Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors

Smoke gets in your eyes? Still does and is still likely to. One of the more meaningless pieces of legislation here has been that regarding the restrictions on smoking in restaurants, bars and public places. What legislation, you might well ask. In restaurants, if the place is of a certain size, there has to be a no-smoking zone. Under this size (100 square metres), anything goes, and the bar and restaurant owners nearly all have opted for no change. It's a crazy law. It has made virtually no difference. The sale of tobacco is another thing. The change in the law covering this means that no shop, other than the licensed tobacconists (who therefore operate something approaching a cartel), can sell cigarettes - in bulk at any rate. There can still be some machines, but these are just for single packs. The inconsistency in these strands of the tobacco law is glaring. The justification for the change was public health, yet smoking has been largely unaffected in bars and restaurants, while the sale of tobacco has been handed to a few operators who are taking all the benefit. There has been renewed pressure to allow tourist shops to go back to selling tobacco, but it has been unsuccessful.

Tobacco prices are controlled. Go to different "tabacos" and the prices will all be "official prices". Talk about a free market. Price control and control of the means of distribution. It's not wholly unusual; alcohol is sold in some countries under a similar system. But if the prices remained controlled, i.e. there could be no under-cutting, why shouldn't other shops be allowed to derive some benefit? There is, after all, plenty of demand. One only has to look at web forums and the questions about where to get cigarettes, what they cost etc, to know that this is one sale that has been largely left intact while other tourist spend has gone down. The public health argument is totally spurious. Were it not, then the restrictions in bars etc. would be that much stiffer. They are not. And in all this, there is the lead that one might think would be forthcoming from those in the health professions. Look outside a hospital some time, or a clinic, or a chemist. The song goes, more or less, "there is nothing sadder than smokers outside hospital doors". I once had an appointment with a consultant at the Hospital d'Alcúdia. Afterwards I had a coffee at a nearby café. Who should walk past, puffing on a cigarette?

Playing with the market is one thing, and it has been half-hearted and even unfair. Education is the other thing, and that is not working either. Keep on coughing.


QUIZ: Back to normal after yesterday. Today's title - who did it?

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