Ontario’s Smoking Laws in Hospitals
For the past few years, the Ontarian government has established a no-smoking law to discourage people from smoking. It is illegal for people to smoke in a public building, and on public property, due to the fact that they contribute their second hand smoke to others. Recently the government went as far as banning smoking in hospitals, moving patients down the street to smoke their cigarettes. This is wrong on three counts. They are trying to relinquish a habit from the people, which they have been practicing for years. As all smokers know, old habits die hard, and it is not easy to quit smoking. It’s like asking a woman with PMS to stop eating candy bars. Secondly they are forcing the old, sick, and dying out the doors of their comfort zone, and down the streets in their wheelchairs and walkers. Does the government really think that they’ll be able to not only push out the patients, but also the staff, from a building they’re tax dollars paid for? There is also the fact of uncooperative patients who don’t want to be in the hospital. The first chance they get, they could run away, making it a difficult, and costly task to retrieve them. Abolishing smoking rights in a hospital is one thing, but making the patients walk down the street just so they can have a cigarette, is another.
If the government thinks establishing a non-smoking ban in hospitals is going to help Ontario butt out, they’re wrong. People will do what, and when they like. Just because the government puts a law on something, doesn’t mean the people will follow it. So what if a person lights up on hospital grounds? What is the staff going to do when our taxes pay their salary? In my opinion, the hospitals should be setting up smoking tents on the grounds, so that the patients aren’t far from the door. The government is being very senile about this law. Not only are they putting patients out in the cold, but the staff as well. The government of Ontario clearly has not thought things through on this particular matter. They are discouraging people from smoking, when cigarettes are the products they collect the most tax of. Putting the sick, seniors, and staff off hospital grounds is particularly cruel. In doing so, I hope the hospitals are prepared to supply their patients with jackets, and to make sure their parking lots, walkways, and sidewalks are paved, sanded and shoveled each season to avoid a lawsuit. On top of all these issues the hospitals will either have to spare staff for when the patients are out smoking to supervise them, or hire people who can. Letting patients leave the hospitals puts them more at risk of getting sick. It has been about a month since this particular law has taken place, and already you can see where they have placed their smoking areas. Neighborhoods that have reknowned reputations for being family oriented, safe, and clean for their children, are now littered with cigarette butts and cups.
Kicking the patients out of the hospital increases their chances of escape. In Canada a person has the freedom to leave whenever they can, if a doctor gives them permission to do so. However, when a patient disappears it is up to the hospital, and law enforcement to retrieve them. Not only is this a costly process, but it also takes much needed time away from our law enforcement. Families would be upset with the hospitals and there would be much controversy over this issue.
Personally, I can see where the government is coming from, but the fact is they are kicking sick, and dying patients off the premises just because they have a controversial habit. Is it really justice to refuse a dying man or women a last request to have a cigarette, without having to be wheeled outside and down the street? It is only moral to give a sick or dying person something in their time of need. People have been smoking for years, and it is not just something they can quit right away. Are you really going to tell a doctor who has been in surgery for eight hours, to put out his cigarette when his patient died? This matter is something all Canadians should be reviewing and thinking about. Patients have the right to smoke on hospital property. They pay for their visits to the hospital, not to be stuck out in the cold, and down the road.
I'm katrina Johnson
*Look out tomorrow for the modest proposal Essay*
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