WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2004
OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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7
FACE-OFF—SMOKING BAN
Smoking ban a step in right direction
Some four million years ago a primate first decided to stand up and walk on two legs. Perhaps it is a stretch, but I connect that auspicious act of the semi-monkey with Lawrence's new smoking ban both are steps toward a better way of life.
If Darwin were alive today, he might regard cigarettes as one component of natural selection. Unfortunately, this morbid thought has about as much chance of dissuading people from the tobacco habit as the daunting statistics that say 400,000 smokers and 35,000 to 55,000 non-smokers die from cigarette smoke each year in the United States. Smoking continues, and Lawrence's smoking ban doesn't try to change that. It merely places the health of those who don't smoke over the convenience of those who do.
Now, smoking doesn't take place inside public venues.
Opponents to the proposal, which went into effect July 1, have been vocal.
Some say the smoking ban is unAmerican. I recall seeing on TV pictures of Saddam Hussein puffing a cigar in a room filled with his dumb generals, which leads me to believe there is no correlation between smoking indoors and fervent love for the United States.
pro perspective
Our progressive city commissioners aren't un-American and they didn't have fascism in mind when they moved smoking outdoors into the fresh air. The freedom to smoke isn't being taken away. It's just being relocated.
Area bar and restaurant owners have legitimate concerns about profit losses caused by the ban. Surveys of business revenues in other towns with smoking bans provide little insight into how Lawrence will be affected. We will have to see for ourselves. And what better time to try the smoking ban than in the summer, when warmer weather allows people to go outside to smoke and business relaxes a bit with school out of session. A town with about 30,000 college students and a dry campus ought to be capable of supporting its bars.
Wheaton Elkins opinion@hansan.com
But talk about bad for business the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figure economic losses totaling $157 billion annually in the United States as a direct result of smoking related illnesses. A huge amount of money is lost each year due to health costs, decreased productivity and sick days.
Studies show that working an eight hour shift in a smoke-filled environment is equivalent to smoking a pack a day. Who knows, maybe this smoking ban will help people reduce their dependence on tobacco. If you stop smoking today, and save the money you otherwise would have used to purchase cigarettes, you might be able to afford the University of Kansas's next tuition increase.
Large sheets of smoke hung in the air Sunday night as firecrackers provided satisfying pops and hot dogs hissed over beds of charcoal. On Independence Day we celebrate the birth of our country, when the fathers of the United States first moved toward government by the people and the rule of law.
Right now, a group called the Appeal to Reason and Tolerance is attempting to place the smoking ban on the ballot so Lawrence residents, and not a five-person commission, can decide on the future of the smoking ban. Our republic endures.
Elkins is a St. Joseph, Mo., junior in English.
Making action illegal increases temptation
The recent crackdown on smoking in Lawrence reiterates the way that Americans have chosen to live in society — secretly, keeping everything to themselves.
con perspective
A bar is a place for people to go and interact with each other. Normally when someone thinks of a bar, they think of a loud place with a lot of music, alcohol and cigarettes. Therefore, if people are really that careful about their health and well-being, then any bar is probably not the right place for them.
Back to the original school of thought though. It is perfectly legal for anyone over the age of 18 to inhale a cigarette if they choose. It is that person's choice what they want to do to their body. With that being the law, it seems unethical to make someone smoke a cigarette in their own privacy, or worse only where it is legal.
All this will do is make it more appealing to those who can not smoke. What is the most appealing thing to someone under the age of 21? The answer is drinking a beer. Imposing the smoking ban will simply make people under the age of 18 more curious about cigarettes.
It is understandable that people who do not wish to smoke a cigarette do not want to be around it and risk their health, and that is completely legit and understandable. However, if that is the case, then those people should know better when deciding to go to a bar.
Smoking a cigarette is something that is not illegal and anyone over the age of 18 can do. So who is to say where you can smoke and where you can't. Imposing a ban on smoking inside at a bar or any public place does not sound like freedom.
All the attention that the ban has received, and the fight to keep it alive or destroy it, has now created an appealing object to a person's eye. It makes that kid
Daniel Berk
opinion@kansan.com
who is maybe a freshman or a sophomore in high school more likely to try it next time there is a party to go to. It may even influence kids that are students at the University of Kansas to try a cigarette next time they are out, if they have not already.
By making something illegal, when it is already legal is just giving people ideas Ideas to try new things while taking all the risk of smoking inside. That is what smoking is now,a risk,just like it is a risk for any Kansas student under the age of 21 to drink a beer.
The age limit of 21 does not stop freshman and sophomores at the University from drinking. If someone needs evidence of that look at the bars on a weekend and tell me if everyone there is of age.
Smoking is not illegal, and it is something that brings in a tremendous amount of money for American society. I don't agree with people who smoke. It is bad for their health. However, it is their choice. It is something that they are allowed to do, and it is their decision, just like it is someone's decision to drink a beer over the age of 21.
If a person has decided to smoke cigarettes, there should be nothing to stop them. It is a legal activity and they should have no restrictions when it comes to smoking in public places or at any place.
Berk is St. Louis junior in journalism.
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You know it's a good day when all your beer is gone by 7 o'clock.
Mizzou sucks and I like Dave Chappelle and lesbians.
To my neighbor, the bitter old man. If you threaten me again, I guarantee that every step you take there will be dog poop in that ... oh wait, I'm going to call you back and do a different one, I didn't like that one.
--miles away. I guess I have a warrant out for my arrest now. That makes me an outlaw, oh yeah.
To my neighbor, the bitter old man downstairs. If you threaten me again, I'll make sure that there's dog poop everywhere you step. So enjoy your day.
Katherine Jones, your article sucks just as bad as the French do, so go live there.
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Hal Dry campus? Yeah right, I'm not nearly as wasted since I moved off.
miles away. I guess I have a warrant out for my arrest now. That makes me an outlaw, oh yeah.
June 30, I was supposed to be in court today at 8 a.m. in Lawrence for public urination. I'm 600
Go sign the petition against the smoking ban and allow business owners to make their own decisions about how to run their business.
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I just saw someone sitting on the top of their car in the middle of 23rd street, and 23rd street was a frickin' ocean. It was nuts out here. It's like a war zone.
Here I am in Columbia wearing my KU hoodie and damn, it feels good to be a Jayhawk.