Maine: Do not smoke if you're a foster parent! The DHS says so! It's ok if you sprawl on the couch at night drunk though!
DHS creates smoking rules for foster homes, vehicles
2-26-04 - article here
Posted on 05/05/2006 6:11:02 AM PDT by BerniesFriend
Bill would ban people from smoking while children in the car
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Parents would have to stub out their cigarettes while their kids are in the car, under a bill headed to the Senate for debate.
The bill would prohibit anyone from lighting up a cigarette, cigar or pipe in a vehicle while a child required to be in a booster seat or car seat is riding along _ a child up to 60 pounds, or up to about eight years old.
The House approved the bill in a 66-31 vote.
Rep. Gary Smith, D-Norco, said he introduced the measure because he wants to prevent health problems that children can have from second hand smoke inhalation. He said children don't get a choice in whose cars they ride.
"I'm just trying to protect those who cannot protect themselves," he said.
Rep. Carla Dartez, D-Morgan City, said the bill infringes upon parents' rights to raise their children.
"I just think you're going a little too far in this Legislature when we can't allow parents of their own children to take care of their own children," she said.
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House Bill 1010 can be found at http://www.legis.state.la.us
Big Brother strikes again.
Nanny state ping................
It's a brave new world, pal.
Maine: Do not smoke if you're a foster parent! The DHS says so! It's ok if you sprawl on the couch at night drunk though!
DHS creates smoking rules for foster homes, vehicles
2-26-04 - article here
Much more of this and I'll be movin' on.
Smoking a cigarette in my jeep as I drive out of the state for good.
OK, so the kids get to ride in the trunk. What's wrong with that? Much quieter.
I have got to say that this issue shows how gutless ourpoliticians really are at the state, local and federal levels.
If smokes are SOOOOOO bad that they are banning their use everywhere then why aren't they simply banning their production and distribution?
If they can ban smoking in a personal car why not a personal house as well? What is the difference?
Here is how our politicians could be uniting on this issue rather than devisive. Approach this from the standpoint of making designated places for people to smoke. In this angle it is not about taking something away from smokers, indeed it is about protecting their freedom to smoke em if they got em. Both sides get what they want and deserve, which is the ability to make their own choice.
Here in the capitol city a smoking ban has taken effect and now we see people all over the place that are actually in the STREET. Yes the law has become so foolish as to mandate someone be in the street Literally! How long before someone gets run over? Isn't the state responsible for them being run over? After all they passed laws that put these folks there right?
It is my position that lawmakers are backdooring smokers because they fear big tobacco industry (and of course the donations they make towards political campaigns).
If they want to make them illegal then go on with their bad selves and DO IT. Otherwise this only serves to add to the mentality that they really do not want to change anyones behavior.....they simply want to charge you for it.
Disgusting really!
Every day, America takes a step a little bit closer to socialism. Why don't they just ban cigarettes and be done with it.
The party state of the Union. Go figure!
Unless,of course, that person happens to still be in the womb.
What? Then they would lose all that tax money.
The State of Maine is nuts!
The guy is in a convertible in a corn field! For all practical purposes, he is "outside".
When I think of what goes on in so many foster homes, and the shortage of good ones, I can't help but think that DHS wants to make their job harder (or impossible) so that they can get more funding.
My Dad used to stub his cigs out in our eyes when he was done with 'em. Not only THAT, but he used to drive us around in a smoke-filled, tin-can VW Bug with NO seatbelt protection. And if we were tall enough to reach the clutch pedal, and he was too drunk, we'd be driving and smoking for him. ;)
Kids are wimps these days. ;)
What is going on this week? Man, it's been a full court press by the Nanny Staters! Grrrrr!
I don't like the smoke nazis either. But not lighting up in a car with kids in it makes sense to me - and it makes alot more sense than banning smoking in barrooms.
AH!! But will it also ban children from smoking in the car? (:^*)
I didn't know you had such a spoiled upbringing..my father would smoke us as a cigarette..throw us out on the highway when he was done and then back up the car over us..but you can't tell young people that nowadays..;)
People pay 110% with taxes on cigarettes. Not Big Tobacco and not the government. The smokers pay for everything with cigarette taxes!
There must be something in the air - and it ain't second hand tobacco smoke........but the nanny staters are obviously smoking something, and it sure isn't tobacco.
Has anyone ever heard of OPENNING a danged WINDOW????????
Your child is 10 lbs overweight, lets remove them from the home...
THANK you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just goes to show you how asinine Maine Board of Health is. And the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine!
I wait to see how long it takes for someone to mention the fact that the kids are in an open convertable, standing up and NO SEATBELTS or booster seats! LOL! What a crock, eh?
