6, i understand and accept your opinion; but i will stick with "hang 'em, shot 'em".
I too am a smoker (bad bad habit, but that's another story). When i fly, i never crave, i don't go "bananas" if i don't have my portion of nicotine. I know it's against the law and if i have to obey the law, the pax have to do it too. And i fly 5 days a week, operating from 2 to 6 sectors daily, or a long and tiring, let's say TFS and back. The pax flies let's say for 2 hrs, he/she gets off, out of the airport, and has a cigarette. Nicotine rush kicks in, pax a happy bunny and not having to pay £1000 fine if he/she decided to smoke in the a/c.
My "hang 'em, shot 'em" attitude will never be seen by pax. It's all in the back of my mind, whilst dealing with the situation accordingly; i never panic, but my immediate thought is what did they do with the cigarette butt. Personally i don't shout, i don't threaten, i simply explain that we know that they've been smoking, it is against the law, and the consequences are such and such and such;isn't that what we're suppose to do?
I know everyone else is watching, which is a great thing because that's how what happened spreads around. Husband goes home and tells wife he was delayed because they caught someone smoking. Wife goes to work and tells her office colleague why husband was late last night. Colleague goes home and tells her sister, who tells her boyfriend and so on. Word spreads around and lesson is maybe learned.
It can't be a rule for some and another for the rest. It will happen again, I'm sure, and more people will be arrested, charged and fined.
Maybe airlines should come up with a(nother) solution to reinforce the "no smoking" issue; since i am not management and i don't really have a say in the operation, i will stick to off loading and arresting until people get the point;
Rgds,
ATS