There has been a lot of discussion in our province recently about an upcoming vaccine card/passport system whereby people will need to show proof of having had at least one vaccine shot before they are allowed to partake in a variety of nonessential services or activities. Some people are strongly in favour, whereas others are opposed, and some small business owners are quite concerned about being in a position of policing their customers. Regardless of how people feel about this requirement, it seems clear that vaccination rates have had a surge recently, so it seems some folks are willing to forego their vaccination-procrastination or hesitancy in order to access some freedom.
For some reason, this issue has made me think about the experience of smokers. You don’t hear a lot about smoking these days. I suppose we have many other health and environmental crises to deal with. I’m not a smoker myself. Having had asthma from a young age, I was always afraid of any activity that involved purposely inhaling dangerous chemicals. Over the last 4 1/2 decades or so that I’ve been alive, I’ve seen many different approaches to public smoking. I’ve been around long enough to have been on airplanes where they still had ashtrays and smoking sections. I can even remember when it wasn’t considered socially unacceptable to light up in your home with company over. Sometimes, this became a problem for me! I remember visiting my grandparents for dinner get togethers and wondering why I always ended up falling asleep on the couch. It’s probably because I couldn’t breathe properly in the same room as to people who were smoking like chimneys. Because of these and other experiences, I was always in favour of measures to protect non-smokers from the potentially harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
That said, I’ve recently been thinking about this issue from the perspective of the smoker. Interestingly, research on health, well-being, and longevity have suggested that being socially connected might be even more important than being a non-smoker. It seems to me this is poses a major problem for smokers. They can’t smoke inside public spaces, have to be at least 30 feet away from entrances, and are relegated to smoking rooms or areas that are densely packed with other people who are smoking, too. I suppose it could be argued that we have alienated and marginalized a group of people who are already engaging in a pretty risky behaviour. So, it’s like a double whammy for smokers: They might actually be less connected to other people by virtue of smoking, which can be harmful to health, and the smoking itself poses serious health risks. One could argue that, if you’re going to smoke, you might as well do it with other people. Then, at least you’re socially connected, which we know enhances well-being and longevity. I wonder, though, whether exposure to both firsthand and secondhand smoke while hanging out with others is such a great idea. Some people might say, “Why don’t they just quit?” I don’t think you need training and experience in substance use treatment to know the situation is not that simple.
I guess where I’m landing right now is that I would encourage all of us to practice as much compassion as possible for people who smoke, vape, have other substance use problems, are vaccine-hesitant, hate wearing masks, have trouble following COVID regulations, and so on. Even though we might not always agree with all of these folks or what they’re doing, I think it almost always helps to start from a standpoint of mindful acceptance and compassion. ~Alexander L. Chapman, Ph.D., R.Psych