Originally Posted by
Sanch
But for condos, apartments, I do support a ban of smoking there. Or at the very least, make sure the legal system allows an apartment/condo to specifically ban smoking everywhere, including inside the units, and allow for eviction if this is violated. Then the free market will allow the 10% of smokers to all live in one apartment complex to themselves, and the other 90% of us can live in a smoke-free location. As the article mentions, air does transfer between units. The main reason I've never bought a condo is because of numerous complaints online of shared air handlers pushing cigarette smoke between one condo unit into another. It's common enough that you'll find many posts on various internet forums about it. And the condos generally do nothing because they can't prevent someone from smoking in their own unit.
For those of you who oppose tyranny, please consider a free market solution that allows apartments and condos to enforce a smoking ban to results in immediate eviction. Then there's no tyranny. You choose to lease an apartment or buy a condo there, you agree to those rules. The government wouldnt be involved except for the force associated with an eviction.
Also, those of you who either smoke or are ambivalent to smoking, please recognize that there are negative reprocussions to people around the smoker that are completely unavoidable. Own a gun, be safe, it bothers no one else. Shoot heroin, don't drive a car or operate heavy machinery while doing it, it bothers no one else. Download porn and masturbate at home, no one is bothered. Most "sins" that people dislike actually don't impact anyone else unless you're really careless or reckless. With smoking, it's 100% impossible not to negatively impact people around you. It's just a matter of scale. To me, I'm bothered to the point of feeling naustious, getting a headache, coughing, and not breathing well. To someone else, it might "only" cause them to have a marginal 1 in 100k chance of increased cancer from the second hand smoke exposure or to make their clothes smell and make them slightly uncomfortable. But it's impossible not to negatively impact others while smoking to some extent. Whereas it's completely possible to avoid negatively impacting others with other vices.
To be clear, I think people should be able to own full auto belt fed guns without a background check, drink as much soda as you want, should be able to buy any opiate over the counter without a prescription, should be able to have edible marijuana, buy cocaine over the counter, etc. But cigarette smoking is something that can't be done without hurting others. Even in your own home unless you have some kind of special filtration system. Most of the things liberals rally against are things that only hurt the person doing them. Smoking is an exception where it can't not hurt everyone around the smoker.
Maybe that's the answer. If you want to shoot in your backyard and have enough land, you build up a berm for safety of your neighbors. Maybe if you smoke inside your house you install a special air filtration system so the smoke doesn't leave your residence.
For those who think I'm a libertarian except when it suits me, I concede that may be the case. It's a philosophical struggle for me my entire life. Please answer this: should people be able to play loud music inside their home as loud as they want even if it exits their shared walls of a condo/apartment, or if it's a single family house but the music is so loud it goes into everyone else's house? Because the argument of "it's my damn home, I should be able to do any damned thing I please" should also apply to loud music. Arguably, if your neighbor plays loud music all of the time, you could spend tens of thousands of dollars on special noise proofing materials, double pane windows, or walk around with ear plugs. But it's your neighbor infringing on your right to enjoy quiet peace of your home, so shouldn't it be the neighbor who has to spend tens of thousands of dollars to sound proof their unit/home so that their loud music that they choose to play and enjoy doesn't escape and negatively impact other people?
And if you think smoking should be okay but loud music is a nuisance, then consider what alternatives the infringed upon neighbor has. For loud music, you could simply wear ear plugs. For cigarette smoking, you need a respirator. The respirator is significantly more inconvenient than ear plugs to try to live a normal life. Thus, I'd argue if you support smoking you also need to support loud music.