Tobacco use in prisons
BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g4946 (Published 05 August 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g4946
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Dear Madam
Ritter holds the individual freedoms of prisoners in higher regard than the health of smoking and non-smoking inmates and officers alike (1).
There is no fundamental human right to smoke (2), even when the law permits it outside jail. Alcohol is legal in almost every country yet it is universally banned in prisons. Does Ritter consider this "discriminatory"?
Calls for "harm-reduction" measures and "treatment" for smokers in prisons, on par with procedures in place for opiate and alcohol misusers, are misguided. Cigarettes do not cause sudden death through overdose or serious infections from single use, while acute withdrawal does not cause death or even significant morbidity.
Binswanger and colleagues' paper only confirms the obvious (3). But it must surely herald an end to the exemption of prisons from recent legislation ridding workplaces of smoke across much of the Western world.
I beg to remain, Madam, your most obedient servant,
Dr Richard Braithwaite
Consultant Psychiatrist
Isle of Wight NHS Trust
St Mary's Hospital
Newport
Isle of Wight
PO30 5TG
1. Ritter C, BMJ 2014;349:g4946
2. R (G) v Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and others [2008] All ER (D) 267 (May) http://www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/catalogue/eDownloadDoc.aspx?filename=34...
3. Binswanger IA et al, BMJ 2014;349:g4542
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: Tobacco use in prisons
Is it Tobacco ? Nicotine ? Use ? Abuse ?
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Catherine Ritter ( BMJ : 05 August 2014 ) focuses the attention of the reader to a ' long neglected public health problem '.
However, it is imprecise whether the subject is tobacco or nicotine and the object is reduction of use or abuse. The reader is left to second guess.
My guess is that the presenter is well intentioned though clarity is short changed.
Competing interests: No competing interests