Australia might have been slow to accept same-sex marriage, and embarrassingly retarded about energy policy and decent broadband, but we are ahead of the game on getting rid of smoking.
Most drugs are illegal; why one of the most addictive and health-harming ones is not defies rational explanation. It has to be down to the power of the merchants of death, the tobacco companies.
Smoking is much more prevalent in all the places we've been than it is in Oz. Peter reckons the mean space between unpleasant secondary smoking experiences is about 5 metres as you walk the streets. Smoking is banned inside cafes, but the bans are not always enforced. Outside there are ashtrays on every table. In the heat in Vienna and Budapest it was often a toss-up between sweltering inside or suffering smoke from the next table outside. Being inside the cafe wasn't always safe either - if it was hot and the windows were open, smoke blew in. It was depressing to find you couldn't pick who was likely to light up, young or old, male or female, tourists or locals, all likely to pull out a pack of cigarettes just when you thought you were ok. Or a hookah - we've seen a number of these used, particularly in Bratislava.
We share our observations with my niece and nephew-in-law, whose travel path crosses ours in Bratislava. They tell us that they are surprised to find it is just as bad in Berlin. They confirm that smoking is no longer considered cool for Australian high school kids (they have two) so we are leading the world on something.
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