company that seems smoke friendly and can help you make sure non-smokers are forewarned.

Having a smoking parlor does fly counter to conventional “wisdom,” that “there is no safe level of secondhand smoke.” This makes cigarette smoke run counter to the physics that pertain to all other toxins, that dilution makes them less lethal.

Here’s a tough cookie sheet on that score

This one argument – that it is a fool’s errand to dilute the amount of secondhand smoke in an indoor area where smoking is allowed – reminds me mostly of 1) religious fanaticism, 2) political fanaticism and 3) racist fanaticism. Is there such a thing as 4) public health/scientific fanaticism?

1)  In one second, with one sin, you can damn your soul for all eternity.

2) Once a member of a suspect political group, you are forever “the other.”

3) One drop of African-American blood makes you no longer white (but not vice versa).

4) Diluting the amount of secondhand smoke through ventilation and filtration does not even begin to address health concerns.

Will they at least let us smoke if we call the parlors “(wo)man cave(s)?”

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Plus One

Posted on January 2, 2011 by sensiblesmoker

In the kitchen of a 1970’s Berkeley, California urban hippie commune, a hand-lettered sign above the sink read, “Wash Your Own and One More,” referring to dirty dishes.

The “Your” was probably a big deal for these guys. They didn’t believe in private property to the point that the eight or so people who shared the three-bedroom house had no “bedroom” or even “bed” of their own. Nightly, each would sleep in the room and bed furthest from the central activity in the living room and kitchen, with more berths becoming available as the action slowed down.

That seemed weird – I like a pillow that smells like my hair. The hippies, however, had no trouble identifying “Your” dirty dish.

The sign over the sink impressed me. Elegantly utopian. “Wash your own and one more.”

I think these 20th Century evil, reviled hippies had a message for us 21st Century evil, reviled smokers when it comes to tossing our butts on the ground.

Unsightly piles of cigarette butts on the ground are yet another reason for non-smokers (and even some smokers) to want to restrict “Designated Smoking Areas” to more and more god-awful and unsheltered places.

Littering is a problem, though, that has an elegantly utopian solution, “Pick Up Your Own and One More.”

Smokers would serve their own cause if they kept designated smoking areas tidy, vile as the location of these smokers’ Gulag may be. It gives us the best chance to negotiate more pleasant “Designations.”

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Dutch Genius

Posted on December 17, 2010 by sensiblesmoker

In the mid 90’s, at the height of the U.S. War on Drugs —  when cops and district attorneys were seizing old people’s farmhouses because their grandson kept his stash in their basement, while other people were being imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole for selling pot — I went to Holland for a breath of sanity.

The Dutch have been a refuge for the persecuted since before the Pilgrims. In fact, the Pilgrims fled England and hung out in Holland for a few years to catch their breath before heading to Plymouth Rock. Some people think the best parts of American freedoms can find their origins in the Netherlands.

These hearty folk were no different toward marijuana – the Dutch have long tolerated the operation of regulated “coffeeshops” that sell coffee, snacks and pot and allow customers to imbibe all three on-site. I remember sitting in the sweet smell of one coffeeshop and thinking, “It’s not the pot that’s intoxicating, it’s the freedom.”

In the 15 years since, the Dutch have been praised and as often criticized for their tolerance of sex, drugs and rock and roll. The Dutch, like most of the rich world, have become more conservative in general in recent years, but in relative terms, they are still a bastion of tolerance and I think, the courage to stand up for their beliefs.

But even my favorite Lowlanders couldn’t resist the world-wide onslaught on tobacco, and the above mentioned coffeeshops were left with the existential task of explaining to their customers why they could smoke a joint, but not a cigarette.

Then, in a miracle unmatched in recent times, the Dutch have actually rolled back a corner of their three-year-old anti-smoking law to permit smoking in small, owner-operated pubs that have no employees.

I know this seems like “Duh,” but they actually did it! Pub owners said their businesses – especially Mom-and-Pop places outside the big cities — had been devastated because their smoker-customers decided to abandon the now non-smoking albeit home-like atmosphere of the pubs for their actual homes that didn’t need an albeit.

And the authorities listened! Wow! I’m impressed!

Here’s two people commenting on the BBC.  One pro, one con. One practical and speaking to the issue, the other mostly expressing emotional platitudes. Guess which one is which!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9285000/9285436.stm

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