Smoking to be banned in college dorms
Excerpted from posting on www.illinoisreview.com
Wednesday, the Illinois Senate had a short debate on a bill making its way through the General Assembly which would ban tobacco smoking in college dorms. Senator John Cullerton (D-Chicago) says he is very concerned about fires being started in college dorms as a result of cigarette smoking.
Will Senator Cullerton allow college students who are suffering chronic illnesses to smoke in their dorm rooms the medical marijuana he is trying to legalize? Will they be forced to public areas to reveal their need for marijuana usage?
Few college students in Cook County will be able to purchase tobacco due to the $7 plus cost starting March 1st anyway, but why is cigarette smoking a fire hazard in college dorms, and not in private apartment buildings? Is this a step to outlawing tobacco smoking, even in the privacy of one's residence?
Where exactly will this anti-tobacco movement end? Is it possible -- possible -- that Democrats are using their power in the legislature to impose their morality on us all?
Tobacco = bad. "Patient pot" = good.
My, times, they are a-changin'. Is this confusing to anyone else but me?
Cross-posted at www.illinoisreview.com
14 comments:
Are you kidding?
Sounds good to me, what's the problem Fran?
Lemme get this straight.
Government's role in protecting potential humans = sacrosanct, civil liberty.
Government's role in protecting those children already born, along with pregnant women (and the fetuses in their wombs), the elderly, and everyone else = imposition of morality.
The freedom to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose. So does your freedom to poison yourself.
Wait, so are you really pro-marijuana legalization like any conservative with a conscience is, or are you another hypocrite "conservative" who thinks the government knows better than people how to live their own lives.
Politics is all about balancing the electorat's hypocrisy you know..
...and hypocrisy is vices way of paying homage to virtue.
You realize this is the most hypocritical post that's ever been written on Illinoize. You criticize someone for legalizing one bad activity while cracking down another by saying that he should stop cracking down on the latter but keep cracking down on the former. Are you really oblivious to the hypocrisy?
Bill,
I like that quote. Whose is it?
How confusing.
I thought Fran Eaton was Pro-Life.
Apparently she has no problem killing a fetus, as long as it is done slowly enough.
I stand corrected.
Cheesman,
Matthew Arnold.. I first heard it used in reference to Bill Bennet's gambling.
I've got plenty of vices and occassionally pay homage to virtue, so I really appreciate the quote.
And politics all about making square pegs fit into round holes with minimal damage to the social fabric. It's art; and why we should respect good politicians.
I avoid calling any one a hypocrite. Life just wayyyy too complex for me to hurl that rock.
b
Your argument is akin to asking why Politician X supports legalized insulin, an injected drug, but not heroin, which is, after all, also an injected drug.
This is actually one of my bills that Sen. Cullerton was gracious enough to sponsor because of our bill limit in the House. The issue that we have is that some colleges require freshmen to live in dorms, and accordingly, some of the kids have no alternative but to live in an environment in close proximity to smokers. As such, it is a different situation from smoking in private buildings or restaurants, where the consumer has a choice.
As far as the medical marijuana issue is concerned, I support that as well and am a sponsor of a resolution pending in the House. To try to do a compare and contrast between these two issues though is inexplicable.
Fran, produce someone who smokes cigarettes for health reasons, then we'll talk.
Many, if not most, colleges do ban burning candles in residence halls anymore.
This isn't a theoretical--when I ran a Residence Hall back in 92-93 an entire floor had a haze from about 5 smokers. It was a serious problem for the students with asthma and allergies and given the likely activities of these guys a serious fire hazard given their state of inebriation.
Fritchey points out he goes beyond just fire hazard concerns, but it's safe to say there won't be many students legally smoking pot so it's sort of a silly objection.
And, man, if a terminally ill patient gets hooked on pot, what will they make of their life....
Rep. Fritchey,
So why not introduce legislation prohibiting universities from requiring students to live on-campus?
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