NY SENATOR PROPOSES BAN ON SMOKING IN CARS

NYS Legislative Information ^

[MortMan]

If some bright young man invented cigarettes today, would he be permitted to sell them? Lets just ban the damn things and get it over with.

The same argument applies to aspirin. If aspirin had been invented in the last 20 years, it would be a prescription-only drug.

[per loin]

Are you under the illusion that all smokers are going to quit smoking if tobacco is made illegal? Or that the people who have their doors busted down and themselves hauled off to the slammer by the smoke cops will be "more free"? Or that the government is not coming after you fat people next?

Giving the government more power over private lives and property does not result in smaller government.

[gridlock]

Giving the government more power over private lives and property does not result in smaller government.

Eliminating the legal trade in tobacco will require much less government personnel and intrusion than it takes to regulate tobacco use to ever increasing levels of control.

As for regulation of tobacco as an illegal substance, this is stuff the government is doing already through the regulation of a whole host of addictive and non-addictive psychoactive products. Tobacco will just be one more.

Of course, one would hope that smoking would become so inconvenient that the vast majority of addicts would quit. But we must recognize that the addict is not always rational about such things.

[Judith Anne]

Will fat people still be allowed to eat in their cars?

[Wolfie]

"When we look down the road, I would say 10, 15, 20 years from now, in a gradual fashion, smoking will probably be outlawed in the United States."
Tom Constantine
Administrator of the DEA
in an interview with ABC TV network, 1998

[estrogen]

Gee, where is the ACLU on this ? What a joke !! People are too apathetic to do anything about it. They (NYorkers) should organize and fight this dumb a-- move. Government is out of control.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[Judith Anne]

Will the food nazis inspect the trash of fat people, and the shelves in their kitchens and refrigerators, and their freezers for food "dangerous" to their children? Will taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese be child abuse? Will parents of fat kids have them taken away--for the good of the children? Will anyone under 21 be barred from working at McDonald's?

[dubyagee]

As a side note, I love how this trash is written. With so many references to external paragraphs, sub-sections a normal person's eyes glaze over by the 3rd sentence.

Exactly. There should write a law which requires all future laws to be written in manner understandable by anyone with a public high school diploma.

[SheLion]

For crying out loud! These people are coming out from under ROCKS! Let me read this more...........

[SheLion]

The key word here is PRIVATE!

[gridlock]

I believe Mr. Constantine is telling the truth. In twenty years, smoking will be outlawed in the United States.

The only question, to my mind, is how much damage we are going to do to our freedoms before this outright ban is achieved. Control of smoking is giving the government purview over ever greater and greater areas of what was previously private activity. This trend will only continue. Yesterday they were looking in the window of your private office. Today they are looking in the window of your car. Tomorrow they will be looking in the window of your bed-room. We would all be better off if the issue were settled quickly.

[SheLion]

Smoking shall not be permitted and no person shall smoke in a private passenger car, private passenger van or private passenger truck where minors under sixteen years of age are passengers in any such vehicle.

Is this a back door attempt to stop abortion and to stop people from having kids???!!!

This makes ME never to want another child AND never to be around any of them ever again! Give them all to the STATE to raise. heh!

[Freedom2specul8]

This is totally one of the most stupidest ideas I've ever heard bump.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I said it the other day in jest knowing I wasn't jesting.
Repeated below and on my profile page. Drive by Smoking.

Some info on the latest second hand smoke threat, drive by smoking. In many areas of the country this horrendous crime is on the upswing. A perfectly healthy smoke gnatzie (5'4" 275 lb) is standing on a street corner. Suddenly a car stops with the windows down and smokers inside waiting for the light to change. While this is happening the smoke gnatzie is exposed to huge amounts of second hand smoke. The light changes and the criminals drive away. Who can the smoke gnatzie sue for damages? In most cities these crimes are committed by smoke gangs, "The Menthols, The Non-Menthols, The Filters, The Non-Filters, The Regulars, and The Kings." Something must be done and soon. If not for us all, for the children.

[bc2]

Marketing any product should be totally legal; this is a free society and people are free (well, they should be) to make their own choices about what is healthy and acceptable behaviour for them.

"Either that or remove any shred of government protection from liability afforded to the tobacco companies and let nature take it's course."

Exactly. Let's start with cigarettes, and move on to the drug war.

Anyone have any ideas on how to spend the billions and billions we otherwise waste every year on the drug war?

I say let's start with border security and work from there.

Think about it: if we seriously secured the border, we would stop a lot of hard drugs. You would need a license to import a (now legal) product like cocaine or heroin into the country, and no South American or European drug lord is going to get that. That alone would be a huge boost in eradicating dangerous, unregulated narcotics from the streets.

[SheLion]

I'm always amazed that the party that states it is "for the children" still supports the murder of millions of unborn children every year. Go figure.

Exactly

[SheLion]

I would never have patronized that bar if it was full of cigarette smoke. It provided a great mid-afternoon respite from shopping and sight seeing.

Too bad that bar didn't invest in the big smoke eaters. Then EVERYONE could have been happy and his cash register would still be ringing.

[freeeee]

As for regulation of tobacco as an illegal substance, this is stuff the government is doing already through the regulation of a whole host of addictive and non-addictive psychoactive products.

Right, with methods like:

Road blocks
Drug tests
No knock raids home invasions - often at the wrong address
Gun control
Largest prison population per capita ON EARTH
Zero tolerance in schools, expelling kids for things like aspirin
Mandatory minimums
Death penalty for non-violent 'kingpins'
Phone taps
Snitches
Asset forfeiture without due process, or even without chargees, or AFTER an aquittal
Creation of dozens of government agencies at every level of government
And on and on and on with no end in sight....

Prohibition and the drug war have spawned some of the largest increases in the size, scope and powers of government, second only to the New Deal. Now you want to add cigarettes to the list thereby creating instant criminals out of literally millions of Americans , and you think that will make government smaller, and you honestly expect us to believe you???

You must take us for fools with very, very short memories.

[per loin]

Eliminating the legal trade in tobacco will require much less government personnel and intrusion than it takes to regulate tobacco use to ever increasing levels of control.

Uh, yeah. Prohibition and the War on Drugs have shown how easy it is to eliminate "legal trade". Unfortunately, once you eliminate the "legal trade" in a substance widely desired by the public, an illegal trade rapidly springs into existence.

As for rationality, I'd suggest that it is those, who believe that the government has the right or the ability to effectively dictate what vegetable substances a free man decides to use, that are the nutcases.