Current Events Thread

[Secone]

I don't smoke weed, never have, and probably never will because of lack of interest. But I do want to add something. Personally, I think that all smoking, any substance, should be illegal in public. I don't care what you do in your home, but I feel like I should be able to walk down the street without having to catch somebody's nasty fucking smoke in my face. If you want to risk lung cancer you should have to lock yourself up in a little box and keep that shit to yourself. Same goes for weed, I don't want to walk down the street or get on a bus and have the stuff in my face.

So I'm all for legalization, just keep it away from me. And that goes for everything that people want to smoke.

Good luck with that, the state I go to college in is one of the top states with tobacco smokers, I can't go to a single class without having to wade through groups of people smoking cigarettes on the paths to the building I have to go in. It annoys the shit out of me.

[Dinner]

I remember hearing about a bill that was going through my state legislature for the banning of public smoking a week or so ago, I wonder what came of it.

From what I found, the bill is in the House of Representatives and will be voted on this week. In its current state, the proposed bill will ban smoking in pretty much all public areas except cigar and hookah bars, tobacco shops, social clubs, and entire properties of gambling facilities (Apparently in its previous state, smoking would only be allowed on the gambling floors themselves). The bill also gives bars and taverns an 18 month exemption period. Hope it passes.

[GlobalEnjoi]

Good luck with that, the state I go to college in is one of the top states with tobacco smokers, I can't go to a single class without having to wade through groups of people smoking cigarettes on the paths to the building I have to go in. It annoys the shit out of me.

That's how it was at my school until last June. But I hope something like what dinner posted comes through. I get so pissed off every time I hear people complain about homosexuals, nudity and cursing on tv, and a general lack of morals through the country, but then I have to walk through clouds of cancer while I try to get an education. Boobies and homosexuals won't give me cancer, so I'm a lot less worried about them.

[worbat]

"Homosexuals are bad parents" - Chain smoking Mum with 3 kids in a trailer.

[Tactiger9]

At my university they have made a campus wide ban on smoking, from this year if you smoke on campus you might get a on the spot fine of up to $500.
In saying that, everyone smokes at my Uni, so I dunno how its going to go down.

[sulkdodds]

Are you guys really so het up about smoking outdoors (where there is wind and a functionally infinite reserve of fresh air) that you'd legislate against it? That seems an excessive broach of people's liberties to me. I don't think it's easy to get cancer from passing passive smoke in the open air, and the fact that it "annoys the shit out of" you is really no more relevant to the law than the fact that Compare the Meerkat annoys the shit out of me.

There is more to life. The only serious injustice is the thousands who die needlessly in Mexico over drug warfare. It is absurd that it's illegal, but the true injustice is not to you, and you're only worsening it by providing a market.

Well, there's also the thousands of people going through the US prison system for victimless crimes.

[worbat]

Are you guys really so het up about smoking outdoors (where there is wind and a functionally infinite reserve of fresh air) that you'd legislate against it? That seems an excessive broach of people's liberties to me. I don't think it's easy to get cancer from passing passive smoke in the open air, and the fact that it "annoys the shit out of" you is really no more relevant to the law than the fact that Compare the Meerkat annoys the shit out of me.

If I'm stuck behind a group of people smoking, or in the park with my cousins little kid, and there are a load of people smoking to the point that you can taste the smoke, then yeah. If they want to kill them selves do it in their own back garden.

[Rotinaj]

Well, there's also the thousands of people going through the US prison system for victimless crimes.

The difference being that those people are violating the law (absurd as it may be) and the people dying and living in constant terror because of gang wars have no say in the matter. It's much easier to merely give up a hobby than to expect these people to escape their situation, because god knows we impede that as well.

[Shadow_Archmagi]

Are you guys really so het up about smoking outdoors (where there is wind and a functionally infinite reserve of fresh air)

To be fair, there *are* people with severe smoke allergies where smoke is actually a life threatening thing.

Also, although there's a theoretical infinite supply of air, smoke tends to linger around where people have been smoking. I remember that before I switched colleges, there would frequently be a bunch of smokers standing outside just about any given door, creating a gauntlet of smoke. There's a lot fewer smokers at my new college.

[Secone]

Are you guys really so het up about smoking outdoors (where there is wind and a functionally infinite reserve of fresh air) that you'd legislate against it? That seems an excessive broach of people's liberties to me. I don't think it's easy to get cancer from passing passive smoke in the open air, and the fact that it "annoys the shit out of" you is really no more relevant to the law than the fact that Compare the Meerkat annoys the shit out of me.
Well, there's also the thousands of people going through the US prison system for victimless crimes.

