The Legislature here in Alabama, where we Dare Defend Our Rights, is consideringjust such a ban in the current legislative session.
I am an ex-smoker going on ten years, but I'm not a radical ex. It doesn't especially bother me to be in the presence of people smoking. But if I were to light one up myself, by that evening I would be back choking down two packs a day. Seriously.
I talked with the House sponsor of the legislation this week, and asked why it is not considered child abuse for parents to smoke in a car or even at home when a child is present.
Representative Mary Sue McClurkin told me she considered including a section allowing police to give tickets to smoking drivers with children in the vehicle as a secondary offense (you would have to have been stopped for something else.), but she decided not to.
She's introduced the legislation for several sessions without any luck. Opponents are either smokers or "Big-Government" opponents, she said.
I am not a rabid anti-smoker, but I do like consistency. If second hand smoke is in fact deadly to infants and pregnant women, then let's start throwing smoking parents in jail. Otherwise, how do you justify any restrictions at all?
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