Spain prepares for anti-smoking laws

On Sunday the 2^nd of January Spain will find that smoking a cigarette with a drink at their local bar - has overnight become illegal. One of the laxest anti-smoking laws in Europe will have become one of the strictest, along with that of Ireland.

Spanish smokers will no longer be able to light up in bars, restaurants and cafes as new legislation takes effect that bans smoking in all enclosed public spaces. It will also be illegal to smoke in children's playgrounds and on school or hospital grounds, according to the law, which received final approval from parliament on December 21.

Spain already has an anti-smoking law, in force since January 2006. But it is less restrictive than that in other European countries, which bans smoking in the workplace, on public transport and in shops. It allows owners of bars, restaurants and cafes to decide whether to allow smoking or not. Most, faced with a drop in business, naturally chose to permit their customers to light up.

The new measures take effect nearly seven years after Ireland became the first European country to outlaw smoking in public places, a move that unleashed a domino effect across Europe in favour of smoke-free bars and cafes.

In the UK smoking has been banned since 2007 and has been enforced strictly and all bars and pubs have slowly complied and people have gotten used to it. It has been reported that since the smoking ban in 2007 half the people who where smoking now have quit.

So what seems like a New Year’s resolution for the UK population will be law for the Spanish. But for people who are considering quitting smoking for the New Year Champix has been a big success since its release an even the Government handing Champix out for people who are considered eligible.

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Spain police catch trafficking gang

Spanish police say that for the first time they have broken up a human-trafficking gang that brought men to the country to work as prostitutes, providing them with Viagra, cocaine and other stimulant drugs to be available for sex with other men 24 hours a day.

Authorities arrested 14 people, mainly Brazilians, on suspicion of running the organization and another 17 alleged prostitutes for being in Spain illegally, the National Police said in a statement Tuesday.

Police inspector Jose Nieto said the case involving the Brazilians was the first in which Spanish authorities dismantled a ring in which traffickers brought in men, rather than women, to toil as sex workers.

The victims, men in their 20s and estimated to number between 60 and 80, were mainly recruited in northern Brazil and saddled with debts of up to euro4,000 ($5,000) as the cost of bringing them to Spain.

Some were duped into thinking legitimate jobs awaited them as go-go dancers or models; others knew they would be working in the sex industry, but not that they had to be prepared for sex around the clock and would be moved from one province to another depending on demand for their services, Nieto told a news conference.

The men had to give half their earnings to the gang, and pay for rent and food in the apartments where they worked.

"If the men complained or caused any kind of problem, the gang leaders would threaten them, even with death," the police statement said.

The arrests were made in recent weeks and the alleged ringleader is a Brazilian based in Palma on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Besides Viagra and cocaine, the men were given marijuana and the club scene drug known as 'poppers', the police statement said.

Sex is a multibillion-dollar industry in Spain, with brothels staffed mainly by poor immigrant women from Latin America, Africa and eastern Europe lining highways just about everywhere and respectable daily newspapers brimming with ads from people selling their bodies. Prostitution falls in legal limbo: it is not regulated, although pimping is a crime.

Thieves steal 2,000-euros worth of Viagra in Malaga

Thieves broke into a pharmacy in Malaga Spain and stole 2,000 euros worth of Viagra and other similar products, as well as 2,500 euros in cash. They entered the pharmacy through the air conditioning unit and through the false ceiling. The pills will probably be sold individually on-line or at brothels, and have a greatly increased value on the black market.

Lately, the number of armed robberies at pharmacies in Malaga has dropped, but the number of break-ins such as this one targeting products for erectile dysfunction treatment has risen.