It's legitimate to restrict an activity that has a real, scientifically measurable, physiological impact on others, and I'm fully in support of banning the use of tobacco in all public places. But I'm very sensitive to the rights of the minority to do something the majority doesn't like. Since I want very much to keep or win back the right to do some things that are threatened or already illegal, as long as I can do them without exposing unwilling others to real (as opposed to imagined) risk or harm, and since I despise hypocrisy above all other human failings, I'd better come down on the side of smokers' right to buy their poison and to indulge when they're alone.
Where it gets really ugly for me is when people want to smoke in a not fully public place, but if they do smoke they bar other people who would otherwise be there. A bar serving the public should be smoke free, but what about a private club? An open party at a private home? A closed party (where only the host's personal friends are invited) in a private home? I'm fairly comfortable saying that if it's an economic activity (the private club sells drinks or charges admission) smoking should be illegal. I'm pretty sure that smoking at the closed party should not be subject to legal sanction, although I'd like to see social pressure against it. But I'm really torn about the situation I was in recently, where a club meeting was hosted by a smoker, and the house was smoky enough I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to. If that is the norm for the club, it excludes people who are strongly affected from membership, but if smokers are not allowed to host meetings, they will feel excluded and the whole club loses out on the chance to see what the smokers do at their homes (which is part of the reason for having the meeting at a home instead of at a neutral public venue).
I just hope that the problem will disappear in another generation because people don't get started on the habit.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 07:02 pm (UTC)Where it gets really ugly for me is when people want to smoke in a not fully public place, but if they do smoke they bar other people who would otherwise be there. A bar serving the public should be smoke free, but what about a private club? An open party at a private home? A closed party (where only the host's personal friends are invited) in a private home? I'm fairly comfortable saying that if it's an economic activity (the private club sells drinks or charges admission) smoking should be illegal. I'm pretty sure that smoking at the closed party should not be subject to legal sanction, although I'd like to see social pressure against it. But I'm really torn about the situation I was in recently, where a club meeting was hosted by a smoker, and the house was smoky enough I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to. If that is the norm for the club, it excludes people who are strongly affected from membership, but if smokers are not allowed to host meetings, they will feel excluded and the whole club loses out on the chance to see what the smokers do at their homes (which is part of the reason for having the meeting at a home instead of at a neutral public venue).
I just hope that the problem will disappear in another generation because people don't get started on the habit.