College Libertarians in the Dakota Student

Congratulations to Garrison Canter, President of the College Libertarians, for a publishing of his letter to editor in the Tuesday, September 18th edition of the Dakota Student newspaper! You can read his letter below or find the online version of it here.

DS Letters: Smoking ban just plain stupid
Garrison Canter

Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Opinion


More Enforcement Needed for Smoking/Tobacco Ban? No.
I submit to you that the problem is not a lack of enforcement of the rule but the rule itself. Aren't the adverse health effects smokers experience punishments enough? What happened to the notion that people should take care of disputes on their own? With all due respect, let's be reasonable about this people. Politely ask nearby smokers to move if they are bothering you. If they aren't bothering you, leave them the hell alone. The campus will be a much better place if we would act like adults and not get the university administration involved. I know this is contrary to everything you were taught in elementary school, but "Second-hand" smoke is not going to kill you. The studies showing that normal exposure to second-hand smoke causes lung cancer (such as the often-cited 1993 EPA report) have been refuted many times. Their conclusions were found to be full of bad data and faulty science. The connection between casual "second-hand" smoke and cancer is tenuous at best. The statement in the DS that the research supporting their case is "overwhelming" only reveals a lack of research on their part. In fact, it was only a few years ago that a much wiser group of DS editors wrote a more well informed editorial against city and state indoor smoking bans. Of course, none of this matters, because we are talking about smoking outdoors, where even the most outrageous pro-ban zealot hasn't tried to make an actual adverse health claim! The real problem, though, is that arbitrary control of behavior like this always leads to more control. Whatever you may enjoy may be prohibited next because it will lower someone's insurance costs or because it annoys some obnoxious busybody. This is why I encourage everyone to stand up and fight this ban even if you detest smoking.

Gary is a junior Air Traffic Control major and President of the College Libertarians of the University of North Dakota.