Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Schwarzenegger Lacks Leadership on Smoking Ban

We can all feel good about the second-hand smoking ban in San Francisco. The ban will help everyone enjoy smokefree movie lines and restaurant patios, among other things. LGBT people benefit and LGBT smokers might even be motivated to give up the habit. We cannot become complacent in our victory, however. Statewide, our grand old governor, the Arnold, has vetoed a bill that would ban smoking in our state parks and beaches. Our collective wilds are still at the mercy of smokers. Shame, shame, governor!

Has this ever happened to you? It is a sunny day. You are at the beach. The breeze is coursing through your hair as you walk hand in hand with your loved one. You admire the ocean waves and contemplate your small but glorious place in the world. You imagine yourself as one grain of sand in the universe and look down to admire the tan waves of surf. Then you see it. A collection of cigarette butts with a beer bottle on the ground. These little nasties are ground into the sand, with their white filters poking out of the top. Your mood is immediately shot.

How can we enjoy our parks and oceans when people litter these areas with cigarrette butts? This garbage tarnishes the serenity of the scenes. They are pollution too and harm the fragile ecosystems that our fabulous state supports. Equally vexatious is the second-hand smoking that people are exposed to when they congregate together on camp grounds and other shared spots on the wilds. Smoking is a menace to our state parks and beaches.

Our cigar smoking governor failed us all. He also went against the recommendations of experts on the issue, the California Ocean Protection Council. Schwarzenegger said that the smoking ban was too intrusive and that state parks and beaches individually could ban smoking. He also said that smoking could be discouraged with added penalties and fines.

These arguments are unavailing. If he thinks that smoking bans are permissible on an individual basis, he has no good reason to promote smoking on a statewide basis. Additionally, penalties and fines can be used with a smoking ban to discourage the noxious practice. Not only does Schwarzenegger's arguments fall flat, they fail against the practice of countless governments. Hundreds of communities nationwide have enacted smoking bans at municipal parks and beaches. Maine is the only state to ban smoking at its state beaches.

I plan to visit Muir Woods with my sweetie this weekend. I want to enjoy the elements without seeing cigarrette butts dotting the grounds. This is less likely with Schwarzenegger's veto. Take one of your cigars and put it up in your wild areas, Arnold!

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Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation.

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