New York considers banning smoking in cars

[sixate]

LINKY

New York considers banning smoking in cars


ALBANY, N.Y., Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Legislation proposed in the New York State Assembly would ban smoking in private automobiles with kids on board, the New York Post reports.

Another bill was introduced that would also ban smoking on public beaches and in parks.

"This is a well-planned strategy to essentially eradicate tobacco use using back-door methods," said Audrey Silk, co-founder of the New York City-based pro-smokers group CLASH.

"With concern for public health, I would be pleased [if smoking were banned], but that's not what we're doing," said Assemblyman Alexander "Pete" Grannis, the Legislature's leading anti-smoking advocate and a sponsor of the pending legislation.

Grannis, D-Manhattan, said bills like those outlawing smoking in cars with kids on board and banning the sale of more affordable small packs of cigarettes are designed to protect children.

And he insisted his bill to ban smoking at parks and beaches is meant to cut down on litter.

Obviously, I'm all for this.

[Vilkata]

Land of the free indeed

[Bill O'Rights]

If Assemblyman Grannis is truly concerned about the litter in beaches and parks, then I would assume that the next logical course would be a total ban on <i>all</i> fast food and snack items to include any type of beverage, including bottled water. To do any less would be...dare I even say it...hypocritical.

[Loup]

Originally posted by Vilkata
Land of the free indeed

What about the kids right to a clean breathing area ... that is untill they decide to smoke for themselves.

[Jesus Pimp]

They should shut down tobacco companies. Oh wait they make too much money for rednecks and congressmen...

[Cynthetiq]

Originally posted by Jesus Pimp
They should shut down tobacco companies. Oh wait they make too much money for rednecks and congressmen...

do you know that Phillip Morris and Kraft Foods are sister companies?

[Jesus Pimp]

Originally posted by Cynthetiq
do you know that Phillip Morris and Kraft Foods are sister companies?

Yes, what difference does that make? It's all about the benjamins at the cost of people burning away their lungs.

[lurkette]

This is so dumb. I understand the desire to protect children who have no real ability to escape from chain-smoking parents, but what's next? Enforced diets? Will you be cited for child abuse if you feed your kids Happy Meals or Mac & Cheese instead of salad and start them on the road to obesity? What about smoking in your house around children? It seems that education and free Nicotrol would go a lot further toward curbing smoking than stupid legislation that impinges on private behavior.

[tinfoil]

Ok, I smoke.

Alot.

And I have to agree in some areas. I don't want people smoking around me while I am eating dinner. I don't want to see cigarette butts lying about the ground while walking through the park nor do I want the odd, stray ash to blow in my face on the wind coming in from the lake / ocean while at the beach.

However, I bought my car. I own it and I can prove it, so if you don't like me smoking in my car (which I don't, but that's beside the point) then stay the hell out of my car.
------

Ok, so I actually read the WHOLE article now. *sigh*

What's next, banning smoking in the home if there are kids living there? Yes, I agree that smoking should not be done around small children. When my wife was pregnant, I voluntarily stepped outside to smoke. I would have done the same had she not miscarried and given birth.

Don't dictate what I can or can not do on (or in) my own property.

-----
Ok, so damn, that's hypocritical.

And poorly spelled!

[MSD]

Around kids? Good. In your car alone? That would be too far to go.

I approve.

[IC3]

How can somebody tell that you cannot have a smoke in your car.

Now cops are going to be too busy busting people for smoking a cigarette in thier car, Rather than busting real criminals.

I can understand not smoking in restaurants or places like that...But what's next? Are they gonna ban smoking in your own house.

I think they should maybe direct thier attention to more serious things than somebody who wants to have a smoke.

This is pretty pathetic (banning smoking in your car)

It would be looked at as somebody who does a rolling stop at a stop sign..Maybe the odd person will get nabbed by some rookie cop. Cops already have to much paper work to do, Never mind the 500 people they would be pulling over a day for smoking in thier car.