I never said I'd go for legislation against smoking outside or on campus grounds, I just said it was annoying

[sulkdodds]

I can only speak from my own experience, but I have honestly never encountered a situation where people were smoking outside and it was not possible to avoid it. Pubs, schools, universities, I have honestly never even noticed any problems. I smoke on a very occasional basis, so perhaps I am inured to its effects, but it's hard for me to imagine a situation where the inconvenience borne by me for other people's smoking was higher than the inconvenience borne by them for not being allowed to smoke anywhere but their own home. As a consequence I'm not equipped to see these posts as anything other than "I don't like thing x - so I should never have to see anyone else enjoying thing x either!"

Smoke allergies are a problematic case, but they are also an exceptional one, and it's questionable how far that should be allowed to affect broader public policy. If it's genuinely the case that some people can drop dead from standing outside a pub near some smokers, then the answer is probably "very far", but still.

The difference being that those people are violating the law (absurd as it may be) and the people dying and living in constant terror because of gang wars have no say in the matter. It's much easier to merely give up a hobby than to expect these people to escape their situation, because god knows we impede that as well.

I don't think that makes the prison population any less of an 'injustice'. They are being persecuted with no good reason for an offence whose consequences are completely out of step with its punishment; this is, I would say, the definition of an injustice (the crime situation in Mexico probably qualifies as a humanitarian crisis). If you want to make the point that buying and smoking weed is participating in a corrupt economic system similar to buying sweatshop goods and conflict diamonds, that's fair enough, but you seemed to be claiming that the home-grown injustices were not worth talking about or using as a justification for a change in the law. At the end of the day, in a country where many voters seem completely okay with institutional racism and the systematic fucking-over of foreigners, the fact that the US has a prisoner-per-capita count higher than any other country's in the world might actually be a more effective argument for legislative reform.

[Joest]

At my university they have made a campus wide ban on smoking, from this year if you smoke on campus you might get a on the spot fine of up to $500.
In saying that, everyone smokes at my Uni, so I dunno how its going to go down.

That was proposed here a few weeks ago. There was a giant protest against it and the university dropped the plans to do it.

[Emo Panda]

Well, in Canada, especially in the city where I reside, we instituted a by-law that prevents smoking within 10 meters of any public entrance. And let me just say, it has worked out wonderfully. I guess anti-smoking politics are much stronger here. We've had the disturbing images on cartons for as long as I can remember.

[sulkdodds]

I do love those disturbing images. Problem is, many smokers see them as trophies. Some I've met even cut out and keep them.

[Secone]

Funny, all this talk about vaporizers, and now this comes out: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2012/8422/thc-e-cig-goes-to-market/

Smokeless, so no need to worry about the harmful effects, but still able to get the full benefits of THC

[Scrap.est]

Funny, all this talk about vaporizers, and now this comes out: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2012/8422/thc-e-cig-goes-to-market/

Smokeless, so no need to worry about the harmful effects, but still able to get the full benefits of THC

E-cig isn't that new anymore. People have been buying them for years.

[Al_Ka_Pwn]

I can only speak from my own experience, but I have honestly never encountered a situation where people were smoking outside and it was not possible to avoid it. Pubs, schools, universities, I have honestly never even noticed any problems. I smoke on a very occasional basis, so perhaps I am inured to its effects, but it's hard for me to imagine a situation where the inconvenience borne by me for other people's smoking was higher than the inconvenience borne by them for not being allowed to smoke anywhere but their own home. As a consequence I'm not equipped to see these posts as anything other than "I don't like thing x - so I should never have to see anyone else enjoying thing x either!"

Smoke allergies are a problematic case, but they are also an exceptional one, and it's questionable how far that should be allowed to affect broader public policy. If it's genuinely the case that some people can drop dead from standing outside a pub near some smokers, then the answer is probably "very far", but still.
I don't think that makes the prison population any less of an 'injustice'. They are being persecuted with no good reason for an offence whose consequences are completely out of step with its punishment; this is, I would say, the definition of an injustice (the crime situation in Mexico probably qualifies as a humanitarian crisis). If you want to make the point that buying and smoking weed is participating in a corrupt economic system similar to buying sweatshop goods and conflict diamonds, that's fair enough, but you seemed to be claiming that the home-grown injustices were not worth talking about or using as a justification for a change in the law. At the end of the day, in a country where many voters seem completely okay with institutional racism and the systematic fucking-over of foreigners, the fact that the US has a prisoner-per-capita count higher than any other country's in the world might actually be a more effective argument for legislative reform.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/third-hand-smoke/AN01985

[FBC]

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/third-hand-smoke/AN01985

So, who suffers from third-hand smoke?

People who do lines of coke off of furniture that reeks of cigarettes. No big loss.

[Marauder8]

its medicinal coke

[sulkdodds]

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/third-hand-smoke/AN01985

So in fact outdoors and in public spaces is the healthiest place for other people to smoke, rather than in their own homes?