Criminization of the Smoker: Patio Smoking Bans in North America

“The provincial government is contemplating a smoking ban on restaurant and bar patios and in vehicles carrying minors.  New anti-tobacco legislation, expected to be introduced later this fall, would also set new limits on how close people smoking can be to public buildings and curtail tobacco sales in pharmacies…”

Source:  http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/Smoking+patios+banned/2148665/story.html

It should be illegal to smoke with minors in the car, on patios of public areas and around or in public buildings.  But smokers are still people.  Let’s not outcast them completely especially, with the frigid temperatures of a cold Canadian winter strongly rolling in. 

As patio smoking bans pop up all over North America smokers form into huddles in butt littered parking lots, which is really not a pretty site for business owners attempting to attract new customers.  If this ban is to be enforced properly and business mindedly, establishments should be reimbursed for having to provide outside smoking areas for smokers to light up.  What will we do when all these smokers start coming down with pneumonia?

If a person wants to smoke in this day and age, they need to respect the large majority of people out there that choose not to smoke for many smart reasons and really, just don’t like it.    

In regards to the legalities of lighting up on public patios, maybe it is time to think about the legalities of production, trafficking and usage of this deadly drug that masquerades as a commercialized pack of cigarettes available from the corner store.  Maybe it is time to think about considering tobacco within the laws of such drugs as cocaine or heroin, although much less of a stimulant still just as addictive.  How much money is spent on heath care each year for tobacco and smoking relating illnesses?   

This is not to say that the criminalization of tobacco use and its distribution will deter the addicting smoker from smoking, but maybe it would deter children and non smokers from starting…  

In conclusion… why not just quit smoking.       

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/Smoking+patios+banned/2148665/story.html