As if that’s the main or even a significant problem with homelessness. No pleasure is too small for the nannies to ignore.
The nannies write in the New England Journal of Medicine:
Approximately three quarters of homeless adults are cigarette smokers1 — a prevalence 4 times that in the U.S. adult population and 2.5 times that among impoverished Americans in general. The coexisting psychiatric and addictive conditions and life circumstances of homeless smokers have long fueled a fatalistic attitude among health care professionals toward addressing tobacco use in this population. We believe that this approach should change.
I’m not a smoker and I do not like the smell of it, but this insane war on tobacco is beyond reason. Streetcred has a valid point. The same crowd that wants to eliminate tobacco is pushing for pot smoking “rights”. Anti-tobacco has become an obsession that goes far beyond reason or health issues. It’s more about ego.
“No pleasure too small…” for this generation’s Pharisees.
Granted that smoking is perhaps even rougher on the health of those who have other health risks, why begrudge them this small vice?
“The coexisting psychiatric and addictive conditions and life circumstances of homeless smokers have long fueled a fatalistic attitude among health care professionals toward addressing tobacco use in this population.” Maybe the health care professionals recognize that the homeless have bigger problems than smoking and that going after the “small stuff” would be counterproductive. Overcoming the addiction to smoking is tough enough when everything else is going well, I’d sure hate to try it when things are really tough.
The nannies have already caused great distress among patients at psychiatric institutions by banning smoking. They really are callous, sadistic creeps.
When someone is in the middle of a breakdown or psychotic episode is not a good time to increase their stress levels about something which is still (who knows how long for) legal. The same goes for prisoners in jail.
How many academics are pot smokers ? From the evidence available around the traps, there must be an awful number of them … but I suppose that that’s different.