Is smoking in Costa Rica becoming outdated?
I grew up in a smoker’s family. The ashtrays were huge in our house. To quit smoking, was the most difficult thing I have done in my life. First I tried patches, gum, acupuncture, and other methods. I quit by using Champix (also called Chantix). By then, I was smoking 2 1/2 packs a day.
Since 2012, you cannot smoke in public places in Costa Rica. This makes smoking in Costa Rica almost impossible. If you are a smoker and living in Costa Rica, there’s no fun in it anymore. Imagine they forbid eating hamburgers, pizza, hot dogs, or french fries!
Now, you are only allowed to smoke in your own private home or on the public street. Costa Rica congress promoted a ban on smoking in February 2012 that was signed on March 22nd, 2012 by Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla. The name is Ley General de Control del Tabaco y sus efectos nocivos en la salud – #9028
Public Places
Malls, shopping centers, restaurants, bars, casinos, and every public place you go, you need to walk to the public road to have a smoke. This law prohibits smoking in public places as well as any advertising by tobacco companies.
The tobacco companies now also have to put preventive warnings on the cigarette packages, which they have been doing in most countries in the world for a long time.
To quit smoking in Costa Rica is one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life. When we grew up, smoking was part of the culture in the society of those days. Like most of my friends smoked pot at the time. I never did because I smoked cigarettes, pipe, and even cigars for a while. In my family, everyone smoked, and we had huge ashtrays everywhere in the house. Fortunately, our family was a very sporty one too, so we kept reasonably clean lungs. I thought… My dad died of lung emphysema.
Chewing gum?
I remember, when visiting friends in Los Angeles – California many years ago, a security guard told me to smoke my cigarette an x amount of feet away from the mall. Isn’t that exaggerating? I was outside and did not bother anyone with my cigarette smoke.
Now, as a non-smoker, I understand much better why people mind someone else’s smoke. But I also think that people should be able to keep some of their freedom. As long as they don’t bother anyone else with their smoke. If you ban smoking, you should also ban chewing gum. You must have had someone else’s chewing gum under your shoe or even worse, in your hair?
Overweight or Smelly?
And, they shouldn’t allow overweight people to make my flight uncomfortable by putting me next to him.
Or people who stink because they haven’t seen a shower in their 3-week vacation in Costa Rica. Believe me, I can go on like this for a while. Ever had a person with a terrible garlic smell on her breath during an 8-hour flight next to you? I have…
Where to draw the line?
I know that a lot of people who read my blogs will not agree with what I am going to say, especially those who never had to try to quit smoking.
To prohibit people to smoke in places where they do not bother others with their smoke is taking away part of their fundamental right to freedom. Up to what point should a government tell its citizen how to live, what to do, and what not?
Soon, the government might tell me that I am not allowed to smoke in my own home in Costa Rica, because it bothers the neighbors. Or tell us we cannot weigh more than 150 pounds because being heavier than that we are costing the public health system too much money? Or you can’t drink coca-cola anymore because it’s not healthy.
Where to draw the line? I think smoking is a personal decision and as long as you don’t bother anybody else, second-hand smoking isn’t an issue.
Public ashtrays
With the ban on smoking in Costa Rica, malls and office centers are not very loved by smokers. If you go to places like Avenida Escazu, where there are many restaurants, a smoker has to walk all the way to the public road to have a smoke after dinner. But if you walk out of the restaurant, you are already in the open air, so what’s the difference? It’s like that guard in Los Angeles who told me I couldn’t smoke on the sidewalk…
I see people at large office centers like Forum that have to walk almost a mile to get to the public road to get a smoke. How many times a day do they do that? The incredible part is that those office centers don’t install ashtrays outside their gates. So there are thousands of cigarette butts that are blown away by the wind and end up in gutters and rivers. Nobody seems to be bothered by that!
Unhealthy?
Listen to this: Since July 2020, it’s not allowed to smoke tobacco or a joint mixed with tobacco in the Dutch coffeeshops. So you’re allowed to get stoned out of your mind, but you’re not allowed to smoke a regular cigarette. The world is getting crazier, or is that my view on the world?
My opinion: smoke all you want but don’t bother me with it. And a request to all public places and those who signed the ban on smoking: install ashtrays so we keep Costa Rica clean of cigarette butts.
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