Dutch smokers thrown out the door
AMSTERDAM -
Some bars hosted smoking parties to mark the end of indoor
cigarette use on Monday night. Smokers counted down to midnight,
taking their last puffs inside and trading cigarettes for lollipops
or heading outside after the clock struck 12:00.
It was a balmy evening, perfect for sitting outdoors anyway.
"I think it is good that they have started today in the summer
because that way everybody can get used to it, so that come winter
everybody will have grown used to not smoking," Willem Klaas, a
smoker from Amsterdam, told AP Television News.
Cigarettes already are banned in public places including train
stations and office buildings, so workers take uncomfortable smoke
breaks outdoors in this often chilly, wet country.
But the powerful restaurant and cafe lobby won a one-year
reprieve on a mandatory ban. A voluntary program of smoke reduction
was found to have little impact.
As of Tuesday, restaurant owners have been warned they face
escalating fines for repeated offenses of the anti-smoking law.
But Chris Krikken, spokesman for the Food and Wares Authority,
said authorities would study compliance and issue warnings for the
first month.
The tobacco ban also applies to marijuana cafes, known as coffee
shops, where smoking cannabis is tolerated even though it is
technically illegal.
Customers who like to mix their weed with tobacco will have to
find another way to smoke, or take it outside.
The Health Ministry has said it will not be targeting the
marijuana bars any more than any other bar or cafe.
Under a long-standing policy, authorities do not press charges
for the possession of up to 0.176 ounces (five grams) of marijuana.
Registered coffee shops may have up to 500 grams (17.56 ounces) of
marijuana in stock at any one time.
"It's the world upside down: In other countries they look for
the marijuana in the cigarette. Here they look for the cigarette in
the marijuana," said Jason den Enting, manager of the Dampkring
coffee shop.
Nearly 30 percent of people in the Netherlands smoke tobacco,
according to World Health Organization.
Experts say smoking bans in other countries have greatly
improved public health. Onno van Schayck, a professor of preventive
medicine at the University of Maastricht, said the number of heart
attacks dropped by 10 to 30 percent after bans in Italy and the
United States.
Van Schayck said Tuesday's measure was a major health step for
the Netherlands. "The ban in railway stations and the working
environment, we call that a little ban," he said.
The broader ban could help people quit, he said. If they don't,
"one out of two smokers will die because of that addiction."