Smoking Bans, the New Front Line on College Campuses
Yesterday we featured a story on Time.com focusing on recent smoking bans instituted on college campuses this year. The time story reported that 365 U.S. colleges and universities have institute anti-smoking bans or restricti
ons. The lead feature in the article was on the University of Kentucky which instituted its ban just this fall.
Not mentioned in the Time article however were the UK Students For Liberty, who are leading the fight against the smoking ban. On November 19th the UK SFL helped organize a protest against the policy. UK SFL President Lance Wheeler was quoted by the Lexington-Herald Leader:
“Not everyone has been quick to embrace UK’s policy.
More than 80 students — about half of whom lit up cigarettes, cigars or pipes — gathered at the campus’ free speech area near the student center Thursday afternoon for an organized protest.
Wearing a “Jefferson is my homeboy” t-shirt, UK sophomore Lance Wheeler lit up a clove cigarette, took a long drag and declared to the crowd: “This is the smoke of liberty, my friends. Enjoy it.”
Wheeler, an economics major from Charleston, W.Va., told the crowd that the policy violated students’ freedom of speech.
“From now on, you smoke every day,” Wheeler told the group. “We don’t care what the officials from the administration say.”
Congratulations to Lance and the UK Students for Liberty for organizing their fellow students in the fight against these smoking bans. As the Time and other articles indicate, these smoking bans are not isolated incidents. They are a nation-wide movement to limit our freedom on campus.
While this movement is a threat to our liberty, it is also an opportunity. As the Kentucky and Michigan groups have shown, fighting the smoking bans is a great way to get covered in the media and raise awareness of the liberty message.
Want to protest against a smoking ban on your campus? SFL is here to help. Our Protest Grants can help you pay for cigarettes (real or fake), banners, flyers, posters, t-shirts, and anything else you can think of. Check out http://studentsforliberty.org/college/groups/protests/ to learn more and apply for a Protest Grant for your group. Don’t let your college trample on your rights and don’t let this opportunity go to waste.
I am delighted to see that students today, like students from my generation in the late 60's, are taking on the smoking ban issue. The smoking ban is a metaphor for all things fascist and a trigger for control over your future lifestyle. Please turn your research attentions to ASH, John Banzhaf, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, and the American Cancer Society. These are the people who will decide what you eat, drink, smoke, etc. Investigate the trail of money from them to legislators. Take a look at the fraud imposed upon Ohio voters by the anti-smokers at the time the ban was voted upon. Stop them now.
If you are in favor of smoking in public, I am in favor of (1) holding my breath around you (2) not kissing you because your mouth tastes bad (3) noticing your dangerous effluent and pointedly moving upwind from you. What vegetable matter are you indeed smoking? What addictive substances does it contain? Who pays your hospital bill? Will you refuse treatment, or pay the full price, for any cancers you develop in the future?