Give the man a cigar!

 

Bob Barr

Anti-smoking Efforts Go Too Far

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

November 29, 2006

The cheap, six-paneled door cracked loudly and easily swung off its hinges as the burly Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in full SWAT regalia rammed it with the metal battering ram. Eight fellow ATF agents, with automatic weapons drawn, burst into the three-story townhouse in one of Belmont’s tony subdivisions in California. The agents quickly secured the premises, as they executed the no-knock search warrant. Within three minutes, they had located their quarry, hidden on a closet shelf in the master bedroom behind a pile of folded men’s shirts. The lead agent beamed as the contraband was carefully lifted from its hiding place and stacked neatly on the floor, where an eager press corps videotaped it for the evening news: 10 cellophane wrapped, unopened cartons of filter-tipped Marlboro cigarettes.

While this account of a federal cigarette bust is fiction, if political leaders in Belmont and a number of other jurisdictions—including the federal government—have their way, the scenario could soon become a reality. Moving beyond prohibiting smoking in restaurants and other facilities open to the public, governments are gearing up to prohibit smoking in one’s own homes and cars. Some are even going so far as to make infractions subject to criminal penalties.

How far has the anti-smoking movement come in just the past four years? Much further than many of its most ardent activists would have dreamed of in the 1970s, when the notion of smoking bans first surfaced and was met largely with derision.

In the Far West, where freedom and Big Sky country gave birth to one of the advertising age’s most lasting icons—the Marlboro Man—states such as Colorado and Idaho now ban smoking statewide in many public areas. Cities in otherwise freedom-loving states such as Wyoming, Utah and Montana have done likewise. Voters in Arizona recently approved a statewide ban on smoking in most public places. Nevada banned smoking at bars that serve food, and around the slot machines at supermarkets, gas stations and convenience stores.

Back East, New York’s tandem of Big Government Republicans, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki, have teamed up to ban smoking in most areas where patrons congregate. (Interestingly, however, at least one cigar club in Manhattan prominently displays color photos of the mayor smoking a stogie.)
Of course, as with most limitations on personal freedom, California leads the way.

In Santa Monica, one of those beachfront communities about which the Beach Boys once sang in terms of “Fun, Fun, Fun,” fun can no longer include smoking a cigarette, even if you’re simply waiting in line at the ATM. Burbank, once the butt of many Johnny Carson “Tonight Show” jokes, is poised to follow Santa Monica down the anti-smoking road, as is Belmont, just south of San Francisco.

The small town of Belmont is considering blazing new legal territory in its anti-smoking zeal. If the City Council finalizes its actions as early as January, police in Belmont would be empowered to issue citations to individuals caught lighting up in their own car or while walking down a deserted street.

That these efforts would end up expanding the police power of the government to fine and, presumably next, jail people for simply smoking in their own car raises troubling questions of liberty.
Unfortunately, not everyone—not even a majority of Americans—is so troubled.

In Golden, Colo., a judge has upheld the power of a homeowners association to ban smoking even in the confines of a person’s own home. More troubling, a near majority of Americans actually favor a federal law making cigarettes illegal, according to a recent Zogby poll.
Based on the results of this poll, things are not likely to get better anytime soon, at least for those Americans—including this writer—who believe government already regulates far too much personal behavior. Zogby found the strongest support for a federal anti-smoking law was prevalent among those ages 18 to 29; 52 percent of “born-again Christians” favored such a law, as did 60 percent of those labeling themselves “very conservative.” So much for “conservative” ideology as a bulwark against government power.

With many of the recent smoking bans based on an expansive view of smoking as a “nuisance,” Americans who might favor making tobacco illegal, but who support other forms of personal enjoyment, might want to think twice before embracing the criminalization of such conduct.

Is it much of a leap, after all, for foods containing trans fats, or target practice with “loud” firearms, to also be considered nuisances?
New York’s Mayor Bloomberg has already targeted the “nuisance” of firearms to protect one’s self. And Bloomberg is already moving against fatty foods.

Bob Barr occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union Foundation.