Opinion in Brief

Calabasas, Calif., is about to have a load of disgruntled people on its hands. Every smoker in that city is going to feel like killing someone because they can no longer smoke in public. Not in bars, not in parks, not even in the streets.

Cigarette smokers face a tough challenge across the country as more and more localities ban them from smoking in public, and defending the rights of smokers is no easy task. But banning all public smoking is ridiculous. The Calabasas city government is overstepping its boundaries by outlawing a perfectly legal activity.

Those of you who don’t smoke are probably thinking, “Good for Calabasas.” Well consider this: What if you couldn’t eat or drink outside because you might end up littering? You’d probably feel hungry more often, and you’d oppose such a trampling of your rights.

Or what if you could never drink alcohol outside of your own home (i.e. bars and restaurants) because you might end up driving home drunk? After all, drunk driving causes way more annual deaths in the U.S. than does secondhand smoke. In 2004, 16,694 people died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes while an estimated 3,000 people died from exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Smoking isn’t a great habit (duh) but that doesn’t mean that smokers should lose fundamental rights.