Smoking habits in Gozo

Abstract

Mere males all over the world have felt the need to resort to the soothing powers of smoking. Ever since the weed was introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh from the New World, smoke has filled salons, bars, buses and offices, and its noxious smell has lingered on men, their clothes, and their hair. In Gozo and Malta we seem the have, since the war, caught up with a vengeance with the rest of the world of smokers. The Maltese islands share with the UK the dubious honour of being among the heaviest smokers in Europe. The author blames this on the nasty habit which emanated from the U.K.controlled Dockyard during the War period when cigarettes were distributed like confetti to unsuspecting workers, in great quantities, as a way of keeping them happy and under control. The result is that Maltese (and Gozitan) males are now well and truly hooked and show a very considerable weakness and susceptibility to the weed.