Smoldering Arguments Over Regulations Against Smoking
Re “Assembly Passes Bill to Raise Smoking Age,” Aug. 22: This is ludicrous. The purchase restriction on 18-year-olds doesn’t prevent thousands of kids between 12 and 18 from lighting up every day now, so how will raising the age to 21 prevent those between 18 and 21 from smoking? In a country where we trust 18-year-olds with the responsibility of voting for the leader of the free world, where our legal system says 18-year-olds are adults and can be punished accordingly, and where an 18-year-old can be drafted to fight in a time of war, that same 18-year-old can’t be trusted to make a decision to buy alcohol, gamble or now, possibly, buy cigarettes.
I do not smoke and I despise the habit, but this is such a waste of time and money. I think the state Assembly needs to spend its time passing legislation that actually matters.
Jessica Bagley
Los Angeles
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Re “Smoky View of Libertarianism,” by Norah Vincent, Commentary, Aug. 22: Yeehaaa! You go, girl! Eloquent, accurate and well informed. As an asthmatic, I look forward to the day when my struggle with the disability is greater than my struggle with certain people’s willful ignorance of and hostility toward it.
If smokers were as tolerant of the genuine needs of others as they expect us all to be of their convenience, we wouldn’t need laws. Those who don’t like public smoking bans have no one to blame but themselves when we have to resort to legislation to enforce good manners and common sense.
Sera Kirk
Vancouver, Canada
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The only one ignoring the central tenet of libertarian philosophy is Vincent. Libertarians do not believe in initiating the use of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.
If people do not like smoking in bars and restaurants, they are free to stay away from bars and restaurants where it is allowed, and they are free to establish bars and restaurants where it is prohibited. Similarly, people who like to smoke in bars and restaurants should be free to do so if they please.
The problems start when one side seeks to use the power of government to impose its position on the other. Imagine how indignant Vincent would be about the assault on her rights if New York City passed a law requiring all bars and restaurants to allow smoking.
Robert A. Philipson
Santa Monica
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Vincent posits that smokers harm others, even if they smoke alone, because they cost the public millions in insurance premiums and health-care services. I must be missing a point here. Everyone dies of something. We all have to be treated eventually, and that treatment has a cost. What is the cost to treat someone with cancer who has never smoked compared with that of someone with the disease who has? If the costs are the same, how is smoking or not smoking an issue?
Louis H. Nevell
Los Angeles