Smoking Bill in Oregon

[Speed Daemon]

Yeah, I remember the ecology movement in the '70s. Remember this?

We used to laugh at them back then! Now...not so much.

 

[Gmash]

I was just talking with a friend about this the other day...

I remember being a kid back in the mid 80's and still seeing cigarette machines everywhere, and I remember every other person would be smoking a cigarette and drinking a mountain dew....

Boy how things have changed.

Now you see more people with granola bars and water bottles....

I remember people thought the people who ate granola and didn't drink pop were fruitcakes....

lol, crazy how much things have changed.

Think back a little farther than that, and people smoked everywhere. When I was a kid, people smoked in grocery stores, banks, you name it. It wasn't that long ago people still smoked in office buildings. The weird thing is how fast we have gotten used to the changes. People smoking in a grocery store or waiting in line at the bank seems insane now.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I remember as a kid playing with the cigarette machines in K-Mart while my mom checked out. We would go through all the little vending machines and turn the handles and look in the dispensers to see if there was anything like kids do. The cigarette machine was literally right next to the kids vending machines so we would hit them all.

I also remember flying on planes and having to choose between smoking and non-smoking sections.

 

[Bob Maxey]

I remember as a kid playing with the cigarette machines in K-Mart while my mom checked out. We would go through all the little vending machines and turn the handles and look in the dispensers to see if there was anything like kids do. The cigarette machine was literally right next to the kids vending machines so we would hit them all.

I also remember flying on planes and having to choose between smoking and non-smoking sections.

I remember when cigarette machines were just about everywhere you looked. And not too long ago, you could smoke inside restaurants, bars, malls and the like. No more machines or smoking inside.

 

[BrianJB]

Yeah, I remember the ecology movement in the '70s. Remember this?

We used to laugh at them back then! Now...not so much.

lol

Think back a little farther than that, and people smoked everywhere. When I was a kid, people smoked in grocery stores, banks, you name it. It wasn't that long ago people still smoked in office buildings. The weird thing is how fast we have gotten used to the changes. People smoking in a grocery store or waiting in line at the bank seems insane now.

I remember the shopping carts had ashtrays by the handle.

I remember as a kid playing with the cigarette machines in K-Mart while my mom checked out. We would go through all the little vending machines and turn the handles and look in the dispensers to see if there was anything like kids do. The cigarette machine was literally right next to the kids vending machines so we would hit them all.

I also remember flying on planes and having to choose between smoking and non-smoking sections.

I remember playing with one of those machines outside our local IGA store when I was a kid, I remember one time the machine was messed up and I got my dad 2 packs of Marlboro reds.

I remember when cigarette machines were just about everywhere you looked. And not too long ago, you could smoke inside restaurants, bars, malls and the like. No more machines or smoking inside.

I even remember 10 years ago going into bars/restaurants here in Indiana and people smoking inside...now you can get arrested.

Heck we even had smoking break rooms...that stopped 6 years ago or so. The ceiling tiles are still yellow, its funny because the non smoking room is next to the (old) smoking room. The non smoking room is bright white, and the old smoking room had a tinge of yellow.

 

[Gmash]

Yep, there were ashtrays everywhere, those big sand filled ones. You could even smoke in the waiting room at the doctors office. Going outside to smoke? Nobody ever thunk of such a thing lol.

 

[Caleb L]

I'm from medford oregon - they passed a law a few years ago where you cant smoke within I think within 10ft or so of a business - havent heard about them trying to ban smokers lol. It is coming from the idiots north of us here in soutern oregon. Hopefully it doesn't pass. We arent all crazy in oregon...just some

 

[lightsleeper23]

I wouldn't be upset personally if they completely banned cigarettes and alcohol for that matter, as someone who does neither and doesn't like being around them. It makes more sense than marijuana being illegal.

However I wouldn't actually do that. Its a pretty big tax boost after all, hate to lose that revenue. What the sensible thing to do in my opinion is just get it over with and legalize pot already and tax it. Everybody knows it's less harmful than both of those, and less intoxicating than alcohol. What's the big deal? I'm not saying legalize hard drugs, but if this is such a free country why are we still criminalizing something less harmful than what we already allow?

 

[Bob Maxey]

I wouldn't be upset personally if they completely banned cigarettes and alcohol for that matter, as someone who does neither and doesn't like being around them. It makes more sense than marijuana being illegal.

