In an apparent attempt to make NYC's soda size regulations look less control freak-ish, the city of San Rafael, California has outlawed smoking in private residences if those private residences share a wall with another private residence, because secondhand smoke something something for the children.
I have not checked to see if this only applies to tobacco smoke or to medical marijuana too. I'm guessing there's no exemption if both occupants of a duplex smoke, either.
We are over the crazy event horizon, beyond which not even the most energetic particle of common sense can return.
I've had exactly 1 cigarette since the middle of July... But some crap like that would be more than enough for me to go out and buy a pack.
ReplyDeleteThat law is just insisting that it be violated.
It's slightly bizarro-world to drive around town and see all the ad campaign billboards for "Tobacco-Free Colorado" when, well, you know.
ReplyDeleteI know San Francisco's smoking ban on public sidewalks and parks is specific to tobacco smoke.
ReplyDeleteYou can't walk down the street or sit on a park bench in 'Frisco and smoke a Camel...but if you twist up a joint or pack a bowel, That's the GOOD kind of Second Hand Smoke!
Kinda like black kids stomping a white guy while yelling epithets isn't a hate crime....but white-skinned me disagreeing with our president is totally racist!
Huh! Never mind going full Bloomberg; the PDRK has gone full Soviet!
ReplyDeleteAnd you know what* I don't want that word to disappear* Use it, and make sure people know the history of the hated Soviet Union
I don't smoke, but if I lived in a duplex, condo, or what have you in that community I'd sure want to find some tobacco-scented incense. And burn it ALL THE TIME.
ReplyDeleteHow TF is this supposed to be enforceable? "I smell tobacco smoke from my neighbor's apartment!" "Yes, m'am...we'll send the SWAT team right over. If you can tell us there's any dogs in the residence, we'll show up quicker." This is the very kind of regulation HOA chairmen sit up late at night fantasizing about. Marko's 'blockwart' types would love this stuff, too. Same kind of person.
Yep, tobacco-scented incense is what I'd want.
What a crock.
Things like this give me a strong urge to start smoking. Someplace where I'm guaranteed to annoy someone.
ReplyDelete> but if you twist up a joint or pack a bowel
ReplyDeleteAdds a whole 'nother level of meaning to the phrase "I smoked some good shit, man!"
As to the ordinance: Ye gawds and little fishies. I effing HATE* smoking, and I'm disgusted by this. A real shame that such a beautiful part of the world (naysayers go ahead, drive up the Marin coast from the Golden Gate bridge, all the way to Ft Bragg or Arcata for good measure, and tell me that region isn't one of the most beautiful parts of this green earth) is occupied by such people.
*Ain't just lung cancer. Incidence of coronary heart disease/"heart attack", stroke, peripheral vascular disease (take a good look at a non-healing lower extremity ulcer, better yet smell one right before the surgeons have to remove the foot) are all increased by smoking.
But people have a right to do dumb things. I've had a few good spills (mostly off of bicycles) that have run up hospital bills and resulted in lost productivity. Not sure how that is qualitatively different from smoking. (Quantitatively much different, but that's another matter.)
These are the Crazy Years.
ReplyDeleteCue Nehemiah Scudder.
They'll have to get in line. According to news reports, Berkeley is seriously considering banning smoking in _detached_ single-family residences.
ReplyDeleteDamn shame someone doesn't share a "Wall" with Bloomberg. Start up the Lincoln in the garage and send him some second hand smoke.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Can't we all just get along?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: No, I don't think so!
Gerry
"Adds a whole 'nother level of meaning to the phrase "I smoked some good shit, man!"
ReplyDeleteFaaak! Good catch Mike_C!
Baby kept me up most of the night! That's TODAY'S excuse for today's shitty typing!
How TF is this supposed to be enforceable?
ReplyDeleteIt's not. This is one of those laws that they'll selectively enforce against someone when they want to shut them up.
jf
Hell, look up the crap they put in the gov't mandated "FSC" cigarettes. Gov't says tobbaco is evil, yet they force the cigarette companies to put poison in them, because it's For The Children or something. Thinking of going RYO.
ReplyDeleteJust one more law will bring about utopia, doncha know?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't apply to 'medical' marijuana... sigh
ReplyDeleteI remember when Portland enacted a smoking ban 'indoors' at all workplaces.
ReplyDeleteI was a welder, fabricating rail-cars. Even with giant 220v, 3phase vent fans every 20 feet in the roof of our OPEN AIR SHOP, one could see the haze of welding smoke down the length of the bay. Only the actual 'welders' in the bay had to wear respirators (and even then only when actually burning wire), yet...'No Smoking Allowed'.
Go figure. (insert rolled eyes here)
When the State shut down the Mental Units, all the inmates appear to have gone into politics!
ReplyDeleteUlises from CA
Wuh? I don't smoke and hate the smell. But it never bothered me in the least when I live in an attached townhouse and the neighbors smoked.
ReplyDeleteSmoke doesn't penetrate dry wall.
But the thought of smoke does, and it's been proven to cause cancer in the state of California!
ReplyDeleteTo hear the State of California tell it, if it's not weed or something shocking, it probably causes cancer.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in places where smoke sure as hell does pass between the units, so this is far from the worst example of overregulation I've seen.
ReplyDeleteSmoke doesn't penetrate drywall but if you live in a duplex or apartment building and have your windows open your neighbors have the potential for smelling it.
ReplyDeleteIt's still a fascist thing.
Related: I was looking for some kind of pejorative for Nanny Bloomberg t'other day and came up with "shortcup," like "shortblock".
>I've lived in places where smoke sure as hell does pass between the units, so this is far from the worst example of overregulation I've seen.
ReplyDelete@markm: So have I. Hated it. And we should have the right to be free from someone else's noxious and unhealthy recreational substance in our own homes. If not in place already, there absolutely "oughta be a law" to forbid making bad and/or toxic smells that get into other people's places.
What bothers me about this law is that it is penalizing even those condo/apartment/what-have-you dwelling smokers whose smoke does not get into neighboring units. The tobacco equivalent to prior restraint, if you will.
On a medical and economic level (as in shared risk, etc) I'd LOVE to see smoking banned across the board. (Except for the executives and tame "scientists" who keep claiming that there is "no proven link" between smoking and disease. They should be forced to inhale the equivalent of at least 10 ppd for the rest of their lives. After all, what's the harm?) It's just that my pesky (small "l") libertarian convictions get in the way of advocating for such a ban.
@Weer'd Beard: Baby kept me up most of the night! That's TODAY'S excuse for today's shitty typing!
I'd figured auto-correct gone wild, but baby works for me too. There's a funny story about bowl/bowel in Gordon Liddy's autobiography which is actually a very good read. The "bowel" story is from his days in federal prison.
Weer'd, I have it on good authority that San Fran is perfectly fine with folks packing bowels in public.
ReplyDeleteWhat if I find a doctor to write me a prescription for tobacco?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the street name for the mixture of tobacco and marijuana?