If you’re indignant that your boss just shut the smoking room and outraged that you have to leave the bar to light up, take heart. Life could be worse. You could be Bhutanese. The tiny, trendy Himalayan kingdom recently became the world’s first nonsmoking nation. Since Dec. 17, it has been illegal to smoke in public or sell tobacco. Violators are fined the equivalent of $232—more than two months’ salary in Bhutan. Authorities heralded the ban by igniting a bonfire of cigarette cartons in the capital, Thimphu, and stringing banners across the main thoroughfare, exhorting people to kick the habit. As if they have a choice.
Meddling with an issue as personal as smoking is always tricky, and politicians err at their own peril. Yet Bhutan’s ban appears to be sticking and with little public outcry. Even the country’s smokers seem resigned to a smoke-free future. “If you can’t get it, you can’t smoke it,” concludes Tshewang Dendup, who works for Bhutan’s only broadcaster. He picked up his smoking habit while studying at Berkeley, but says he is now rapidly “downsizing” his consumption. So, how has Bhutan managed to pull off a nationwide smoking ban while other nations dither? Bhutan is a Buddhist nation, and many Buddhists believe smoking is bad for their karma. Then again, Sri Lanka and Thailand are also predominantly Buddhist, and plenty of people smoke there. Bhutanese officials say that, by banning tobacco, they hope to set an example for the rest of the world. Ireland recently banned smoking in public places, though the sale of tobacco remains legal. Other European countries, such as Norway, are enacting less-stringent smoking bans.
As an ex-smoker I know how difficult it is to quit. Yet there is something to be said for quitting on your own, cold turkey. This however, sets a slippery precedent, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see where it can lead.
Banning smoking is a great idea. In fact, more so even that banning heroine or pot or whatever, because unlike heroine or pot, people can only do so much to smoke illicitly, and if they do, they just won’t be able to do is very often. As Nimby says, even if people in the current generation continue to smoke, the next generation won’t.
#20–Kevin==how are you affected by a sin tax if you don’t engage in the heavily taxed activity?
An honest government is better than a dishonest one unless they are honestly imposing one version of morality over another without much behind it.
Cigarettes may be less addictive enough and too complicated for home grown activities so it might even work===in Bhutan. What more than PROHIBITION do you need to know about before thinking that a government should not outlaw things that many people, even if not a majority but ESPECIALLY when there are a majority of people, that want prohibited substances and activities.
I’d rather a FREEDOM supporting government than an honest one==but why not have both?
#20, kevin,
… blaming smokers for the costs when the economists and real numbers tell us; smokers actually save us a fortune by dying prematurely.
Bullpoop !!!
If you wish to die younger, go for it. What smokers conveniently ignore is the effect their smoking has upon other people. Second hand smoke has been shown to be carcinogenic. That means your smoke may end up killing someone else. Someone who does care about living.
Another place I will never be going to visit.
The number of statists in this thread is alarming.
Hey, let’s ban ice cream, because it makes people fat and die. Better yet, lets ban cars, because people driving them pose a danger to all of us just trying to enjoy the “public space.”
#23. and smokers generally wind up costing the medical system lots of $$$ before they croak.
presumably in the Perfect Libertarian State they will be left by the side of the road to die, but we in the Nanny State insist upon trying to save/prolong their lives.
smokers on Medicare/caid pick the pockets of taxpayers, smokers on private insurance pick the pockets of others insured by the same company, smokers without insurance pick the pockets of everyone who pays the shifted costs.
like they say – freedom ain’t free.
I’d support such a ban in the US, too. (with a slow phase-out, of course.)
I also understand that this will never happen, and puts me at odds with the many legalize drugs guys on this board.
Obama is a smoker. He received a ton of votes in the election. McCain didn’t even bother to try to raise the subject as an issue.
No one really cares about smoking as an issue.
I don’t get it. Why the hell don’t they make Nicotine and any other adictive substancase a ‘controled substance.’ and ban that instead of the ciggarettes.
Ohh… Nooo… that would make sense.
Damn Liberal commie wackos and conservative corporate whore Nazi’s getting in the way of common sense.
47% literacy rate, smallest economy in the world, the current king postponed ascending to the throne 2 years because of astrology. Yep, a well run country.
ROFL
Dvorak,
As a Bhutanese, firstly the news is very old, been over 2 years now. Secondly the irony is that marijuana grows wild and all over the country. Who needs to smoke cigarettes.
Great posts by the way.
- Bhutanese
@Paddy – O: the literacy rate is 54% not 47%, not that it is something to be proud of. LOL
#31
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 47%
male: 60%
female: 34% (2003 est.)
Maybe it was averaged incorrectly.
HARRR.
Im smuggling a few keys of American Spirits next time I travel.
get your organic Non GMO cigs here.
$50 an OZ