What a joke

It won't work.

[rainheart]

This is a great example of the most retarded policy making strategy I've seen.

Instead of attacking the problem at the source they resort to doing something that will of course piss a lot of people off. (I say piss people off because I'm not sure if this is actually an infringement of rights of some sort).

The thing is, people will crave cigarettes because they are addictive. They won't stop smoking because they can't do it in their car now.

[Thraeryn]

Any legislation that tries to ban drugs pisses me off. Especially cigarettes, which were handed out as United States Army rations in World War II.

[IC3]

It's like banning talking on your cellphone while your driving, Everyone's still going to do it...Big waste of time & taxpayers money on cops who could be out stopping robbery's etc etc...Instead of cops having to actually choose which car he is gonna pull over for smoking...But like I said above, Even if this new law passes...It will be enforced but not much at all.

[H12]

Originally posted by IC3
It's like banning talking on your cellphone while your driving, Everyone's still going to do it...Big waste of time & taxpayers money on cops who could be out stopping robbery's etc etc...Instead of cops having to actually choose which car he is gonna pull over for smoking...But like I said above, Even if this new law passes...It will be enforced but not much at all.

Beat me to it.

[Sapper]

I agree to the law actually - however, to be fair .. they should also ban eating in a car.

These two activities account for the VAST majority of collisions - due to a lack of attention.

[shithooks]

It's like Orwell's 1984 and "Big Brother"....if we allow this freedom to be taken from us we will be giving the power back to the gov't and allowing them to push us even further into a corner. We need to fight our way out of the corner and let our voices be heard....

What's next??

[Cynthetiq]

there are already laws that cover this type of behavior... it's call reckless driving... covers phones, talking, eating, searching for radio stations, reading newspapers, etc. while driving.

[quadro2000]

They should ban me from reading the liner notes to CDs while in traffic. That's what gets me into trouble.

I would be very surprised if this passes. I agree with the idea that people should not be smoking in the car with kids (hell, you shouldn't smoke ANYWHERE near your kids), but private property is private property.

[Cynthetiq]

Originally posted by quadro2000
They should ban me from reading the liner notes to CDs while in traffic. That's what gets me into trouble.

I would be very surprised if this passes. I agree with the idea that people should not be smoking in the car with kids (hell, you shouldn't smoke ANYWHERE near your kids), but private property is private property.

oh but that's not true... they can tell you what to do and not do in the bedroom... don't believe it? there are still laws governing anal and oral sex even in the privacy of your own home.

[floonine]

Dumbest idea ever. This isn't protecting enough people for it to be necessary.
Besides, doesn't anybody here have friends that smoke? Ever seen them when they REALLY want a cigarette? Now add being a New Yorker... what do you get? Total chaos!
I know that if I lived in New York, I would want to be smoking, goddammit. Especially in my car! Damn non smokers thinking you can be a smoker and drive without smoking!

[Bill O'Rights]

O.K., I smoke. I've smoked for over 20 years. After the birth of my son, a year ago, I voluntarily began to smoke outside. I also do not smoke in the car. (more because I burned a hole in a car seat years ago, but still...) I also sit in the non-smoking section of a restaurant. But these are MY choices. They were MY decision. I do not want, nor do I need, every little aspect of my life observed, regulated and policed.

This will not affect many of you, as most of you do not smoke. While I do not intend, nor wish to, start a diatribe on "smokers rights", I will say this. Someday, and someday sooner than you think, a vice of yours will come under the public scrutiny and fall under attack. Whether it be Twinkies, red meat or even coffee is immaterial. It WILL happen. Something to keep in mind when so many of you treat smokers like pariahs. Because although I also like my Twinkies, my red meat and my coffee...I'm used to being a social outcast. Get used to it.