However I wouldn't actually do that. Its a pretty big tax boost after all, hate to lose that revenue. What the sensible thing to do in my opinion is just get it over with and legalize pot already and tax it. Everybody knows it's less harmful than both of those, and less intoxicating than alcohol. What's the big deal? I'm not saying legalize hard drugs, but if this is such a free country why are we still criminalizing something less harmful than what we already allow?

Then we ban something deemed unsafe that you want to use and you blow up. How dare they ban that, you might say. Perhaps we ban the sale of salt and all fast food because it makes large numbers of fat people with heart failure right round the next corner.

Perhaps we ban alcohol. Kills tens of thousands of people in one way or another. We all know an alcohol bans have worked in the past, right?

Explain why we should ban smoking but legalize pot; a product that must be smoked. Seems rather odd that we make legal something that not only hurts your lungs (Second hand pot smoke perhaps) but damages society to some extent. And it is smoked, so what about the idea that they ban smoking because it is dangerous, but legalize a product that will largely be smoked?

Would you get behind my plan to make sales of hard drugs legal? Clean heroin is something you can live with for many years. If the heroin is free from adulterants and at a consistent strength, you can actually live with the habit for a very long time.

I believe the UK government tried this in 1960 or so. Clean heroin, reasonably priced and delivered through sterile syringes. Some experts say you can quit heroin cold turkey but you can't just quit alcohol (assuming a serious long term drinking problem) without serious complications. So in a way, heroin might be safer than alcohol.

Or, we keep pot illegal and make the smoking laws reasonable? Give people the right to smoke in certain areas and let a business owner decide if he or she wants to allow smoking in his or her place of business. Let us have smoking rooms. Let US decide rather than a bunch of morons that simply want us to die off sad and unhappy.

 

[Bob Maxey]

Yep, there were ashtrays everywhere, those big sand filled ones. You could even smoke in the waiting room at the doctors office. Going outside to smoke? Nobody ever thunk of such a thing lol.

I remember the local mall let you smoke almost anywhere in the mall proper and you could smoke in most stores. Nobody thought much about it. Smoking was everywhere. Few people complained.

Now, you cannot smoke in most places including your office, on the train platforms, near the bus shelters, by most buildings, etc.

They want to simply ban it from every square inch of the country. The play the BS "Second Hand Smoke" card and the fools believe the BS.

 

[Bob Maxey]

I'm from medford oregon - they passed a law a few years ago where you cant smoke within I think within 10ft or so of a business - havent heard about them trying to ban smokers lol. It is coming from the idiots north of us here in soutern oregon. Hopefully it doesn't pass. We arent all crazy in oregon...just some

I love Oregon. My grandparents were from Woodburn, Oregon. Lovely people and amazing scenery. Sadly, like most states, the idiots are in charge.

Here in SLC, the rule is generally 25 feet although I have seen signs saying to keep back 100 feet. I think the law says two different things: if the business owner provides an ashtray in a fixed location, that is where you can smoke. The other law says it is X number of feet, regardless. Not sure what the law actually is.

 

[lightsleeper23]

I said I PERSONALLY wouldn't care because I don't smoke or drink, but that I wouldn't actually ban them. Learn to read more carefully.

 

[jerofld]

Prohibition never works. Ever. And this is tantamount to prohibition.

For example: The alcohol prohibition of the 1930's only lead to illegal speakeasies that lead to the growth of the Chicago alcohol gangs. Most notably, Al Capone. Prohibition simply made it so criminals could make more money.

Same thing goes for the current 'war on drugs'. We banned drugs. Yet every year, more and more drugs get smuggled into the US. Drug cartels get more and more powerful. It should be called "the war of attrition over drugs", because it is exactly that. It doesn't matter how much money we throw into stopping the drug trade. They will always come back with more until we're outspent and the program falls apart.

Let people kill themselves with drugs if they want to. As long as it isn't done while operating a car (if they currently are driving) or as long as it doesn't endanger a child or affects people in a public space, I have no qualms about it. Let people get cancer and other maladies if they so choose. Sure, let's educate them about it, but it's ultimately their choice.

I agree with the clean air acts and think they serve a good purpose, though. There really shouldn't be smoking in public, indoor places. Without special permits and it being marked as a smoking area. Like if bars want it, they should be able to because they cater to specific clientele.

