Lawyer calls smoking ban “torture”

A lawyer who described a smoking ban at health facilities in West Auckland and North Shore, in New Zealand, as cruel and torturous has told a court hospitals need dedicated smoking rooms, according to a story on Radio New Zealand.

Smoking has been banned on all Waitemata District Health Board sites since 2009.

Two former psychiatric patients and a retired nurse are challenging the ban in the DHB’s mental health units.

Their lawyer, Richard Francois, told the High Court in Auckland on Monday that some psychiatric patients are refusing care because they can’t smoke—which he says shows that the ban is cruel and nothing short of torture.