NEWS PRESENTATION

■MLA CITATION
I chose an article from BBC NEWS website about smoking in New Zealand.
No name. “New Zealand to ban smoking in prisons” BBC NEWS. 28th June, 2010. 28th June, 2010.


■OLIGINAL ARTICLE
New Zealand to ban smoking in prisons
Page last updated at 13:07 GMT, Monday, 28 June 2010 14:07 UK

There are fears that the ban will create a black market in tobacco
New Zealand is to ban smoking throughout the country's prisons from 1 July 2011, Corrections Minister Judith Collins has announced.
The announcement has prompted concerns that violence in prisons could increase if prisoners are denied tobacco.
But Ms Collins dismissed the warnings and said high levels of smoking were a risk to staff and prisoners.
About 5,700 prisoners - two-thirds of the current total in New Zealand prisons - are smokers.
The corrections minister said smoking bans had been introduced in prisons in the US, Canada and Australia.
"We don't supply alcohol to prisoners because they are alcoholics, we don't supply them with all sorts of drugs and methamphetamine because they happen to be addicted to methamphetamine," Ms Collins said.
Continue reading the main story
I was swapping my food for cigarettes
Shenelle Ngatai Former inmate
"This is a prison. It's not home. It's actually a prison. So it will be a total ban across all prisons. Not in the cells, not even out in the yard."
Prisoners will also be banned from having matches and lighters which some use to damage property, such as throwing burning balls of toilet paper at guards and setting fires in their cells.
High value
Former inmate Shenelle Ngatai told TVNZ that cigarettes were like gold in prisons, where they are used as currency.
She also said that jails would become more corrupt if cigarettes were taken off prisoners.
Continue reading the main story
It's a toxic dangerous environment, made even worse by such foolishness as this
Michael Bott Human rights lawyer
"I had no money when I was inside. I was swapping my food for cigarettes, not so much starving myself but I survived on them basically."
Denying inmates their "fix" would lead to an increase in violence between desperate prisoners, she added.
Human Rights lawyer Michael Bott agreed that the ban would cause more problems than it might solve.
"They are going to be very frustrated, very dangerous; it's a toxic dangerous environment, made even worse by such foolishness as this," he told 3News in New Zealand.
However, Ms Collins insists that the smoking ban will have other advantages.
It would make it easier to put more than one prisoner in each cell, she said, and reduce the number of prison officers suing the government for being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Prisoners are to be given stop-smoking courses, and nicotine patches, to help them deal with withdrawal symptoms and quit over the next 12 months, reports said.
New prisoners coming in after a year, however, will have to stop immediately.

■SUMMARY
Corrections Minister Judith Collins has announced concerns that prisoners in New Zealand use violence without smoking because most of the prisoner is smokers. The number of smokers in prison is about 5,700, or two-thirds of the total in New Zealand prisons. However, Collins dismissed his announcement and decided to ban smoking in prisons, because smoking bans had been introduced in the US, Canada, and Australia. Besides smoking causes bad effect for staff and other prisoners by second-hand smoke and brings more dangerous things. According to inmate Shenelle Ngatai, cigarettes are like gold for prisoner and use them as currency to exchange food for cigarettes. Prisoner are also suppose to be banned having matches and lighters because they may be throw cigarettes and set fire in prison. The banning will start from 1st july, 2011.

■MY OPINION
Smoking is one of serious problems we have in the world, and it is notorious that smoking bring all human beings on the earth bad effects. Some kinds of countries deal with the matter of smoking to stop decrease such a bad effect. However, I knew, for the first time, that smoking also gave another bad situation in prisons. The news says that prisoners use violence in prison without smoking and that about two-thirds of the prisoners are smokers. That is too say that smoking makes bad criminals in the world. It is also terrible to Use as currency in prison. Another incident may be happened in prison like an illegal trade. Anyway, I agree this idea in New Zealand. I also agree that smoking is banned all over the world. I wait for the time.

■QUESTIONS
1. Are you a smoker? If someone smokes in a small room, can you stand the situation?
2. Should smoking be banned in prison? How about other places, like in restaurant or in public?
3. Do you want smoking to be banned in Japan too?
4. Do you agree or disagree my opinion that smoking is related to criminals? Why?

■VOCABULARIES
1. W: dismiss: to refuse someone’s idea and return it 「却下する」
E: Prime Minister dismissed his own words before.
2. W: methamphetamine: one of stimulated drugs and it makes someone seeing a hallucination, or seeing something that isn’t in real. 「メタンフェタミン」
E: We must not be addicted to any drugs like methamphetamine.
3. W: inmate: a person who is in hospital or prison. 「被収容者」
E: Many inmates are in prison around the world.
4. W: set fire : to make a fire on purpose.　「放火する」　
E: Setting fire is punished heavier than murders.
5. W: withdrawal symptoms: symptoms which people cannot stop by themselves. 「禁断症状」
E: He shows withdrawal symptoms of drugs, so he must be in hospital right now.