Support the Right to Smoke

SA HEALTH DEPT. POLICY OF DISCRIMINATION

The F.R.E.E AUSTRALIA PARTY considers the recent moves by the publicly funded health department to impose a forced ban on a particularly vulnerable section of society when the same ban is not imposed on the larger community to be not only discriminatory and undemocratic, but also imposes a disproportionate level of suffering on those who are already suffering enough.

The F.R.E.E AUSTRALIA PARTY supports the Right of those recovering from addictions to alcohol and illicit substances to smoke cigarettes in publicly funded detox and rehabilitation facilities. As a result of the health departments decision, taken without consultation, many of those who would normally obtain help are now being pushed back out onto the streets due to a hard-line stand against the smoking of cigarettes while withdrawing from alcohol and illicit substances. To take away the Right to smoke without adequate referral to other services, which do permit their Rights to remain, is contrary to the Public Service Code of Conduct to provide best practice to those seeking such help. The choice to smoke should not be coerced off the sick and vulnerable by the threat of non-treatment from publicly funded health facilities when they seek assistance. It is a policy which in effect removes freedom of choice from an already dis-empowered section of society.

This policy of discrimination also affects those suffering from mental health issues as they too are also targeted, and are now being forced to stop smoking regardless of claims by those who work most closely with them that smoking cigarettes has a calming affect on those suffering from Schizophrenia and similar problems.