When the Nanny-State Attacks, and You Can't Smoke Anymore

By Douglas V. Gibbs

In Pasadena, California a city-wide ban on cigarette smoking is on the floor. Aside from someone's own car, or inside their own home (rented spaces do not qualify), it will be illegal anywhere in the city to light up.

You thought this post was about Marijuana, didn't you. . . don't worry, Mary Jane is mentioned later in the article.

I am in no way defending tobacco. I am a former smoker, and I realize there is a risk to the individual who decides to smoke. I do not believe second-hand smoke is as deadly and dangerous as the anti-tobacco activists make it out to be, but I do see it as horribly inconsiderate for a smoker to blow their smoke around people who do not smoke.

However, just because I do not smoke, and just because I think smoking is dangerous to one's health, I do not believe that government entities should be going around telling folks they can't smoke.

That goes for businesses too.

In California you cannot smoke inside any buildings, aside from your own home. Shouldn't a business owner be able to decide if they want smoking allowed in their place of business? And if the non-smokers don't like it, then can't they just not be patrons of that business, and become patrons of a business that decides to be a non-smoking location instead?

Here's what interests me most on this issue, though. The same people that rail against tobacco are often also the same folks pushing for the legalization of Marijuana (see, I told you Mary Jane would get a mention). How is it that smoking tobacco is evil, but smoking pot is not? You don't want folks to be able to enjoy a cigarette, but pot-heads sitting on the couch munching on Cheetos is okay?

Right about now all of the Marijuana smokers are upset that I used such a stereo-type to describe pot smokers, so let me be fair and say that not all of them sit on the couch eating Cheetos. Sometimes crackers and cheese, or Slim Jims, work too.

All joking aside, my point is that if we begin allowing government to tell us whether or not we can smoke cigarettes, and if we can or cannot eat fatty foods, and if we are allowed to choose our own insurance policies or not, how long before the government begins to dictate to us our every move?

There is an old saying: Don't rejoice over the loss of rights of another, for your rights may very well be next on the chopping block.

Just sayin'.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Pasadena to explore possibility of citywide smoking ban - Pasadena Star-News