DeRidder Council reaches anti-smoking compromise

DeRidder Council reaches anti-smoking compromise - KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

City Council Member Elizabeth Granger is herself a young mother. She proposed the ban on smoking in city parks--- in order to help reduce tobacco exposure to children. "You just can't argue anymore with the statistics and second hand smoke." But she ran into opposition from smokers and even non smokers who felt local government was going too far telling people what they can and cannot do. Then they reached a sort of compromise.

Tobacco users can puff and chew as long as they do it in the parking lot and not the park. Said Granger, "It accomplished exactly my original goal which was to protect our children, in the playground area from the effects of second hand smoke."

This is a compromise?

Street smoke ban unlikely in Blackpool

Street smoke ban unlikely in Blackpool - Local - Blackpool Gazette

But Fylde Euro MP Paul Nuttall has criticised the move.

He said: “We have already seen the dreadful impact the smoking ban has had on the pub trade resulting in hundreds of pubs across the country shutting down.

“If this idea becomes reality it will mean no more going out for a walk and having a smoke.

“I do not believe there is any evidence to show anyone, young or old, has been adversely affected by second hand smoke in the open air.

“Education is needed to deter people from smoking – not heavy handed rules from bureaucrats who want to dictate every aspect of our lives.

Bravo Blackpool.

I really liked this article,but reading it some silly thoughts occurred to me.

Who will be doing the educating?
The state,ASH,NHS,other assorted government funded charities?

Some naive part of me hopes someday we will look back on all the damage done by the banning of smoking indoors,outdoors and in cars, your own private balconies ect and be appalled by it.

A part of me looks at history and believes that someday,somehow all this nonsense will be overturned and people will go back to living lives again in society,not a society made up of smokers and non smokers.

I hope it happens before I am so old it no longer matters.