ninebob said:
Let me be quite clear here. I do not like being a smoker, and am about to embark on the giving up process, again, and hopefully be successful.
If that's what you want, then I sincerely hope you succeed, but don't think I'm judging you because you smoke - I've only been talking about smoking whilst driving.
However -
1. Smoking is not a drug which impairs driving or any other ability. Quite conversely, nicotine is a short-term stimulant. I get the impression that you're comparing it to driving under the influence of alcohol, which is an untruth.
I've not mentioned alcohol at all. However, nicotine is an addictive drug, and as such impairs the ability of addicts to rationally and dispassionately understand the pros and cons of using that drug while doing something else (e.g. driving).
2. As you have already stated you're not a smoker, you'll be unaware of the mechanics of the addiction. If you'd read Allen Carr's excellent book, you'd understand that to a smoker, the state one is in whilst smoking a cigarette is, to the smoker, one of absolute normality.
I can understand that reasoning, and I can even accept it. However, my observation that, of the cars that I see being driven with poor concentration,
most of the drivers are holding either a cigarette or a mobile phone, remains valid.
It isn't necessary for me to explain the mechanics of those lapses in concentration, any more than I need to explain why pheasants invariably run away from cars closing in on them instead of simply flying away - as if they've temporarily forgotten that they can. Challenging me to explain why pheasants appear to be, for want of a better term, mind-numbingly stupid, is pointless, because understanding it, or not understanding it, won't change their behaviour.
A smoker driving whilst deprived of his nicotine fix is a much more dangerous proposition.
OK. If it would make them safer then I advocate that smokers do nothing but smoke whilst driving.
I therefore ask again, having removed the perception that we're driving along in a drug induced state - how is it more dangerous - physically - to occasionally raise a cigarette to one's mouth, than it is to change gear, or operate other controls within the car?
You haven't removed any perception, but that aside, I suggest that it's for you to explain it. I've never said that it's more dangerous, or even that it's dangerous.
markie said:
I think i've started a war between smokers and no-smokers
Or between a drug-user and someone who hasn't drunk any alcohol, or smoked, even passively, for more than 24 hours.