San Diego Smoking Bans

Life: San Diego Smoking Bans

When I first awoke this morning, I heard KOGO radio reporting that there will soon be a law or ordinance prohibiting smoking at all bus and trolley stops! Then I tried to find something about it on the City of San Diego site, and couldn't.

What, the poor who can't afford private cars to smoke in, are going to be punished for being poor? Again?

No smoking in the parks and beaches is bad enough! But it's not something that directly affects me as my wheelchair won't go to most of those places anyway. (btw, has the city never heard of ashtrays??? The majority of smokers would use them if they were available! I mean WHY are there just trashcans and not the combination trashcans and ashtrays that large business favors?

How about a 'Padres' give away of small personal 'silent butlers' in place of a baseball hat night? Though I no longer pay to go to padre games because there's not a smoking section in the OUTSIDE stadium!)

What exactly IS the new proposed 'no smoking' law or ordinance at bus stops going to entail? How many feet from the posted sign may I smoke? Is someone going to go around the city and paint yellow stripes on sidewalks around the poles that hold the bus stop signs so smokers will know how far away to stand?

Who is gonna 'police' such a law, cause if I just got out of a non-smoking meeting, and off a non-smoking bus, I am going to light up! And if written a 'ticket' what will the fine be??? Am I going to be arrested for smoking on the sidewalk, when it’s legal to smoke? Is anyone familiar with the word Prohibition? Are Japanese and European tourists going to be ticketed equally? This is all just crazy…

I am often at the Old Town Transit Center. I note there are benches, trashcans, porta-potties for the drivers, an info center, a coke machine, bike lockers, BUT NO ASHTRAYS. Gee wonder why cigarette butts end up on the ground???

You know, it's a case of 'give them an inch'! Forty years ago, as a smoker, I was a front line ADVOCATE of the first non-smoking laws: banning smoking in movie theaters, grocery stores, and elevators. But I now think the fine people of California and specifically San Diego City and surrounding areas, have lost their minds.

It has come to the point as it is that I do not patronize places where I can not smoke, the very few businesses that have outside smoking areas get my money. And I AM going to smoke on the sidewalks, as there are very few places where I can smoke.

Two years from now is San Diego going to pass an ordinance against super-size meals??? Or eating while sitting on a bus bench? Or that children HAVE to exercise one hour per day?

I am really concerned about this and other personally intrusive 'unenforceable' laws. Instead of new laws, (more restrictive for the generally law abiding citizen), how about enforcing the laws currently ON the books, i.e. no littering, drunk in public, etc. We don’t NEED new laws, we need current laws enforced!

(PS I would gladly become a non-smoker, but I can not afford the monthly price of the nicotine substitutes, the inhalers or lozenges are NOT covered by MeidCare/MediCal, nor the state of CA NoButts Program!!! Go figure...)