[Cynthetiq]

BOT hits it right no the money. It's a choice, and that choice has been taken away from me. Just to give you an idea as to what has happened here in NYC with the no smoking in bars and restaurants. Now they stand on the sidewalks. I cannot walk past an eatery, bar, club, without having to inhale someone's second hand smoke. Before it was inside the bar or club, and if I didn't go to the bar/club I didn't worry about it.

Now people who live above the bar/clubs now have to deal with loud people outside the club shouting and carrying on. IMHO it brought the quality of life down not up.

[Ripsaw]

Just wait until the dead of winter Cynthetiq. I'm curious how inclement weather will affect the smoking crowd downtown.

[legolas]

I still can't believe smoking is legal period. Maybe this is all part of a master plan to make it illegal.

[StormBerlin]

Originally posted by Vilkata
Land of the free indeed

My thoughts exactly. I bought the damn car and had the kids, i will smoke in or around them if i so choose. This country's going downhill...

[yournamehere]

This PSA brought to you by your ever-present thought police.
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Either make the shit illegal, or stop discriminating against people who use it.
One or the other; because the legal discrimination against smokers in this country is getting out of hand.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - once all the smokers have quit or died - who's going to fill in the gap in the tax base and supply a target for the holier-than-thou, finger-pointing whiner crowd?

I'm betting fat people. Especially fat people who weren't fat until they gained all that weight after they quit smoking.

[Ozman]

toledo, ohio (close to my home) recently passed a smoking ban on ANY public place, restaurants, bars and lounges, on the street, dunno if its going to work

[Derwood]

well, it doesn't infringe on any rights, since technically, smokers aren't protected by the law.

I hate smoking in every form, so I can't say I hate this law, but they won't enforce it, so it's dumb. Shame on you for smoking with the kids in the car to begin with.

[raeanna74]

I've always had a negative opinion of smoking while driving. It's a bit like talking on a cell phone. I've seen a number of accidents that were caused because the person in the car was either lighting up or dropped some hot ash on themselves. I watched a motorcyclist get broadsided by some lady who was lighting up when she came to an intersection. She didn't see him and he ended up going up and over her car and getting some major road rash and a broken arm. He was lucky he was wearing a helmet. It looked terrible to see - especially for me at about 11 yrs old. Scared me to death. I think when yo drive you should drive and not do anything else. I really try to stick to that myself.

[CyN1caL]

If you say that people shouldn't smoke, shouldn't eat, shouldn't talk and just pay attention to driving, then you should also say they shouldn't listen to the radio too while driving.

While I hate smoking, the smell of it and everything about it, I don't think banning the smoking of cars is the right way to go. While I never let anyone smoke in my car, if it's THEIR car, they have the right to do what they want.

I dunno, it's a very mixed subject.

[Holo]

I quit smoking at 19. I'm 31 now, and I do not miss the bad breath, the nasty taste, the cravings, the 13.50 a carton per week ($25 now, Christ), and the yearly bout of Bronchitis I got while a smoker. However I am disgusted at a culture that allowed such a dangerous substance to become so widesperead and encouraged addiction by glamorizing it to now turn on it and say " OMFG CIGS ARE BAD MMMK". If they really want to solve the problem make cigarettes illegal altogether and be done with it. I smoked a carton a week the last two years I smoked and I managed to quit. But this nitpicky away of making it hard to smoke is dumb...since you're not gonna stitch the wound quit trying to put little band-aids on it to fix it.

I agree with no smoking section in restaurants...food tastes better without smoke hanging everywhere. I think it's dumb as fuck in bars...there is nothing healthy about a bar in the first place. I expect a smoky bar when I go. Your car is your little slice of domain away from home and to be honest if you put your cig at the edge of a cracked window almost no smoke at all ever gets into the cab so the argument is kinda pointless. I would support making cigs illegal altogether since they're proven to be nothing but killers but failing that you gotta give ppl places to do things that are legal to do, and the best places are their own domains.

[giblfiz]

Originally posted by djp
What about the kids right to a clean breathing area ... that is until they decide to smoke for themselves.

