POLL: Enforcement of Metro North Smoking Ban Starts Now

Joe Doakes February 15, 2012 at 05:32 pm

Do you have any idea how much money we get when someone buys a pack of cigarettes? Have any of you "I know whats best for everybody else" ever consider how we are going to replace those tax receipts?
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Please add this option in the poll . . . We should leave people alone.

Bob Ogden February 15, 2012 at 07:05 pm

As someone who doesn't smoke and uses Metro-North, I applaud this ban. Do you know how many harmful substances are in second hand smoke? Hey if you want to kill yourself with cigarettes, go for it. Just don't take me with you.

Willie Lester February 15, 2012 at 07:32 pm

If cancer scares and warnings don't stop people from smoking and generating taxes as stated above, do you honestly think not allowing people to smoke at a train staion will?

Joe Doakes February 15, 2012 at 07:42 pm

So why should we shut down Indian Point? I mean if you don't want electricity we should just disconnect your house? Is tonight too soon or would you like to schedule a more convenient time?
As for killing yourself with cancer sticks. My grandmother was born in 1914. Smoked forever. Still kicking. Buried 2 husbands, Though I think they went out of necessity.

Joe Doakes February 15, 2012 at 07:43 pm

Exactly.

Bob Ogden February 15, 2012 at 08:06 pm

Willie/John. I not only don't care if you smoke, I encourage you to. Truth is it will save society money in the long run because you'll die younger and we won't have to give you healthcare. I just don't want to share your habit.
I truly am glad your Grandmother is alive and well and hope she lives a lot longer but that isn't science, that's just luck.

Frank J February 15, 2012 at 08:32 pm

I don't get it guys. How is this issue contraversal? It's been the law on the New York City Transit System for 70 years and it doesn't say you can't smoke, it just says you can't smoke on the platform or near the ticket machine. That leaves you everywhere else.

Lizzie Hedrick February 15, 2012 at 08:35 pm

Um, do you know how expensive it is to treat lung cancer?

Joe Doakes February 15, 2012 at 09:00 pm

Lizzie,
We are all going to die. Just a matter of where, when, and how. So far I've seen people die from everything from cancer to AIDS to suicide. Once you allow the government to pay for any of it then you are screwed. . . . and may I say not in a shy way. :) JD

Flem Snopes Jr. February 15, 2012 at 09:15 pm

Tyranny, plain and simple. Do you think Sam Adams and Patrick Henry would have stood for this? Never! You Americans hold your manhood cheap! Is your life so precious you would live it under the heel of tyranny? I despise your cowardly ways.
JOE DOAKES FOR PRESIDENT!

Frank J February 15, 2012 at 10:41 pm

Flem,
All laws restrict behavior in some way. Every day I drive a car that I must have a license and insurance for. I stop at the stop sign, red light and obey all he traffic rules. I own a house that was built complying with building codes and I live in a town that requires me to recycle and maintain my property safely. This isn't tyranny, this is living in a society where we all have do or not do things that society decides is appropriate. If your smoking on the platform is that important to you then I suggest you organize a smoke in and openly disobey the law. This will allow you to make a test case of this and take it to the Supreme Court where you can explain to them why this law is unconstitutional. Good Luck

Flem Snopes Jr. February 15, 2012 at 11:11 pm

The Snopes Family acknowledges and appreciates M. Black's comments. He raises interesting points. I agree that a smoke-in will be necessary. If the law is immoral, then the only place for a moral man is in prison. I think Thoreau said that. Or someone like him. If anyone on the Patch would like to join me and some other Snopeses for a defiant smoke-in on the Peekskill platform, please let me know. We will blow smoke in the faces of our adversaries. We will walk into the Supreme Court, light up, and offer Clarence Thomas a smoke (or a toke). We will pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. And if we are jailed, so be it. We will join the ranks of Jesus, Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Menachim Begin, Nelson Mandela, the Berrigan Brothers, Jefferson Davis and Johnny Cash. To be honest, one must live outside the law. I think Bob Dylan said that.

Frank J February 15, 2012 at 11:18 pm

Way to go Flem. Faulkner would be proud/

Issy February 15, 2012 at 11:39 pm

"We will join the ranks of Jesus, Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Menachim Begin, Nelson Mandela..." I think you will find that these people acted for for the betterment of mankind, not so they could practice their own personal drug habit....

Liz Claire February 16, 2012 at 12:20 am

Anyone who works in, and walks around, NYC knows that car exhaust is a major problem, far more dangerous than second hand smoke. 9/11 workers have huge health problems related to the dust etc of the wreckage. I don't smoke, but I believe in freedom and liberty. New York State gets more than $1.5 billion / year in cigarette tax revenue. I bet the puritans would not want to pay higher income tax. It's a false argument to talk about health-care costs. Most of us know someone who lived into their late 90s without health issues who smoked.

Frank J February 16, 2012 at 12:20 am

Actually, studies have shown that smokers require less healthcare over a lifetime then non-smokers. This is attributable to their lives being shorter so in fact they save us healthcare costs. However, I'd like to point out that we get an enormous amount of tax income from alcohol. I suggest we lower the drinking age to sixteen so we can make more money.

