The new campus smoking policy, which took affect on Jan. 1, is unnecessary, excessively restrictive, and it perpetuates the troubling trend of tobacco-user persecution in the state of Arizona.
Beginning this year, ASU administration presented smokers with a variety of new rules, including a ban on all "indoor" smoking and a requirement that smoking take place farther than 25 feet away from any entrance or air vent. Moreover, the new policy bans smoking on landings of University buildings.
The previous policy allowed for smoking indoors only if the smoking occurred in an enclosed office where the smoke is contained.
But if the smoke is contained, why should it be banned?
If it is the case that indoor smoking increases the likelihood of a University employee setting her workplace ablaze, that is one thing. But to parade the prohibition of indoor smoking, even in private offices where the smoke is fully-contained, as some public safety breakthrough is ridiculous.
Likewise, the draconian 25- foot rule goes too far in limiting the rights of smokers.
There is no reason a professor who works in a taller building on campus, like Life Science E Tower, should not be allowed to step out of her office and go to an outdoor, open-air area to smoke. Sure, some passer-by's might have to tolerate the faint scent of tobacco smoke, but that is simply a part of being out in public.
After all, if our actions that affect the health of others are to be restricted, than there is seemingly little that we could freely do.
Driving on the roadways certainly endangers the lives of others (especially driving around ASU). Most of the products we use were manufactured in some sort of way that releases compounds in the air that we probably would be better off not breathing.
The point is, there are trade-offs. The supposed health risks of smelling a little cigarette smoke when you're leaving the Memorial Union, or when you get out of the elevator at Coor Hall, do not outweigh the costs of persecuting and inconveniencing smokers.
Smokers have rights, too.
These rights include the ability to smoke a cigarette outside without the fear of being some arbitrary distance away from a building, and having to worry about some ASU official citing or otherwise penalizing you.
Smokers are becoming among the most persecuted groups in the state.
A massive new tax on all tobacco products, one of the most regressive forms of taxation in existence, has pushed the total tax on cigarettes to $1.98 per pack. Smokers can thank voters for resoundingly approving an 80 cents increase back in November.
Arizona voters also had it out for property owners in November, passing a strict state-wide smoking ban that harms some local businesses and otherwise tells property owners what they can do with their own property.
And for the past several years, ASU has banned the sale of any tobacco products on campus. For a university that aims to form responsible, independent citizens, it is surprising that ASU Administration would not trust us enough to simply allow on-campus businesses to sell tobacco, pursuant to all legal standards.
Charlie Mitchell, owner of Cafe Biblioteca by Charlie in Hayden Library and the Sidebar Cafe in the law school, told The State Press in December that the Residence Hall smoking ban implemented last year put his cafe in Center Complex out of business.
ASU needs to reevaluate its absurd smoking policies. Meanwhile, non-smokers need to grow thicker skin and stop imposing their own preferences on others.
Reach the reporter at: macy.hanson@asuchoice.com.
