Posted on 10/10/2007 4:54:57 AM PDT by IrishMike
During Prohibition, making and selling liquor was illegal, but drinking it was not. With tobacco, we are moving toward the opposite situation, where it will be legal to make and sell cigarettes but not to smoke them.
A smoking ban recently approved by the city council of Belmont, Calif., a town halfway between San Jose and San Francisco, is so sweeping that saying where it does not apply is easier than saying where it does. Smoking will still be allowed in tobacco shops, in automobiles, in some hotel rooms, in private residences that do not share a floor or ceiling with other private residences, and on streets and sidewalks, assuming you can find a spot that is not within 20 feet of a smoke-free location.
That may be hard, since Belmont's smoke-free areas include not only buildings open to the public but outdoor locations where people wait, such as ATM lines and bus stops, or work, such as construction sites and restaurant patios. But a smoker who despairs of finding an outdoor area where smoking is allowed can still light up even if he does not own a car and is unlucky enough to live in an apartment or condominium. He just has to land a role in a theatrical production "where smoking is an integral part of the story."
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles suburb that dubbed itself "Clean Air Calabasas" when it was leading the smoke-free march into the great outdoors is considering an extension of its ordinance that would cover apartments. Even if your landlord doesn't care whether you smoke, Clean Air Calabasas does.
The official justification for these ever-more-intrusive smoking bans is that the slightest whiff of secondhand smoke poses an intolerable hazard. The Belmont ordinance claims tobacco smoke is "extremely dangerous," regardless of dose ...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Of course they have no evidence supporting this ridiculous idea, as if second hand smoke is like nerve gas or mustard gas.....what a bunch of idiotic nonsense. But they always seem to get away with it....pathetic.
Why, thank you master.
Jacob Sullum Ping
Puff
Is it just tobacco smoke or will marijuana smoke also be targeted for home inspection?
Oh wait...this is California.....
How was the SCOTUS striking down sodomy laws on the basis of “invasion of privacy” great, but this is just fine?
I swear I’ll end up smoking in my old age as a way of rebellion against political correctness.
Smoke Nazis bug off.
LEt’s not forget the outsize contribution to Global Warming inflicted on the rest of us by the smokers.
“As those remarks suggest, the next rationale for banning smoking in private residences may be child protection, which will allow the government to go after smokers in detached homes as well as apartments. Already several state and local jurisdictions have banned smoking in cars carrying minors. Such laws raise the question of why legislators are ignoring the setting in which the vast majority of children’s exposure to secondhand smoke occurs. Now that anti-smoking crusaders have crossed the threshold into people’s homes, they are not likely to turn back.”
The guy is right. I can easily see this coming and much sooner than later.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2006/09/gore_cigarette_smoking_causes_global_warming/
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore warned hundreds of U.N. diplomats and staff on Thursday evening about the perils of climate change, claiming: Cigarette smoking is a “significant contributor to global warming!”
Comment: If Al says it it must be so! /sarcasm
I suggest they don't ring my doorbell. They aren't going to be met with very nicely.
I smoke cigars outside. If they come to my home, there is no cause to come inside.
I’ve never smoked, but every time I see an article like this, I get a huge urge to start.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s always been a smoking ban. One that most GOPers and conservatives support. So I don’t really give a crap when they whine about cigarettes. Just shows how blind they are to their own prejudices.
I better get to my 86 y/o friend that lived with smokers for 75 years. Must not have heard about this since she is the healthiest person I know.
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