Lets just get rid of smoking (Augusta, Leeds: health insurance, house, public school)

[shadowfax1997]

article in the portland press herald about no smoking in public on maine beaches:
MaineToday.com | News Update: No more butts on Maine's beaches

"AUGUSTA -- The beaches of Maine are not ashtrays and one state senator wants to use the law to bring home the point.
Sen. John Nutting (D-Leeds) says today he will present legislation that would outlaw smoking on state beaches before the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee.
He says he got the idea after a constituent reported that she and her one-year-old daughter visited a state beach and found cigarette butts left indiscriminately in the sand."

If smoking is so bad, then lets just get rid of it. I am so tired of the nanny state saying you can't smoke here or there and taxing it outragously. Just get rid of smoking if it is bad. How about no smoking in cars period. I saw a butt on the road today! No smoking in your house - I can smell it when I come in and visit. You must wear a seatbelt when you drive in your car, but can smoke which has been proven to cause cancer. WTF.

Government is getting more and more into the littlest aspects of our lives. I bet the founding fathers would be rolling in their graves if they knew what was happening.

BTW - I don't smoke and honestly could care less if you do.

[tcrackly]

I have seen songbirds use cigarette filters for nesting material. they are more unsightly than dangerous in any way.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by shadowfax1997

article in the portland press herald about no smoking in public on maine beaches:
MaineToday.com | News Update: No more butts on Maine's beaches

"AUGUSTA -- The beaches of Maine are not ashtrays and one state senator wants to use the law to bring home the point.
Sen. John Nutting (D-Leeds) says today he will present legislation that would outlaw smoking on state beaches before the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee.
He says he got the idea after a constituent reported that she and her one-year-old daughter visited a state beach and found cigarette butts left indiscriminately in the sand."

If smoking is so bad, then lets just get rid of it. I am so tired of the nanny state saying you can't smoke here or there and taxing it outragously. Just get rid of smoking if it is bad. How about no smoking in cars period. I saw a butt on the road today! No smoking in your house - I can smell it when I come in and visit. You must wear a seatbelt when you drive in your car, but can smoke which has been proven to cause cancer. WTF.

Government is getting more and more into the littlest aspects of our lives. I bet the founding fathers would be rolling in their graves if they knew what was happening.

BTW - I don't smoke and honestly could care less if you do.

Perhaps you might consider caring more. Smoking related diseases cost an enormous amount of money in medical care for the smoker. This directly causes the cost of health insurance and state paid health care to rise dramatically. I think that taxing cigarettes is a great way for the state to raise revenue. I think that tobacco products should be taxed and taxed again. The so-called "sin taxes" are GOOD.

As a reformed smoker, I don't want to be around smoking, to smell it going in to or out of the grocery store, on the beach, in the woods or anywhere else. I don't want to smell it, but I don't care if people smoke. In fact, the more people who smoke to excess the better.

Just so long as they don't exhale.

[dmyankee]

The Nannies in Augusta can bite it!

[Chandler85]

Honestly, as a smoker (hopefully not for much longer), this issue is getting out of hand all over the US (except for tobacco producing states).
In MN they passed the indoor smoking ban due to the health risks caused by the concentration of smoke within restaurants and bars and for the health of their workers. And although I am not thrilled about having to go outside when its 25below to smoke I am not against it either.

However, there is no real health threats with smoking outside (carbon monoxide is far worse for your health - think of all the pedestrians in NYC breathing in all that exhaust). If people do not like the way it smells then it is just their personal problem - should we make it illegal for grandmothers to bathe themselves in White Diamonds? Or people who can not figure out how to operate a shower, should they get a "stink" tax? AS TO LITTERING there definitely should be strong fines imposed on those that cannot pickup after themselves. One final thought - if every smoker was to quite smoking tomorrow the country and states' coffers would be seriously injured and would most definitely run huge deficits.

I am probably not making a lot of friends by posting this but it is my humble opinion and I do not like feeling like a second class citizen.

[lrfox]

I hate the idea of banning smoking (note: I'm not a smoker) all together. These days, most everyone who smokes is well aware of the inherent risks. I agree with not allowing it in SOME public places and establishments (I'm so happy you can't smoke in bars anymore), but you should be able to smoke at the beach... come on.

Banning it all together is just plain dumb and it won't work. Remember how well prohibition worked? Better yet, how well is Marijuana being illegal working? The state and federal goverments stand to gain a bunch of money from taxation on cigarettes. Making it more difficult and expensive to obtain and smoke cigarettes has been proven to reduce smoking, but there's no chance it's going away completely. I'm fine with smoking being banned from restaurants, museums, civic buildings (i.e. schools, city/town halls, police/fire stations, hospitals, airports, etc), but not for it being banned all together or even in places outside (unless it's a public school property).

[cdodge04]

I don't smoke but a lot of my family did. I lost 2 grand parents and an uncle to smoking related illness. I still believe it is a persons choice to smoke. Though it costs us money in the health care system, it also is a source of revenue for the state. When they force everyone to stop smoking, what will be next? Drinking? Driving vehicles? If smoking is bad for you because of cancer then drinking must be bad for you because it kills your liver? Driving must be bad for you because some people get in car accidents... When the states no longer get that revenue from smoking they will choice something else to tax people on.

I don't like government intervention into the lives of citizens much, but I am for the ban that they have put in place regarding smoking in vehicles with children. It is for the protection of the young ones, I for one would not want one of my kids in a car with someone smoking like a chimney.

I think that each day we lose a little bit more of our self responsibility and freedom. They are continually taking away more and more freedoms and at the same time trying to remove any sort of self responsibility from people.

[elston]

As long as smokers continue to throw their toxic by-products in public places.....littering and contaminating areas that other people have to use...I am all for strict enforcement of laws to curtail the public health hazard of smoking.
Cigarette butts are much more filthy than soiled toilet paper...but many smokers don't have any qualms about leaving their filth on the street, and on the beach and denying or ignoring the fact that their carelessness creates health hazards for others.

[diablogun]

Originally Posted by elston

As long as smokers continue to throw their toxic by-products in public places.....littering and contaminating areas that other people have to use...I am all for strict enforcement of laws to curtail the public health hazard of smoking.
Cigarette butts are much more filthy than soiled toilet paper...but many smokers don't have any qualms about leaving their filth on the street, and on the beach and denying or ignoring the fact that their carelessness creates health hazards for others.

I have read that smokers actually cost less in health care over their average lifespans than non-smokers; this is because they have the tendency to die younger.

About the toilet paper comparison, I would disagree, but I somehow doubt many of the lefty folks complaining about cigarette butts are equally as worried about other public health hazards such as unwed motherhood and HIV/etc. Could it be that people that choose riskier lifestyles accept the risks for their actions? Just a thought...

[dramamama6685]

Gosh, I love governmentl over regulation.