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| Yes | 39% | 2217 votes | Total: 5699 votes | |
| No | 61% | 3482 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesI believe strongly that smoking should be allowed in public places but "public places" need definition and does not include smoking in a hospital, at a wake, at a PTA meeting , a town meeting or any place that does not have a "smoking section" on the premises.
Common sense was and still is something that most smokers have and as a smoker myself, I can say with conviction that smokers practiced responsible smoking habits in public places for as long as I can remember.
Public places such as restaurants, diners and fast food chains should have a designated smoking section with special air conditioning or fans to keep the smoke away from the non-smokers.
Prior to the government making a judgement call that smokers were ignorant and addicted people who needed laws passed that allowed the government to step in and take charge of our lives and our health, these measures were in place. Wherever one went to eat there was a smoking and non-smoking section and everyone was satisfied.
The Constitution guarantees all Americans certain basic rights and "freedom of choice" is a very important one. How the government decided that it had the right to strip away that right from smokers remains a mystery to me. The other mystery is why we as smokers just gave in without a fight.
Smokers choose to smoke for their own personal reasons and they smoke knowing what dangers it may cause them later in life. The most important issue about smoking in public is protecting the non-smokers from any harm and it can be done.
Smoking has never made anyone lose control of their brain if they smoked a cigarette but I cannot say the same for persons who drink to excess , leave a bar or restaurant drunk and lose control of their car, killing innocent peaple or crippling someone for the rest of their life.
Alcoholics are far more dangerous to themselves and others by choosing to get inebriated yet the government has not taken over their lives and banned alcoholic beverages . What is wrong with this picture ?
People who smoke should band together and demand their right to "freedom of choice " be given back to them and refuse to take "no" for an answer. Smoking should once again be allowed in public places where the smoking area is away from others and especially away from children to prevent any health problems for them. It's been done in the past and can be done again.
This is the time for change - lets make it happen..
Learn more about this author, Megan O'Brian.
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No
The rule I go by is, "Your right to smoke ends where my right to breathe clean air begins."
No non-smoker wants to sit in a restaurant and try to enjoy their meal, surrounded by smokers. Smokers don't realize how bad their habit smells, not to mention the deadly long term effects of even secondhand smoke.
That being said, I will propose a compromise: Let smoking be allowed in some designated areas where there are very, very few people, such as Death Valley and the states of Alaska and North Dakota. If there was a big public outcry, I suppose smokers could be allowed the convenience of traveling to the nearest Indian reservation, where they could smoke openly.
I am generally not in favor of government regulations forcing people to refrain from doing what they want, but in this case, it's a matter of protecting the general public from a bad habit of the minority. This is a serious public health matter.
Smoking tobacco ideally needs to be driven underground. Smokers need to be made as uncomfortable as possible, to help them come to their senses as to how unnecessary their habit is.
It is sad to see smokers huddled in the rain, sleet, and snow outside their office buildings, trying to keep their cigs lit, but it is for their own good. Perhaps there could be a law passed to make tobacco illegal, so smokers will have to conceal their illicit pleasure like pot smokers do now. That way, the rest of us won't have to hold our breath as we walk by a crowd of smokers loitering outside their place of work or by the back door of a restaurant.
Why indeed are cigarettes even legal when they kill so many people every year? If people are frequently sentenced to jail for smoking marijuana, which has never killed anybody, let's put cigarette smokers in jail, too! It's only fair.
I'm all for freedom, but until smokers come to their senses, we - the nonsmoking majority - will need laws to protect ourselves.
Learn more about this author, Paul Kemp.
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