And you are right! MORE FUNDING PLEASE! That's all they are about. MONEY. They could care less who they trample on to get more money!
"Don't worry about us, all we are asking for is a ban on smoking on domestic flights shorter than 2 hours duration. That's it. Nothing more. Why are you making such a big deal out of this? ..."
"I'm just trying to protect those who cannot protect themselves," he said.
Your homes are next. Bureaucrats, carrying writs of assistance, will demand entry to homes to check that children are being raised according to the state's interpretation of the Marxist common good.
(Writs of assistance are one of factors that ignited the American revolutionary war.)
This is what you get with career politicans in full time legislative sessions. Peple who feel they have to be seen to be doing something and have nothing better to do with their time then pass this kind of lunatic drivel.
The kids today are wimps because they are being dumbed down.
Hey! The anti's have bought over a million signatures out in California to stop smoking! They PAID for the signatures! What a bunch of low life's they are!
The damn nanny state is out of control. When I as a kid, my parents didn't worry about such nonsense.
"A picture is worth a thousand words. " 
AND a 24 hour smoke free period in Maine ... Can't believe I missed that thread - I must have been driving my rug rats around in my convertible, without car safety seats, no seatbelt for myself, top down, smoking up a storm.
Luxury! Why, when I were a wee nipper...
Ah, great minds thing alike. Three Yorkshiremen, one of the best skits ever.
I must agree ;)
Ensuring your kids don't eat more than 5 milligrams of sugar per day makes sense to me...making sure your kids eat no more than 12 grams of saturated fat makes sense to me...making sure your kids get at least 5 hours' exercise a week makes sense to me...making sure your kids aren't exposed to harmful radiation, lead-based paint, harsh chemicals, toxic dust, and high-energy electromagnetic sources makes sense to me...not allowing your kids to watch morally or culturally offensive TV shows makes sense to me...teaching your kids manners makes sense to me...
My point is, a lot of things may make sense when it comes to raising kids, but where do you draw the line? And why is tobacco usage singled out as being the most harmful? If it's that bad for you--ban it entirely.
I like the way that this moron calls blowing carcinogens and poisons in smoke into children's lungs "taking care" of them. Next thing you know, this idiot will try to pass a law saying that parents can feed infants drain cleaning. After all that would be "taking care" of them, too...
"I didn't know you had such a spoiled upbringing..my father would smoke us as a cigarette..throw us out on the highway when he was done and then back up the car over us..but you can't tell young people that nowadays..;)"
Thanks. I need a new monitor now, as the Dr. Pepper is still dripping from it as well as my nose....gotta be a papertowel around here somewhere....
Whether you like it or not, smokers, your smoking in a confined space is noxious to children. My own experience as a child is that one can get used to the stench of a paper mill or a cattle feed lot, but not cigarette smoke. Both of my parents were smokers and, 45 years later, I still remember misery of long car trips in winter. Thank goodness we didn't have a car air conditioner back then!
I'm not a big believer in the health danger of second-hand smoke, but I think that this prohibition is not unreasonable. A parent's right to indulge his addictions should be balanced against his child's right to breathe unpolluted air in a confined space.
They already require child seats and boosters as they grow in cars. You have CPS all over the land ready to "counsel" you if any teacher or neighbor thinks the values you are teaching them is contrary to theirs. On and on and on.
People worry about provisions of the Patriot Act violating liberties, but turn a blind eye as the "I know better than you" crowd slowly invade many aspects of our lives and regulate what we may or may not do.
Like I keep saying, as they gradually prohibit our choices, soon the only choice left will be to abort your unborn child. That seems to be the only "choice" they deem appropriate any longer.
Actually they should pass a law forbidding children in any motor vehicle unless it is a state approved emergency and then they can only be transported in a state approved emergency vehicle.
What this guy is actually saying is enough is enough and the government needs to mind it's own business.
"I like the way that this moron calls blowing carcinogens and poisons in smoke into children's lungs "taking care" of them."
I didn't realize you think that we should ban toxic cleaning chemicals from homes. Why are you advocating that all parents live in filth?
I'm sure "I didn't realize..." is the beginning of a lot of your sentences. (And if parents are harming their kids by using poison to clean their homes, then, yes, they should stop that, too.)
And what about these sick video games the kids spend hours on at home after school? Poisoning their minds. I would much rather my kid be exposed to a little tobacco smoke any day then allowed to wrap their young minds around these sick video games!
"Grand Thief Auto" comes to mind!
He didn't advocate blowing smoke into a child's lungs. He advocates taking care of their own children and when parents "take care of their children" they protect them from certain things. You have completely twisted this man's words. And for that, I resent it. Get the words straight before you feed into them, ok?
.
Thank you!
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