bil

Fair comment. However I'd guess that per 100 people, more heroin addicts give up that alcoholics.

I've known people who have worked with alcoholics, and all of them said that the only real way to deal with an alcoholic is to give them enough booze so they can drink themselves to death. A little harsh? possibly. I admire anyone who can give up fags, but an alcoholic who truly gives up? Worthy of very serious admiration in my book.

I'd vote for legalisation any day. I'm not saying it would be without problems, but I reckon that on the whole, legalisation would have a legacy of less problems than criminalisation.

We lost 'the war on drugs' the day we made them illegal.

steviedeluxe

The law giveth...and the law taketh away...

Dutch smoking ban has been reversed for smaller pubs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...mall-pubs.html

jimenato

So that's 70 square metres then. Why the hell didn't they say so?

HBG

It tends to be the more intelligent people who are more prone to addictions, especially in literature, music, the arts and politics. In general, insensitive people don’t have a problem with addiction, they get their pleasures from simple things and their minds don’t need stimulating.

Most of the Western Nobel prize winners for literature were alcoholics, modern music was mostly written by people addicted to drugs, the famous painters produced their masterpieces with some help from mind-altering substances, and the West would have lost the biggest wars in recent times without an alcoholic at the helm.

Chiclanagir

My sister-in-law was an alcholic and she never gave it up for longer than a few months at a time.

Stephen King wrote some of his best work when under the influences and he still can´t remember how he did it.

bil

Really? Look at the average smoker/alcoholic. I think there's a flaw in your reasoning. I think that if you are intellectually gifted, then what happens to your mind on drugs may give you inspiration, but I couldn't say I'd recommend it.

HBG

I wouldn’t recommend it either, those gifted people, geniuses in their fields, seem to live horrible lives, blightened by their addictions.

Take the most gifted footballers that have succumbed, Best and Gascoyne, brilliant footballers who couldn’t handle their fame and became laughing stocks.

What about that gifted politician, Wilson’s deputy I think although I can’t think of his name, he blew it when he took to the bottle. So did Kennedy, the Scottish one. The list is endless, everywhere, I sometimes think that you can’t really get to the top unless you’re addicted to something, which sounds stupid but there is evidence all around.

And Obama was still smoking when he was elected, and my sister-in-law here in Spain got hypnotised to stop recently, and she’s lapsed once already.

I just thank my lucky stars that my lungs and liver are still holding out, but I have mistreated both in the past.

steviedeluxe

Apologies if this has already been posted above, but it may be of use to those seeking non-smoking bars/restaurants

http://www.nofumadores.org/ociosinhumos/buscador.asp

665 in Madrid alone!

bil

I just thank the gods that I never started smoking. I have always had a very scientific upbringing, and by the time the fags were on offer, I understood very clearly what they did to you.

George Best. I'm not a football fan, but even I know genius when I see it. I could weep at what that man did with his life.

As for Chucky Kennedy, he might be an alky, but I wish to god he had been PM when the Yanks came calling about Iraq.

HBG

God, how I wish Charles Kennedy had been the PM when the Yanks called. Even more so, I wish another Jock, Robin Cook had been the PM, he would have sent them packing.

Unfortunately we had another Scotsman who has hidden his heritage and even changed his religion in charge and we all know what happened next.

I’ve never trusted turncoats of any sort, or informers, or appeasers, or . . . , I’m down to just trusting my dogs, they’ve never disappointed me.

bil

I'd certainly never trust any politician, but yeah, shame we hadn't had Chucky and Cook up as a team. The Yanks would never have known what hit them.

Trust a dog? Hmmm, I know what you mean, but by god, I wouldn't trust mine near food, that's for sure.