Smoking ban backfiring in Hong Kong:

[docruger]

I found this interesting.
The South China Morning Post reported that although a smoking ban in public places was instituted more than a year ago, smoking rates appear to have risen during that time!

The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department reported the collection of duty fees on cigarettes had increased by an average of almost 12 million cigarettes per month since the smoking ban was instituted.

"I think the smoking ban can prevent second-hand smoke in public places . . .but to motivate people to quit, the government still has a long way to go," said medical sector legislator Kwok Ka-ki. Maybe they could reduce the smoking rate by eliminating the ban?
~ Rich Perelman

[PerpetualNoob]

When I found out that AMSTERDAM had enacted a smoking ban, I knew the world had finally gone totally mad. Maybe I'm just naive, but for my own sanity I have to believe that, deep down, most humans crave freedom, and even though I don't expect to live to see it, there will come a day when there will be so many revolutions going on in so many countries, no one will be able to keep up with all of them. It might take a couple of hundred years before people get that fed up.

[ProBe]

There's a smoking ban in Amsterdam?

[PerpetualNoob]

As of 1/1/2008. That's what all the signage said. I only went through there twice. Oct 2007, then in April 2008. It's a long, long, long flight from Alaska, and one of the only things that kept me sane was knowing that once I got to my layover in Schiphol I could go to the bar for a couple of hours, have a frosty adult beverage or two, and get 'nicced up'. You can imagine my chagrin when, on the second trip, I found out that you couldn't smoke anywhere in the airport anymore. I don't remember the terminology, but if you're transferring between international flights, like me, you can't get out of the airport.

I was on my way to Glasgow. With time changes, it's about 36 hours. I'm an acknowledged tobacco fiend, so patches and lozenges just don't really cut it. BA used to run direct polar flights from here to London in about 12 hours of flight time, but they stopped years ago. Nearly all the routes now take you through Seattle, Milwaukee, and/or Newark. In the Summer, Lufthansa runs a couple of Condor flights a week direct to Frankfurt, if you can get on them. Both times, I could only look out the window in frustration as we flew right over Glasgow, knowing it would take me almost 8 hours to get back there.

[AspiringGent]

In Canada the smoking bans have had a significant decreasing effect on the number of smokers. Who wants to trek outside in the middle of winter to have a cigarette? I suppose Hong Kong is just too warm.