It is easy to understand why smoking might be banned in a public space, like a restaurant.  In such a setting non-smokers are unable to exercise their right NOT to breathe smoke.  More difficult to understand is why smoking should be banned in a smoke shop.  If a non-smoker doesn’t wish to breath smoke, he/she might reconsider going into a store that caters to people who smoke.

The Greeley City Council voted 6-1 to include electronic cigarettes in Greeley’s current anti-smoking ordinance, which in turn makes smoking the devices inside any business a misdemeanor criminal act, punishable by up to a $500 fine.

The problem is that we are looking for the rationale in all the wrong places.  We have convinced ourselves that the issue is secondhand smoke.  The reality is that bans such as this are mostly about the state objecting to what free individuals put into their body.

Sleight said after he looked at all the information, he could see only one answer.

“It is no more than a sophisticated nicotine system designed to deliver the most nicotine possible in the quickest way possible,” Sleight said.

What remains unclear is why Sleight, the Greeley city council, and busy bodies across the country are so concerned about what other people put into their bodies, especially when their behavior doesn’t infringe upon the rights of others.

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