 

[Caleb L]

Jerofld,

Agree with your last post - ultimately it is a personal choice on if someone wants to do drugs - albeit a stupid idiotic choice - banning will never stop people from doing it - just make them want to do it more.

Its all about the $$$ trail ultimately & for the government drugs pay......

 

[SiempreTuna]

I remember the excuse of a shared ciggy being the best way to get to know the cute secretaries when I were a lad. I have to wonder how young fellas manage these days ..

Have to say, I went to a dance venue in Spain a years or two back where it seemed everyone was smoking (most Spaniards apparently having been born with a Ducados in their mouth) and it was absolultely grim! By the end of the night, I felt like I'd smoked an entire pack myself. If I ever had any doubts about the wisdom of smoke-free venues, that killed them.

I also agree that getting an unexpected face full of smoke when out on the street is pretty unpleasant, though being nowhere near as pervasive, it's got to be a lot less detrimental to health than car exhaust: you can hold your breath for a few paces to avoid cigarette smoke - good luck trying to avoid car exhaust.

Having said all that, I think this proposed law is absurd. Quite apart from the ridiculous way it's framed - doctors prescribing cigarettes? C'mon! - prohibition just doesn't work.

The way smoking is currently handled is way more effective: controlling usage and gathering taxes has dramatically reduced smoking. Which is quite an achievement, given how addictive nicotine is (way more than heroin*, for instance, as any fule kno). The current system may not be perfect, but it does at least work: a ban simply wouldn't.


* apparently most of the problems with heroin come from the crap it's cut with. The worst affect of clean heroin is apparently really bad constipation .. which I guess explains the rather strained look of junkies ..

 

[JohnLaird]

Making laws to protect people from themselves...is ludicrous.

Adopting a federal law that prohibits smoking in designated public areas and in marked private businesses would make a lot more sense. A similar law in Texas makes it illegal to carry a concealed hand gun into businesses marked with the 30.06 sign and designated areas...government buildings, educational institutions, public fairs, etc. THAT would make sense and would be enforceable.

 

[markdavis0011]

Ooops! It is going wrong

 

[OutofDate1980]

Don't know if these avoid the smoking ban. It appears to me these cause less harm than tobacco.

Electronic cigarette - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An electronic cigarette, also known as an e-cigarette, personal vaporiser or PV, is an electronic inhaler that vaporises a liquid solution into an aerosol mist, simulating the act of tobacco smoking. Electronic cigarettes are no longer marketed as smoking cessation aids or tobacco replacement in most countries. There may be similarities between conventional and some electronic cigarettes in the physical design and the nicotine release, which may approximate the same amount of nicotine as a conventional cigarette. There are many electronic cigarettes that do not resemble conventional cigarettes at all.
The benefits and risks of electronic cigarette use are uncertain among health organizations and researchers. Limited controlled studies are available due to its recent invention. Laws vary widely concerning the use and sale of electronic cigarettes and accompanying liquid solutions, with pending legislation and ongoing debate.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

Yeah, I remember the ecology movement in the '70s. Remember this?

We used to laugh at them back then! Now...not so much.

Says you.

Many of today's eco-freaks Deserve and Get much more raucous laughter. People believed Rachael Carson because no one had proof then to the contrary. (She is probably one of the world's worst Mass Murderers from all the 3rd world kids who have died from Malaria because of her anti-insecticide rants.)

Today's nutcases STILL plunge together off the cliff of BS Global warming IN SPITE of there being contrary irrefutable information.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[pbf98]

They are just going to far.. I am a non smoker, always have been, and always will be. I thought that the smoking ban in ALL public places was bad enough.

Looks like Obama might have to avoid going to Oregon.

And The electronic cigs do avoid the smoking ban, I have a few friends that carry one on them when they go to bars, no one has ever said anything to them about it.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Really?? But its legal everywhere else, why do they want to make some restrictions on it.
How do you get a prescription to smoke anyway? I've never heard of that.

 

[ElasticNinja]

Today's nutcases STILL plunge together off the cliff of BS Global warming IN SPITE of there being contrary irrefutable information.

Yeah, the level of climate change denial is shocking really, giving the scientific evidence and such. If you notice many don't deny the climate is changing anymore, because that's undeniable, but instead claim that CO2 (and other) emissions aren't causing it, which basically means they are denying the natural greenhouse effect caused by the physical properties of these chemicals.

Sad stuff anyway, but that's humans for you. Just hope our kids don't have to clean up too much of our mess eh?