D.C. Council proposal bans smoking in front of buildings

[The Straight Story]

D.C. Council proposal bans smoking in front of buildings

WASHINGTON - A new law is being considered by the D.C. Council that would restrict smoking outside of buildings where smoking on the inside is banned.

D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson introduced a bill Monday that would authorize smoking bans up to 25 feet from the wall of any residential or commercial property.

"We see employees or patrons who are standing outside a front door smoking. The bill wouldn't say that's illegal," Mendelson says. "The bill would give the authority to the store operator or the building owner to say 'I don't want people to smoke within 25 feet of the door.' "

Mendelson says if the law passes as written, it could be illegal to smoke outside of one building, but not an adjacent one because of the discretion granted to building owners.

The expansion of the District's smoke-free law also calls for retailers caught selling tobacco products to minors to face fines and possible jail time, along with mandatory license suspension or revocation.

Minors caught attempting to purchase cigarettes, or in possession of a tobacco product, will also face tougher penalties, in the form of fines as high as $500 and up to 25 hours of community service.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1773356

Really, you just have to trust us - we just want to ban you smoking in a public building. Oh and now private ones. Uh, can you not smoke outdoors in parks please, or face a fine? Oh and, uh, no smoking outside of a building if the owner does not want you to. And soon we will tell you that the choice is not up to the building owner - cause we fundie nuts are against personal choice...but we suckered in a lot of people to join our cause - who knew how many Americans would turn on your body, your choice? Obesity is next, then abortion (it is a choice and costs us all money), then sex in general (wait till we demonize it in schools and explain to people how your sex spreads diseases, adds to the population, is sinful, etc).

See, we had to start eroding rights somewhere. Bit by bit, you will become property of the state. It is for the good of children and adults who hate being drug out of their homes at gunpoint and forced into bars, restaurants, and so forth. We must save those poor helpless people and make the world safe for them. Don't you feel sorry for those people and their pain?

You will exist by the country and for the country and it's glorious leaders and their religion/ideology.

[Taverner]

1. Why don't we just poke smokers with sticks?

Same idea...jeez!

[Thickasabrick]

4. OMG....that just made my day.

:rofl:

[elleng]

2. I KNEW there was a GOOD reason that I'd moved from DC,

and this is it!

[Beaverhausen]

3. you'll get over it

you aren't allowed to smoke in public at all in the town I live in. The sky didn't fall. Smokers, including my fiance, still find a way and a place to light up.

[The Straight Story]

5. Is that like saying you would get over not being allowed to protest in public?

Because you can somewhere else?

Never thought I would see the day people who thought of themselves as liberals would be against the freedom of people to make choice.

But then again, all sides have religious fundies trying to save us from our sins.

[elleng]

6. and then there's this!

The Speed Hump Sound-Off

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/28/AR2009092802861.html?hpid=artslot

[tridim]

7. Boner's going to be pissed.

[MiniMe]

8. In a city, it is almost imossible to move 25 ft away from all building walls

I guess you could smoke in the middle of an intersection. I could understand a bill now allowing smoking within so may feet of a building entrance, but not from any wall of a building. And yes, I smoke. Wish I could quit, especially with the sin taxes, but so far, I have been unsuccessful in quitting.