Posted on 03/17/2013 5:58:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
California Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, has introduced a bill to make it illegal for people to smoke in their own homes -- if they live in an apartment or a condo or a multifamily home. When last I wrote about Levine, he was pushing a statewide law to require grocers to charge for bags. Now he's after cigarettes -- but only the legal kind. With his new AB 746, Levine is following a trail blazed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who pushed a law prohibiting the restaurant sale of large sugary drinks, which a New York judge overturned.
One politician thinks he has the right to tell New Yorkers what they can put in their stomachs. Another thinks he has the right to outlaw Californians smoking in the sanctity of their own homes. These two must think they are gods or kings. Or dictators.
They know what's best for you, so they feel free to force you to behave -- for your own good.
"I've got to defend my children and yours and do what's right to save lives. Obesity kills. There's no question it kills," quoth Bloomberg in defense of his erstwhile ban on Big Gulps. Never mind that people could purchase two drinks if they wanted to get around the law. Why even bother?
I asked Levine whether he has any qualms about passing a law that tells people what they cannot do in their own homes. Offenders would be subject to a $100 fine.
"When you think about this issue, we send our children to school in a smoke-free environment," he answered. "Our offices are protected by workplace laws, and where we should feel safest to breathe clean air, in our own homes, is the last unprotected place from secondhand smoke."
In other words: No. Because smoke can leach from one apartment to another and secondhand smoke can kill, Levine said, he is standing up for families who don't want smoking neighbors (whether nonsmoking families want him to or not).
Levine did add that his bill would allow apartment dwellers to smoke in "designated" smoking areas. But those areas, if they qualified, would be outdoors -- outside one's home.
Observe, please, how Bloomberg and Levine have chosen the easiest targets a politician can pick on -- fat people and smokers. Not that they would call them fat people and point with derision. No, they moan about the ill effects of obesity on health. Ditto smoking.
These guys wouldn't dream of restricting the rights of people who engage in risky behavior that is popular. I asked Levine: Would his bill apply to people smoking medical marijuana?
"That's not covered in this," Levine responded. "I am much more concerned with cancer-causing secondhand smoke than cancer-easing medical marijuana."
That's interesting. According to the American Lung Association, "marijuana smoke contains a greater amount of carcinogens than tobacco smoke." What about all those apartment-dwelling children who risk being exposed to secondhand marijuana smoke? That's different.
Will his bill pass? Levine answered, "Whether it passes today or not, it will pass soon." And: "We already have a law that says if you're driving in a car with minors, you can't smoke."
That's how governments take away liberty. First it's in restaurants, and then it's at work. Then they hit your personal space -- a car with kids. People get used to the restrictions, and once a ban applies to one venue, it seems natural to expand it to others. Now a California lawmaker wants to make it illegal for people to smoke in their homes. What next
Question: Where will all this cosmic illogic end?
Just asking.
When the federal government has appointed a person who will check your home daily to make sure you follow the prescribed method for "living." Cameras will also be installed in your home to watch you better. Yes, even there. You might flush twice. Can't have that. (snicker)
Except for illegal aliens, they will be exempt.
After Smoking, comes regulating salt and suger intact with the PC Police watching you in your home!
acctually pot smoking will not be affected. only tobacco.
IOW this is all about attacking tobacco companies.
It will end at the gulag, as it always does.
Its going to end with people like Levine decorating lamp posts.
If you have COPD or asthma and live in an apartment building where the people in the apartment next to you smoke, you’re screwed because the smoke comes into your apartment too. The people next to me smoke and the cigarette smell in my apartment is so strong it’s like I smoked half a pack.
Even if you don’t have COPD. I once lived above a man who was a chain smoker. Every night after work he would drink and smoke himself into oblivion. The stench was terrible, not just when he was smoking but day and night. The sofa never got rid of the smell. The clothes in the closets smelled like smoker’s clothes. Opening the windows only made it worse. Chimney effect.
This is aimed specifically at apartments and condos, not your personal property. This isn’t about not being able to smoke in your own “home”, this is about communal public places, much like workplace rules against smoking except in designated areas.
As long as they set up designated areas for smoking, much like schools, malls and workplaces, this shouldn’t be a problem for people.
I can believe that, because the walls are so thin, so that is easy for the smoke to creep through
There is nothing worse then clothes that smell like cigarette smokes
In other words, there are incentives one way or another in our personal choices, what city we live in, what neighborhood, what apartment. Choices made as to where we work, how much we save, what home we may be able to purchase...
Smokers have a right to smoke. However they should be considerate of others. They are not the only ones around after all
This is aimed specifically at apartments and condos, not your personal property
Excuse me, but first off condos are personal property; you buy them. Secondly, when you sign a lease that is your home. Yes, in an apartment there will be neighbors that have habits you don’t like. I once had to live above a woman that had to constantly crank up her (c)rap “music” to the point that we could not even hear our tv. This is why people want to own a single family home.
I would have no problem with an apartment owner designating his building as non-smoking, if he chooses to. I have a huge problem with govt coming in and mandating it. As far as “designated smoking areas”; I live in WI, we experience this thing called winter here. It gets cold. I don’t want to have to go outside to smoke my cigars in winter.
But suggest controls on those who engage in unprotected sex. . . no, we can’t have THAT. . .
Stupidity used to kill, too.
At least it did until government decided it had the authority to protect us from our own choices.
Hey, nobody said “designated smoking areas” had to be unheated. If you’re in a big complex like mine, turn a couple of the apartment clubhouses into smoker’s lounges and serve drinks.
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