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Writer's Block: Tobacco road
May. 14th, 2011 11:56 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
No. No, I wouldn't.
I don't like tobacco and I don't approve of selling a product that carries as many health risks as it does, particularly not when other, less dangerous drugs are illegal. I do, however, believe that saying 'You can't do something perfectly legal in public' is one step removed from saying 'You can't do this at home' and 'In the name of public health we have the right to go into your home and invade your privacy, you horrible person, you'.
Because that's what it is, really. Laws against smoking in the workplace protect people who may not be able to go anywhere or get away from the danger that tobacco smoke presents. Laws against smoking on the street, where anybody could move anywhere they wanted, are an effort to demonize people who smoke so that other people don't have to be reminded of their existence and can marginalize them away all the more easily. The public's lungs are probably in more danger from car exhaust anyway. You can walk away from tobacco smoke in my city. Walking away from cars? Not gonna happen.
No. No, I wouldn't.
I don't like tobacco and I don't approve of selling a product that carries as many health risks as it does, particularly not when other, less dangerous drugs are illegal. I do, however, believe that saying 'You can't do something perfectly legal in public' is one step removed from saying 'You can't do this at home' and 'In the name of public health we have the right to go into your home and invade your privacy, you horrible person, you'.
Because that's what it is, really. Laws against smoking in the workplace protect people who may not be able to go anywhere or get away from the danger that tobacco smoke presents. Laws against smoking on the street, where anybody could move anywhere they wanted, are an effort to demonize people who smoke so that other people don't have to be reminded of their existence and can marginalize them away all the more easily. The public's lungs are probably in more danger from car exhaust anyway. You can walk away from tobacco smoke in my city. Walking away from cars? Not gonna happen.