Why is it That the tyrannous majority always invokes the protection of children in order to trample on people? It's cliche, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone

Oh, and for those who are discussing a total ban on cigs I would like to point out it would be both complicated and ugly. At this point there is enough stigma around smoking that virtually everyone who smokes has tried to stop at one point or another. Assume that if tobacco were illegalized it would give 3/4 of them that extra push they needed to quit. That leaves you with a instantly formed huge black market in cigarettes. (and I mean HUGE). If there is anything that the war on drugs has driven home, its that black markets cause crime, and not just sale of illegal goods, but violent crime. You notice that at the moment there are no turf wars over cigarette sales (well, they are, but they are fought on billboards and very few people end up getting shot)

Imagine how it feels to be a smoker now, People look at you like you have the plague. Now they are trying to drive a wedge between smokers and there children? "Remember kiddies, if your mom or dad smokes around you, you should be a good citizen and report them directly to the police."
(all right, so that last part is a bit overkill)

Originally posted by Vilkata
Land of the free indeed

I couldn't have said it better.

[BuDDaH]

It doesn't matter anyway, I don't have a car.
And when I do get one, I'll have my windows tinted so fucking dark, I'd doubt the even see me...

[Fire]

ok- I occaisionaly smoke, but am considerate of others rights- this stuff is getting downright orweilian

[glasscutter43]

Originally posted by Cynthetiq
do you know that Phillip Morris and Kraft Foods are sister companies?

Does this mean I have to check my Mac & Cheese for nicotine additives?

[Holo]

Originally posted by giblfiz
Why is it That the tyrannous majority always invokes the protection of children in order to trample on people?

Because much of the reason society exists in the form it does is because of children and the lack of instinctive behavior in the human animal. A quote from the The Lost World (Jurassic Park II)



Our brains more than doubled in size in about a million years. And that caused problems for us. getting born, for one thing. Big brains can't pass through the birth canal - which means that both mother and child die in childbirth. That's no good. What's the evolutionary response? To make human infants born very early in development, when their brains are still small enough to pass through the pelvis. It's the marsupial solution - most of the growth occurs outside the mother's body. A human child's brain doubles during the first year of life. That's a good solution to the problem of birth, but it creates other problems. It means that human children will be helpless long after birth. The infants of many mammals can walk minutes after they're born. Others walk in a few days, or weeks. But human infants can't walk for a full year. They can't feed themselves for even longer.



So one price of big brains was that our ancestors had to evolve new, stable social organizations to permit long-term child care, lasting many years, These big-brained, totally helpless children changed society. Being born in an immature state means that human infants have unformed brains. They don't arrive with a lot of built-in, instinctive behavior. Instinctively, a newborn infant can suck and grasp, but that's about all. Complex human behavior is not instinctive at all. So human societies had to develop education to train the brains of their children. To teach them how to act.


Every human society expends tremendous time and energy teaching its children the right way to behave. You look at a simpler society, in the rain forest somewhere, and you find that every child is born into a network of adults responsible for helping to raise the child. Not only parents, but aunts and uncles and grandparents and tribal elders. Some teach the child to hunt or gather food or weave; some teach them about sex or war. But the responsibilities are clearly defined, and if a child does not have, say, a mother's brother's sister to do a specific teaching job, the people get together and appoint a substitute. Because raising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place. It's the most important thing that happens, and it's the culmination of all the tools and language and social structure that has evolved.


Thing is ppl who have an agenda take advantage of this and use it to their own ends "in the name of". It's gonna be interesting to see what comes of society the more relationships and families fail. PC Tyranny understands the importance of the child to society and exploits it in a way to appear as moral as possible. You can't argue with someone trying to save children now can you? The RIAA are pulling this shit as well on P2P to appeal to the uninformed by "exposing" the existence of child porn on P2P when websites doing the same have been shut down weekly for years. I hope I answered your question and didn't derail this too much.