From smoker to leper

 

On 1 July, 2007, a ban on smoking in any enclosed public space and in the workplace was put in place in England; anyone found breaking it would incur an on-the-spot fine of £50. There had been prior warning by the UK Government of this eventuality, and massive advertising campaigns were conducted to alert the general public. In fact, much of the United Kingdom had imposed a smoking ban beforehand. Scotland led in March 2006; Northern Ireland and Wales followed in April 2007. So everyone pretty much knew that England was to follow suit shortly after, even though there was massive uproar when the smoking ban took effect. Obviously this applied in hospitals which would be an obvious and right assumption.

I have to say that the UK Health Services has taken one great leap forward in euthanasia awareness regarding to the unfortunate minority of the remaining smokers in our world applying what appear almost like extreme intolerant rightwing type rules void of any humanity or understanding.

I visited my very sick father today at one of Northern Ireland’s biggest and supposedly best hospitals and was amazed to see a line of some very ill people standing outside in freezing temperatures wearing only pyjamas and bathrobes. Yes, they looked sad and foolish, you could even say they were asking for trouble but something inside me made me wonder.

 

Some of them were fortunate to have a blanket brought up by a relative who stood by their ageing mother or father watching them slowly become status of ice. I was reminded of The Jesus of Nazareth Move and the lepers cast out of the village seeing all those people in night gowns and blankets.

As a poet I guess I could see the artistic side of it all, I mean some looked rather noble with their long spear like metal pole fluid drips and winding plastic tubes on wheels held along side them like brave warriors guarding the entrance to some ancient palace or ready to do battle like a line of multicoloured Zulus standing there without emotion, the only thing missing was they had no shields and Zulus didn’t have the benefit of wheel chairs or oxygen cylinders. However, wait! They did have witch doctors amongst them!

 

As I neared the line towards the main entrance I could see that some patients were accompanied by nurses and other hospital workers who also shared their smoking addiction.

In a world full of xenophobic rules of equal rights and the all important “tolerance for all” I could not understand why so many unwell people had to brave the elements of a freezing January day just to have a smoke. Not now in the 21^st century, surly not.

 

Of course the medical profession will say they provide nicotine patches and this is a solution to the problem of “NO SMOKING” yet, somehow that didn’t seem to add up for me. Not for someone who was battling an illness or recovering from an opp. I really think that trying to kick the habit was not the first thing in their heads right now; it wasn’t the number one priority. No, I think rather it was to get a little mental relief, a comfort in their eyes to cling to in a cold world- the only way they had at the moment while they had to endure their present ill health.

We can all be critical and say “yes, but they make their own choices and they should know better. We could say that they bring it upon themselves and in a way they do. But doesn’t the fact that these people are willing to brave the cold for a drag tell us that they have a problem that we aren’t helping them to address.

I don’t know what it’s like else where in the world but these laws seem to be taking over our freedom. I got a letter just last week to my company stating I had been fined £50 because some JOBSWORTH had spotted one of my engineers smoking alone inside a company van. This is the law! All smoking is illegal in the work place and because he was in a marked commercial van he was breaking the law.

 

How far do we take this? I don’t mean there shouldn’t be a law to stop smoking,

What I am saying is there has to be a limit. A limit to how far we allow ourselves to be policed by our own rules and a measure by which we allow the addict to go especially at a hospital. No mater how wrong smoking is before we try to approach the problem of smoking we must understand and address the issue facing the reality that smoking is a social addiction and has at one time, been promoted by the very people in government who demand their followers now stand outside while they turn a blind eye or spend time surfing the net for other addictions!!!

The smoker is definitely wrong they are in denial and are killing themselves and others.

That’s true enough but if we were put in their shoes, or should I say slippers? Would we have the will to do the politically correct thing and just stop “dead”? Would we feel strong enough to cope with nicotine with drawl along side our cancer treatment, crippling pain associated with so many sicknesses or struggle with the inevitable malfunctions of old age? Because let’s face it, we all have it coming we all have to go the same road and it’s amazing what you will do for a tiny peace of relief in your latter days. You may find in your time you will grasp and any small comfort legal or illegal to ease your pain.

 

Don’t get me wrong I detest smoking and cigarettes especially. The smoke that gets in my clothes and hair make me feel nauseous but that really isn’t the issue.

These people are drug addicts in essence and if they were on heroin they wouldn’t be told to stop cold turkey and stand outside. They would be given methadone by needle not a skin patch for  an alternative to a life long mentally and physiological habit. They would be given rather something fully addressing the problems of withdrawal at least to ease them of the drug with less stress and that’s with patients that have no other ailments. I am almost positive in assuming they would not say to them go outside in the cold and we will give you methadone there because the law says “No Drugs in the Building”

Why can’t they designate ventilated rooms with proper extractor fans to at least allow the patient to stay warm? Isn’t that a basic human right and the proper approach to medical help? Or should I say isn’t that being a little bit more understanding of the patient’s addiction needs to something that we all agree is nasty and not nice, fatal and damaging to others. Don’t they have proper facilities and somewhere to administer the rehab drug?

Couldn’t they employ that same nurse that stands smoking with them to help the addicts (and themselves) to work out a plan, a rehabilitation program or system to get away from the problem?

I have seen many times nicotine addicted medical staff standing in hidden better sheltered doorways than you would put a dog out in.  I mean to say it would look right having a white coat stand out front smoking a cigarette but it’s fine for the patient in their night clothes.

Is sending them out in the cold really the answer despite all the alternatives like patches which do not address the complete physiology of the act of smoking, we all know that smoking is actually psychologically harder to get off because of the physical addition involved here.

 

You don’t hold a heroin needle between your fingers as part of the trip but you do hold a cigarette and like it or not this in itself is just as much a part of the addition and the chemical side, something the brain associates as part of the addiction.

 

Even I can understand it as a none smoker when I watch a movie how the way the actor holding a cigarette in his or her hand looks somewhat appealing and attractive even compelling to a small degree. It’s like asking someone not to flick back their hair if it’s in their face unless you go outside.

Do you get my drift here or am I being clouded in smoke? I don’t know but I feel that unless the guys that sit in warm offices deciding laws that logically seem right and medically correct yet they do not take any consideration for the human factor. Unless these people try to understand all of the problem I feel we will be in danger of looking back in 100 years and telling our children how they used to let people freeze to death with acute liver failure sitting in a wheel chair to have a smoke out side the shiny new front doors of the City Hospital. Advertising to the world there only comfort (be it a vice) left in their life has become part of the Hospitals entrance area.

 

I donno about you but when I walk up to the front doors of a hospital these days I really do feel like bringing along with me an extra coat or two! I wouldn’t allow this to happen at my office building if only for the bad image it portrays of my business.

 

Front entrance doors to hospitals in the UK these days resemble to me the entrance to the local town fish markets only the shopper are dressed for bed and have to look generally ill as a basic rule to get in!