Smoking Enforcement Getting Out of Hand

[dragonslayer]

I’m in PA now and not feeling any of the heat yet. But I plan on co-living in HI for a couple years and then retiring there permanently. Right now they have implemented laws that are insane and being enforced. You can’t smoke within 20’ of any structure that has an opening. You can’t sit on your lanai and smoke and many of the beaches are posting non-smoking beach. You can’t be inside your condo which you own that shares a wall with another and smoke, let alone your lanai. They are trying to ban smoking in cars because of other cars around you. But here is the problem… They are going bat shit crazy on enforcing it. Fines for first offense is $100/$50 court, Second $200/$50 and third on $500/$50. If you can even find a smoking room in a hotel, which almost all have gone smoke free. It has to be a whole floor, but you can’t go out on the lanai and smoke. Police are blindly taking the word of others, and issuing these tickets, that you can’t dispute and bench warrants are issued for failure to pay. Funny thing is it doesn’t apply to jails; you can smoke all you want there. Oh and this also goes for medical marijuana, so a cancer patient who really needs this, can grow it but not smoke it.
How’s your state doing?

 

[simnettpratt]

If you live in a condo that shares a wall, how would they know if you smoked inside?

 

[knightmare]

Jeez that's insane... California is pretty smoke unfriendly, but nothing like that! At least not yet.. :/

 

[schmitzbitz]

How’s your state doing?

The only state I live in is denial...it's not that bad...
However my province (I'm a Canuck) has had these laws in place for a few years now; and pretty much everyone I've spoken to, both smokers and non-, agree that they are utterly ridiculous.
Coincidentally, WorkSafeBC (our version of Compo) has provided maximum safe exposure levels to radiation, asbestos, CO2 and CO, black-mold, and several other extremely toxic substances including viruses and bacteria; however they state that there is 'no safe level of exposure to second hand smoke'... :crazy:

 

[phred]

If you live in a condo that shares a wall, how would they know if you smoked inside?

I'm guessing it depends on how much one smokes, and how drastic one's smoke abatement measures are.

 

[dragonslayer]

If they smell the smoke they just call the cops. No facing your accuser, they knock on the door and if they smell smoke you get the ticket. They don't even have to tell you who complained, and it can be anyone... Even if they don't live there who wants to get you fined. This is even though you don't share common airducts, it's any dwelling with more than 1 unit.

They fined a friend of mine in the parking lot who lit a cigar before getting into his car. It was within 20' of a groundfloor door, they pulled him over and fined him.

It's not Aloha for smokers, and I'm really pissed about it. Looking at the Big Island now to see the weather patterns (I need dry constant temp.) and my dreams of Maui and my friends there will be a 20 minute plane ride.

Craig

 

[redbeard]

I smoke out on the patio at my gfs apartment complex. I am just waiting for someone to accuse me of smoking weed or something. I get funny looks, I smile and continue on with my business :puffpipe:

 

[mustanggt]

Smoking dope is PC these days. Our weed is not. Welcome to Nazi Germany.

 

[gwtwdbss]

Wow Dragon, are you sure you will be happy there? I bet the scenery is awesome and you know best. I know right before the Superbowl last year they banned smoking in hotels in Indiana and have a 8ft distance from building doors in effect. You can still smoke in some bars in FL as long as their food sales are less than 10% of their income I believe. It seems like HI is taking it to the extreme. Are those laws in effect on all of the islands?

 

[flyguy]

Idaho is fairly conservative and doesn't have too many anti-smoking laws, outside of Boise. I live in beautiful North Idaho. Lots of smokers up here. If they were to pass anti-smoking laws, it would result in a revolution!

 

[ejames]

I think I would tell Hawaii to kiss my rusty butt--and look for another place to retire to!

 

[captainprophesy]

Wow that's insane... CA is slowly becoming like that.
This is why my goal is to have a ranch up in Montana... Just get away from all these idiots. :|

 

[captainprophesy]

They tell me too many of the "Calies" moving up there come for what Montana promises, but as soon as they settle in, many are determined to change it to "California North" which, they say, is not a good thing.

Hmm never heard that before, quite honestly i dont know what that means.

What exactly does Montana promise? And what is a "California North"?

 

[zonomo]

I live in WA State and we just passed the Marijuana law. We can't smoke indoors here anywhere except for the Indian reservations. I guess I'm from the old school. If a restaurant wants to allow smoking, and the patrons and workers know people will smoke there, let them decide if they want to frequent that establishment or not. If someone is adamantly against smoking, hallelujah, dont go there. I wonder what freedoms will be left in 100 years from how?

 

[bigboi]

Zonomo, I too live in Washington state. There is a place in Bellingham WA called Casa Que Pasa and they were allowing patrons to smoke in there. What they did is they had a tip jar that they put up. All the money from the tip jar would go to pay the fines. They usually got a lot of money in that jar and had to empty multiple times a day. What people appreciated the most was that this establishment allowed people the freedom of choice regardless of what others said. And most of the smokers their were respectful enough to smoke in a section where the smoke didn't reach the rest of the restaurant.
It would be nice to have some more establishments to have to smoke indoors.

 

[simnettpratt]

bigboi, that's an awesome story. Good on Casa Que Pasa!

 

[dragonslayer]

PA is still cool to some degree on inside smoking for bars. If you meet a ratio of liquor to food sales (I forget what it is) you can fill out a form proving it and receive a “smoking allowed” license. Where my wife is a bartender, they met the requirements and are one of the few in the whole city of Pittsburgh/Monroeville. They have huge smoke eaters that suck up the smoke, you can hardly see the smoke, but you can of course smell it.
Craig

 

[tedvig]

Boy, this is all so crazy. I can't wait for the day they figure out all this cancer could be caused by the pharmaceutical industry or the petroleum industry. Who knows, maybe they're funding all this anti baloney.

 

[drwatson]

And the hole in the ozone is really caused by hairspray cans too!

 

[kashmir]

That's it! I'm moving to Italy.