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Constitutional
Amendment Proposals
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Make smoking unconstitutional
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Should smoking be unconstitutional?
The American Cancer Society is panicking as new figures show they may be too late to save Floridians from themselves. It seems we might have already done it without making smoking unconstitutional.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (not exactly tobacco’s best friend), during the 1990’s, the measured exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke dropped by 75%:
...median cotinine level in 1999 has decreased to less than 0.050 ng/mL¯ more than a 75% decrease. This reduction in cotinine levels objectively documents a dramatic reduction in exposure of the general U.S. population to environmental tobacco smoke since the period 1988-1991.
Another CDC study of smoking among teens says it has been declining since 1997 and predicts
If teen smoking prevalence continues to decline at the current rate, the United States could achieve the 2010 national health objective of reducing current smoking rates among high school students to 16 percent.
With results like these from existing anti-tobacco efforts, the ACS and its partners (The American Lung Association, 1st Union Bank, Debbie and Erich,) must get Amendment 6 passed quickly if it is to get any of the credit for this success.
It may already be too late. Most employers already limit smoking to certain areas and many ban it outright. Sure, non-smokers shouldn't have to inhale used tobacco fumes, but it's not difficult to find nicotineless air when we want to. We don't have to breathe smoke at work, at dinner or at the movie now, although no amendment will ever eliminate its presence entirely. The proposal admits as much by providing various exceptions.
When you see an overweight, underactive zealot preaching the evils of tobacco over a beer, you wonder if the health issue is, well, a smoke screen. I think the real reason for anti-smoking attitutes is the simple fact that tobacco and smokers stink. People don't want to put up the smell just like many of us don't enjoy loud music while we are trying to eat or talk. The sanest solution is to avoid smokey bars and loud restaurants, not demand an end to all smoking and to music over 75 decibels.
If this measure should be law, it should be statutory law, not constitutional. But it shouldn't be a law.