The Observer

Issue date: 10/28/09 Section: Opinion

Over the last few decades, the government has taken major steps in regulating the tobacco industry. A once domineering, uncontrolled force,; tobacco companies are now regulated. The public has been warned of the health hazards cigarettes pose. Which allows people to make informed decisions.
Smokers can smoke in designated areas, and a smoke-free lifestyle is possible as well due to indoor smoking bans. Smokers can still smoke in designated areas, while indoor smoking bans make a smoke-free lifestyle possible as well. That's right; the current smoking laws grant both smokers and non-smokers an environment into which their lifestyle is best suited. Equality and freedom, you say? Sounds like an all-American unanimous agreement.!
If only it were that simple. Some feel their needs should be accommodated even further and aim to prohibit smoking completely.
SGA president Adam Vanderwerff says, "There is still a lot of concern about smoking on-campus. This is definitely an issue people want to take up again." When the time comes to make a decision, will the student body be prepared to make the right decision?
Consider the status quo. We have finally reached a point at which a smoker and non-smoker have equal rights and can coexist without violating one another's lifestyles.
Margaret Hankenson, head of the Steering Committee, agrees. "We decided against last semester's ban because we felt that existing smoking laws were enough. The solution is to enforce the cCounty laws. The school shouldn't have to go beyond them." Waukesha County ordinance states, that "Smoking within forty feet of the outside of any entrance of a building or facility on cCounty grounds is prohibited," (waukeshacounty.gov). If secondhand smoke outside buildings bothers people, this seems like a logical solution.
With access to such an abundant supply of information, we have never been more capable of making educated decisions for ourselves. The freedom to make our own choices affirms our independence and should not be taken for granted.
Young people value this right and won't give it up easily. When asked how she would react to a smoking ban, sophomore Abby Bucher replied, "I would probably still smoke on campus. We're not making anyone else smoke." The other students standing nearby nodded in agreement.
Who would enforce the proposed ban's conditions? How they would go about doing so? A campus smoking ban, though well-intentioned, is an unrealistic solution.

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