Shirley Creazzo February 16, 2012 at 11:35 am

Thank you for this comment. I have not smoked for some ten years now, but appreciate the position of the smokers. Some of the attitudes of the "holier than thou" crowd are hard for me to understand.

Shirley Creazzo February 16, 2012 at 11:43 am

Forgive me - I grew up in a family of smokers. If second - hand smoke was dangerous, I and my siblings and my cousins would all be dead now. I am almost 77 years old. When I was a girl people smoked everywhere. In buses, in stores, in theaters - everywhere. And you people who think smoking will instantly bring people down still have to account for those who got lung cancer, having never smoked!! Don't be sure you have the answers. You may be mislead.

Timothy Judge February 16, 2012 at 12:13 pm

So for all you smokers out there...let me sit next to you after having consumed a very rich diner of vindaloo chicken opened with a appetizer of feijoado...oh it tatses so good but the after effects, well they can be unpleasant, especially for the people sitting next to me on the train. Some people say the odor even sticks to their clothes...GET THE PICTURE NOW....probably not because your brain is overwhelmed with carbon monoxide...

Flem Snopes Jr. February 16, 2012 at 12:14 pm

You may be right. However, there is a recent biography of Gandhi that says he had a homosexual relationship with some German Jew. So we really don't know what the Mahatma was up to, do we? If I saw some thin, laid-back dude walking around with a loin cloth, my first thought would be, "That dude is a toker". Well, maybe my second thought. Jesus? Who knows? That guy was hard to figure, throwing devils into pigs, raising the dead, turning water into wine. You can't tell me narco wasn't involved there somewhere. Havel was a writer - 'nough said. Begin was a nutcase, probably a hard-core speed freak. Would explain a lot. Don't know enough about Sakharov but I figure he was probably getting high off radioactivity. There's an excellent book about mankind's history of getting wasted called OUT OF IT. Forget the author's name but it's worth checking out.
Peace out, my dawgz.

Shar February 16, 2012 at 01:22 pm

Throwing people off the train for smoking....How 1984 can you get?? It is my understanding, that smoking cars are provided.

SLJ February 16, 2012 at 01:23 pm

Maybe the MTA should next pass a law that says if you haven't showered or bathed, and refuse to put on deodorant, you too will be ejected from the platform.

Frank J February 16, 2012 at 03:24 pm

OK folks, don't worry about losing your tax dollars. Smokers are addicted and they're not going to quit just because they can't stand on the platform and smoke. They'll simply stand next to the platform and smoke until just before the train arrives. Look what we've done already. In my lifetime cigarettes went from 20 cents a pack to more than ten dollars in NYC and yet smokers keep lighting up. We've prohibited smoking inside public buildings and in some jurisdictions outside in public parks and the profits of the tobacco companies keep going up. Smoking is harder to quit than heroin. Go to any movie theater, airport or public venue and watch what happens as soon as the smokers hit the fresh air, they light up. In my experience, people quit smoking for personal reasons, not a matter of convenience.
The Constitution doesn't mention smoking, thus there is no right to smoke and it can be an activity that is regulated just like drinking alcohol. You can't drink alcohol in public, you can't bring a glass of beer outside a bar and you can't serve it to minors. But the good news is that you can smoke and you can drink beer, just not everywhere.

Jade Corona February 16, 2012 at 05:01 pm

I remember having to take two trains every day to get to and from work. I had a 45-minute between trains in the morning, and a half hour in the evening. I am very sensitive to smoke, and there was absolutely no where I could go to escape the smoke of others. With no designated smoking area, people were lined up everywhere smoking. I would wait inside the station by the ticket counters, but people were smoking right outside the doors, and the smoke would come right in. Instead of eliminating the right to smoke outside all together, I can't see why there just can't be certain areas designated for smoking- somewhere with good ventilation. That way, people who want to avoid it can, and people who want to smoke can.

gob ogden September 29, 2012 at 02:10 pm

yeah its not like exhaust from cars is unhealthy or anything its not like the government usto light off nukes in the upper atmosphere sending radioactive particles into the jet stream and spreading them allover the world you are too right bob . they should ban cars in public too i choose to not drive but still have to inhale exhaust fumes. i ive seen and smelled metro north employees in brewster new york smoking pot and selling drugs they are going to police the public when they dont even drug test their employees.

gob ogden September 29, 2012 at 02:15 pm

everyone should quit smoking so they can raise taxes!!!!!!!!!!!!! its not like we are on a planet being more over populated on a daily basis. its not like overpopulation is going to cause or resources to dwindle quicker and our planet to become uninhabitable sooner or anything .we need everybody in the world to be healthy and live long long lives because we are such a kind and nice race of people not selfish or anything .

Cadeyrn September 29, 2012 at 03:06 pm

This was the obvious solution, but it wasn't enough for everyone else who just have to visit their choices on others. It's a two-way street. There were much better choices than making a large slice of the public feel like outcastes. I guess common sense isn't of much use anymore.