Smoking Enforcement Getting Out of Hand

[yadan]

Sounds to me as if you Americans - or at least your legislators - have far too much leisure time and have nothing better to do than to concoct ridiculous laws and regulations.

Here in Asia - and in Europe as well - there are restrictions, to be sure, but nothing like some of the insane extremes mentioned above.

As for Hawaii: when I have enough money saved to visit there, I'll be sure to pass it up in favor of some other 'paradise.'

 

[zonomo]

I think this thread has given me a great idea. If anyone in WA ever hassles me about smoking my pipe, I'm going to to tell them that is dope.

 

[mrgunnar177]

Exactly what iv been doing this year haha.

 

[dochudson]

I would be glad to trade you all my pipes and stuff for your retirement place on a beach in Hawaii. Yesterday I was looking at 1/4 inch of ice covering everything with 4 inches of wet snow on top of that.

 

[gnatjulio]

Wow! I guess I'm never vacationing in Hawaii. I hope they relax on their attitude by the time you're ready to move there.

 

[eibhir]

Screw Hawaii. I'd rather go to the Bahamas anyway. :nana:

 

[kashmir]

I've spent quite a bit of time in the Mediterranean countries, as my wife's family still lives there. And to a man they can't understand American politics. Why is tobacco so important, while there are a host of other problems that need attention? The answer I get from them is America is unraveling. In Italy where pipe smokers are found on every corner, they just shake their heads. They say Where are the Yanks of Old? Or in American parlance Where's Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation today? Why can't their kids and grandkids act more like gramps?

 

[foggymountain]

I wasn't planning to move to Hawaii, but had thought of it. No more. Too many busybodies.

 

[oklansas]

I've always been puzzled by the double standard that arises from tobacco and weed smoking. I had a friend in high school that would rant for hours about the 'evils' of tobacco smoke, then sit there and light up a bowl of pot. It's weird how people can reject tobacco so thoroughly and then turn around and "toke".
Never mind that marijuana smoke has four times the carcinogens that tobacco smoke does.

 

[daveinlax]

I'm not really surprised about anything. I'll bet a third or more of the guys on pipe boards can't smoke in their own homes. 8O

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Guess that nixes any vacationing possibilities to Hawaii.

 

[neverknowsbest]

Never mind that marijuana smoke has four times the carcinogens that tobacco smoke does.

Uh, source? Most studies I have seen say the exact opposite, and in many cases, cannabis can actually reduce or reverse the spread of cancer.
From the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1277837/

 

[oklansas]

From: http://adai.uw.edu/marijuana/factsheets/respiratoryeffects.htm

[when smoking cannabis] there is a prolonged and deeper inhalation and it is smoked to a shorter butt length and at a higher combustion temperature. This results in an approximate five-fold increase in carboxyhaemoglobin concentration, three-fold greater amount of tar inhaled and retention of one third more tar in the respiratory tract.

I should have been a touch more specific, as in the amount of carcinogens you introduce is heavily effected by the behavior of smoking. Irregardless, you are certainly being exposed to fewer carcinogens via pipe smoking (where one doesn't inhale) versus via toking (where one not only inhales, but holds in the smoke for an extended period).

 

[trailspike48]

These laws, our federal Govt. both parties are why I bought a lot overlooking Lake Atitaln in Guatemala. I can learn Spanish, I just can't learn to live with ignorance.

 

[chum202]

If i am not mistaken there are still remaining 7 states have no laws prohibiting smoking on public places. But by 2020 they say that every U.S. state will have a smoking ban by 2020. This is apocalypse.

 

[oklansas]

What a boring country that will be...
I still can't get used to the bars without smoking...weird.

 

[lucky695]

they may be able to uphold the smoking laws, but not able to do it on word of mouth and pointed fingers. They will need to have proof if they want thigs to stick The ACLU will get involved at some point for someone. Just like they did in Arizona, where they handed out tickets from speed cameras.. that lasted about a year, before it was thrown out, now AZ has all these speed cameras that are nothing but highway ornaments.
I certainly would have a hard time letting someone tell me what I could do on my own property... you don't want me to smoke in my own home??? come on past that no trespassing sign and stop me...

 

[rcanderson]

I push the smoking ban laws here in Hawaii all the time. There are loopholes in the law which make many of them unenforceable, so I stay within those loopholes.
As for the 20-foot rule from a doorway, air vent or window that opens, the way the law is written it just says that you can not stand still within 20-feet of them. So I intentionally walk back and forth in front of them, just to piss them off and show them how outlandish the laws are.
As for the beaches and parks, they are all smoke-free now, but there is another loophole. The officer has to see you smoking himself, then after warning you if you do not put it out, he is able to issue a fine to you.
For businesses, the person calling the police must first have the establishment owner ask you to stop smoking, and if that doesn't work, they have to wait there until the officer arrives. If they don't want to wait for the officer to arrive, they no longer dispatch officers to the call. Even then the officer is required to give you a verbal warning to put it out before he can issue a fine.
Those loopholes won't work in a condo though except for the walking back and forth in the parking lot or sidewalk.
The new policies piss the cops off but I haven't had to pay a single fine yet.
The reason the Honolulu Police Department had to adopt these new policies to deal with the laws is it started to really hurt tourism, especially from Japan where almost everyone smokes. The loopholes were left there to allow tourist walking down the sidewalk in front of businesses to smoke while they walked. I just stretch the loopholes a tad, lol.

 

[warren]

Cops, by and large, love such laws. We call them "tools of the trade". They are used only infrequently for "special" people needing an attitude adjustment. Most "special" people do not know they are "special." In the vernacular, not in public hearing distance, they are known as a**holes.
Every jurisdiction has such laws, little enforced, which are kept, tucked neatly away in the copper's brain, for those important moments a cop savors. Legends are built on such moments.

 

[perdurabo]

No one has a right to tell me I can't smoke. Unless I'm on your private property...rental property etc.
Last time I checked Tobacco was a legal substance, All the bans of 20 foot this or that is bs, unless it's applied to my statement above.