Anti-Smoking Laws

[the_std]

To continue here from the main site, let's have a go about anti-smoking laws.

Do they do more harm than good in restricting individual liberties, or are they helping to protect the populace at large?

One, two, three, GO!

[blas87]

They are absolute bullshit. The government should not be putting laws like that in place just for the "good" of everyone else.

I like the idea of smoking bars and non-smoking bars, so that way they all aren't just one or the other. That's SO stupid.

Some places the only place you CAN smoke is in your own home. And most people who rent can't even do that anymore. So what do you do?

I'm a big girl and I can do whatever I want. Especially when it doesn't affect my driving or my ability to make decisions.

[Sylvia727]

Don't piss in my swimming pool, don't smoke in my house. But I'm not going to come over to your house and tell you not to smoke. The idea of a non-smoking city is rather frightening to me. They're just eroding away the idea of personal rights, probably because the idea of personal responsibility has also been eroded.

My college is irritating me on this one. The dorm halls are all non-smoking, but there's no place for the smokers to go except the lawn or the covered porch. If it's raining, the smokers all huddle under the roof, and to get to the front door I have to breathe in their fumes. They ought to put in a smoking gazebo away from the front door.

The schools are going too far in their anti-smoking campaigns, as my then nine-year-old sister came home bawing one day, because her teacher told the class that "If your parents smoke, then they don't love you." My mom made an effort to keep the smoke away from us kids (she has since quit), but she wasn't going to stop smoking in her own home. She called the principal up in arms, only to get blown off. Moving up the chain to the superintendent of the district got no results either.

[Amethyst Hunter]

I'm of two minds on it. On the one hand, I'm a staunch anti-smoker and DESPISE cigarettes with the fire of a thousand suns (try having asthma and allergies and growing up with both parents smoking and see how much fun that is). So I can't honestly say that I feel too bad about having nonsmoking public places (i.e., restaurants). I also don't mind rulings that say smokers have to keep a certain distance from the entry points of places like stores - I really dislike walking into a faceful of someone else's lung pollution.

On the other hand, I think smoking should be allowed in places like bars and the like, where smokers naturally go to congregate and antismokers like me naturally avoid like the plague. Illinois passed a total smoking ban at the beginning of this year and quite a few folks were pissed about it. I figure they should keep the ban for all public spots except those types, that way the smokers can have their havens and the rest of us can breathe (mostly) clean air.

[CancelMyService]

Despite what smokers think, there is no right (god given or constitutionally based) to stink up a room with your cancer causing discharges. It's an addiction, I understand that. It still doesn't give you the right to light up when others may not care to partake of your smokey treats. Breathing > Smoking. Sorry smokers, that's the way it is.

People can do what they want in their homes, but I rather enjoy going out to eat and not coming back home smelling like I pulled a double shift at the RJ Reynolds factory.

Besides, smoking is an expensive and nasty habit anyway. I don't smoke myself but I noticed the last time I was in the gas station that even generic brands are like $4 a pack now here in PA. Even if you don't care about the health benefits, I'm sure most people could use the extra cash.

[Dorath]

I don't smoke, and still think anti-smoking laws are rubbish. People are being vilified for no reason other than to make politicians feel better about themselves.

I doubt anyone else will find this amusing, but a bar I used to go to found out it was cheaper to ignore the law and pay the fines than make the place nonsmoking.

[Boozy]

I've never known what to think about certain anti-smoking laws.

On one hand, if I opened a bar or restaurant, I'd like to be able to make my own decisions about what to allow there myself without government interference. My establishment, my rules.

On the other hand, there are already laws that say what I can and cannot do if I own a place that's open to serve the public. It has to be safe, I must provide handicapped washrooms if its over a certain size, and I can't refuse service based on race or religion. It makes sense, then, for the government to ban smoking in public indoor areas.

I disagree with certain new laws we have here in Ontario that ban smoking on most government-owned property, indoors OR outdoors, regardless of proximity to building entrances. At some point, the whole thing becomes bloody stupid. If second-hand cigarette smoke can kill a person from twenty feet off in the open breeze, we had better just outlaw the damn things.

[Greenday]

I've always been of the opinion, if you want to go and do that to yourself, go ahead, not my problem. But when I want to go out to a restaurant or a bar, I shouldn't be forced to suffer because of your addiction. CancelMyService hit it right on the head saying there is no right to smoke. Pretty much all legal rights out there, especially in the Constitution, are rights given as long as they don't harmfully effect other people.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That is why whether or not a bar should be smoking or non smoking should be up to the individual owner. So if you don't want to breathe in smoke, you go to the non smoking bar. I however will be in the smoking bar. True, you might like it now that the law is only affecting us, but just wait til your acceptance of this law brings a law down on your head. The whole of the western world is turning into a nanny state, and it sucks. If I want to eat salt, smoke, or drink in public, then I should be allowed to without stupid laws banning it.

[Greenday]

I've never heard of a bar that banned smoking before the laws did the banning for them. So it looks like us non-smokers are screwed because we want to enjoy fresh, clean air while we have a drink and/or listen to live music.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It goes hand in hand with those places. You might as well complain about people getting drunk in pubs. And I've heard of two.

[Greenday]

Well, what are non-smokers supposed to do then? I mean, nearly all bars would prefer to allow smokers to make more money. There really is nowhere to go to have a drink. I mean, is it really that bad to have to step outside for a minute or two if they desperately need that smoke?

The "businesses will lose tons of money" is an empty threat. Where else will smokers go? Either they smoke outside and enjoy the bar, or they don't drink anymore. NJ banned smoking inside restaurants and such. None of them have had to close because they've lost tons of cash.

[the_std]

If I want to eat salt, smoke, or drink in public, then I should be allowed to without stupid laws banning it.

I'm sorry, but I have to nitpick here. Eating salt and drinking do not have any direct affect on people who are not doing the consuming. People standing beside their drinking friends don't get drunk off of their breath. Someone scarfing French fries can do so without worrying that they will contaminate passers-by with their artery-clogging madness.

Second-hand smoke, while possibly built up by the media and villainized, is still a real harm. I know that, as an asthmatic, I cannot be in smoke-polluted air without having an attack. The logic behind these laws is that smokers are harming other people without these peoples' consent.

I'm sorry, but as an analogy, that wasn't a very strong one.

On the other hand, if it's something like a smoker's bar or somewhere where people have a choice to leave or stay, I support it completely. I wish these laws gave more choice to smokers, rather than penalizing them.

[Seshat]

Until smoking was banned in pubs and clubs here, I simply couldn't go to them. At all. I missed out on many things I'd have loved to do, missed out on seeing many bands I'd have loved to see, missed out on going out with friends.

Simple things that I just couldn't do because other people's right to smoke superceded my right to breathe.

I'm in favour of that smoking ban.

[Sylvia727]

Well, what are non-smokers supposed to do then? I mean, nearly all bars would prefer to allow smokers to make more money.

If there is a market for a non-smoking bar, then they will come. My city does not have a smoking ban, but I know of two non-smoking pubs. There are probably much more, but I'm not of age yet so I don't spend too much time in bars.