Brian, so many in those jails will be smoking their cigs to possibly ward off their other addictions and tics.

legislating them to stop smoking is only going to cause more grief in the jails.
What sort of clown dreamed that up!

This is typical thinking these days ....I see there are 18,000 youth in just NSW care, without the rest ...these kids are getting short changed as well and apparently 10% are assured space in those jails (so the stats say)

Our system is failing everywhere ...banging these proclamations/stupid rules upon them just confirms with me how lost these officials are.

Watching the news about the family lost in the house fire in Clayton last night ...it crossed my mind that maybe it best some of these so called counsellors NOT counsel these traumatised kids/friends
...I wonder sometimes if these guys extend the trauma ..maybe leave kids to sort things on their own.

Grown ups have no fucking idea themselves afterall! ....look around!

an aside ....Wasn't it always said that Camel were the only cigs that depicted the factory of the packet?
........not as bad as Saratogas ...keep a few of them in your pack for those incessant botters

Don't you believe it? Have a look!
http://guanabee.com/popebcigarette.jpg

Holy smoke!!!

Sue

D'only dope here Sunshine is d'poor butler who took d'wrap.

I heard it after World Youth Day. The barber had a male relative in the police force. He saw the pope walking in the gardens where he was staying whilst enjoying a puff.

One of my adult kids has recently taken to smoking again after being medically advised to stop drinking all together. Though I don't want her to smoke I prefer that to too much drinking!!!

Kids !!!!once you got them they are there for the duration in one way or the other

God Bless
Angela

My best mate used to smoke Camels for the simple reason that nobody bothered to bot his smokes when they ran out. Enda, despite your missives against smokers, you almost make me want to love the man — a fellow addict like meself. I'm waiting for the riots to break out in NSW gaols as they have just begun an experiment this week banning cigarettes in Lithgow Gaol and if successful it will be banned in all NSW gaols. Apparently around 74% of inmates are addicts as against around 17% in the mainstream population. Milly and myself have been trying to give up — principally for financial reasons — for about 12 months with not much success. I lerved the line a columnist wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald the other day about the treatment someone gets smoking in the presence of Madam Lash, the Federal Attorney General and former Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon. Her attitudes are almost enough to drive me back to voting for Tony Abbott again! Little Miss Hitler! It is going to be interesting to see the effect of this experiment in NSW gaols. Apparently the ban has been introduced in other States. The speculation I read in one newspaper report is that this is one law they are unable to adequately enforce in gaols and the prison officers are reluctant to enforce it for understandable reasons for the riots that might ensue. Another regular contributor to Catholica was telling me the other day of his experiments in growing the stuff and also in buying "chop chop". The government has also announced a dramatic increase in the penalties for selling illegal tobacco — something like ten years gaol max.

It has long been evident that many of the poorest people in society are the ones that smoke the most. Also a high proportion of people suffering various forms of mental illness are smokers. The Labor Party sure knows how to "protect the health" of those they are supposed to care about most! One day the penny might drop as to why it is that the poorest smoke the most and why these present policies are misguided. Smoking might kill through diseases like lung cancer but it has also been a saviour for many people for precisely the reasons your mother gave, Enda. That logic seems to have not yet occured to the very intelligent people who have been the driving force behind the anti-smoking campaign for many decades and those who have never been addicted but detest the smell of cigarettes.

There was a rumour went around some years ago about Benedict being a smoker but it was subsequently denied. I'm not sure what to believe these days but, if he is, my respect for him has risen a tiny notch or two today. I don't blame him in the present climate. He's probably smoking more than ever given the lamentable state his institution is now in!

The caption was changed to 'Pope smoking a Joint'.

The original one used the word 'Dope'.

Mary Ab

Good lord never heard it put like that. Golly Gosh.

Macbee

desi

My daughter is here with me helping with her son she just saw the photo and said 'IT LOOKS LIKE A JOINT"!!!

Macbee

Well, if that is true, I think it's great. Being addicted to smoking is a humility. It also means you are not to attached to the body, which is also great.

> If Jesus smoked, it would have been camel.

Oh Francis, you awfuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul

That's because it's a 'not-very-good' Photoshop effort!

desi

I must admitt that looks awful don't you think? I am a shocking smoker myself or is it just because he is the Pope.

Macbee

If Jesus smoked, it would have been camel.

Francis

In case that last post of mine sounds a bit tough on B16 I like him as a man. He seems a sincere thoughtful intelligent priest who was probably encouraged by a doctor to smoke to settle his anxieties. In that he reminds me of my mother.

Enda

Yes he does smoke he asked one of the young Police women for a light when he was out side thinking in the dark when he was here in Sydney she obliged ofcourse then he gave her a rosary the next morning. TRUE STORY!

Macbee

...so it must be right.

I've heard from two different and reliable sources, one a bishop, that B16 is a compulsive smoker and that lately he's been smoking more than ever. I wonder if he smokes roll-your-owns or tailor mades. I mentioned this to an irreverent younger man and he asked, "How does he get through Mass?" Thoughts of different uses for thuribles came to mind.

I realise that last comment is under-graduate humour more suited to Cooees from the Cloister but I find the news of the Pope's addiction interesting and a little disturbing. I know he can smoke if he likes, he's a grown man. I am just intrigued that's all. Compulsive smoking suggests deep anxiety and I am scared of anxious leaders. They often make dodgy decisions.

There is some sort of irony going on here. Maybe it is the Holy Spirit at work. The conservatives wanted Ratzinger as pope because they thought he would be JPII(II) but it turns out he was only the deputy head after all, good at firing the bullets but not at running things himself without someone big behind him.

We live in exciting if worrying times.