cbs5.com — After an evening of discussion and testimony from local citizens and anti-smoking advocates, the Belmont City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to proceed with the drafting of an ordinance that revises the city's current smoking ban in workplaces and most public areas, to now include any residence except single-family detached homes.
Nov 21, 2006 View in Crawl 4
edmcguirkNov 21, 2006
The excuse that it's too expensive to support the hospital costs of tobacco users is a false one. Tobacco users die quicker and cheaper than the rest who dodder on onto old age.
quarsawNov 21, 2006
If you count an apartment complex as public property then you are basically saying you must be a land owner to smoke. Hrm, sounds like something I've heard before
spacejackNov 21, 2006
Oh, you think you're going to be allowed to have soda, eh?
streakNov 21, 2006
@togra, I believe by drinking an alcoholic beverage in public, even one wrapped in a paper bag, you are still breaking the law. It's just that the wrapper and search-and-seizure laws protect you.Smoking in public should be banned because it absolutely IS a health hazard to others and because public displays of smoking help promote tobacco use. Due to the depravity induced by your addiction, you don't seem to care that others care if you smoke, but nevertheless we do.Why don't you just quit?
streakNov 21, 2006
You'd have a point if (for example) all businesses had the where-with-all to ban smoking. Because smoking is a hazard to the smoker and others around them. That's where the government needs to step in, just as it does for alcohol use.
robotcitizenNov 22, 2006
All Americans should be allowed to smoke, but they should be required to sign a legal waiver first, giving up any claim to Medicare/Medicaid dollars to treat their smoking related diseases. Why should my tax dollars pay for your voluntary self-destruction? Freedom goes both ways.
Closed AccountNov 22, 2006
As far as I know, smokers are already paying for their habit with high cigarette taxes, and they also have to pay more for health insurance.What's funny is that fairly recently in Ohio, the price of cigarettes went up around ~$0.50. The increase had _nothing_ to do with paying for potential health costs and was merely in place for the state to gain revenue.
2012Nov 22, 2006
I smoke because I like it. I usually smoke about 6 cigarettes a day. I choose to smoke outside of my house because I don't want to smoke around my daughter and I don't want my house to smell like an ashtray. I also will not smoke around anyone who does not smoke too. I also respect "non" smoking areas. However, my porch, my patio, my yard, those are smoking areas. This should also be respected.Many years ago, long before these bans on smoking anywhere existed, two friends were sitting across from each other. One was smoking and the other was chewing gum. After the smoker had blown smoke in the face of the gum chewer several times, the gum chewer took the gum out of her mouth and held it in front of the face of the smoker and asked, "Do you want to chew this gum?""No! Of course not." said the smoker."Well, I don't want to smoke your cigarette."The smoker apologized and promptly put out the cigarette and their conversation continued. Problem respectfully resolved.I won't smoke in your face. But I will smoke behind your back. And I want the "non" smokers and the government to get OFF of my back. We all benefit from the tax revenue that comes from tobacco products. I for one am sick of second hand hypocracy.
loris7575Jun 24, 2007
I am sorry to everyone out there that is a smoker, I have smoking friends, but I don't appreciate the second hand smoke, I get extremely allergic where my throat will get swollen up and I have problems breathing. My new neighbor is a smoker and she just graduated from law school (so my apartment manager is taking her side about everything because he does not want to get sued). I complained about her smoke coming through my ventilation system, so the apartment manager made her smoke on her patio. Now I have to keep all my windows closed for fear of second hand smoke coming through them. I have an outdoor cat who is eleven and has always been an outdoor cat. I leave the patio door open for him to go in and out of the apartment. I am on the second level so he hops down onto my neighbors patio wall to get down to the ground. He has been doing this for a year with the old neighbors and they didn't care. Well after we complained about the second hand smoke issue, she turned into a she-devil. She complained about my poor cat jumping on her balcony and that she never wanted to see him again. The policy at the apartment complex is indoor cats only. We originally told the apartment manager that he is an outdoor cat and he said there is another one running around and it was no big deal that he would turn a blind eye until there was a problem. Eleven years and no one has complained about my cat. Now he has to be walked on a leash if he wants to go outside, how do you train an old cat to be walked on a leash? That's not all, she complains about the water from my plants spilling down onto her patio. That she does not want her patio wet!! What is she going to do when it rains? Now I have to move out because of the situation (my lease is up in a couple of days and I was going to do a month to month, instead I had to give them my thirty days) and I have no idea where I am going to move to. I am trying to find an internship for the summer and then a job since I just graduated, so then I will be stuck in another lease which will ruin my chances of being able to take off to another city if need be for a job. If I don't move out, the second she sees my cat on the loose again, I am sure she will videotape him and get me evicted. This is completely out of control. So this is what I get for being allergic to smoke, please can someone tell me is this fair?