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The Associated Students, the entrusted government body voicing our concerns to the administration here at PCC, recently supported a motion to designate smoking areas around campus and it’s a definite step in the right direction.
Having an assigned area to lose oneself in a billowing haze of smoke does not carry with it the indignation of feeling like a herded sheep, nor is it a disregard for smoker’s inherent right to enjoy their five-minute break with a cigarette held between their finger tips.
Nor is teetering toward the favor of those who would wish the campus to be smoke-free, an action that would all but guarantee a riotous frenzy from smokers who would be disproportionately stripped of personal rights.
Rather, the AS resolution is sound-sheet of logic against the painful disjointed reasoning of both smokers and non-smokers who would want the campus to reform to their own liking.
Smokers have had a fair amount of time to ignore the current smoking policy and have unknowingly been taking advantage of the police’s previous inability to enforce it.
Non-smokers have had their tolerance stretch as far as the warm drifting scent of tobacco can chase them and are tired of having some corners inside and nowhere outside as the only places for a break between classes.
Proponents who want this current situation to continue must realize two things:
The proposed designated smoking areas could be a slightly less stringent option once campus police begin issuing citations of up to $500 to those caught smoking within range of a public building.
Smokers also need to realize that others are entitled to the same degree of personal freedom that they enjoy. In a college where we all pay to better ourselves, everyone deserves the chance to enjoy their own moment of peace. A portion of campus that is relatively smoke-free can be that moment.
Opponents on the other hand, who wish for a complete ban on smoking and the chastisement of those who stick the ‘abrasive’ and ‘unhealthy’ tightly rolled vices onto the curls of their lips, must realize something as well.
No one smokes with the intention of encroaching on another’s personal space. Nor are smokers wholly ignorant of the dangers of smoking.
Same as the assurance non-smokers have in their future health, so too are smokers confident that their decision to smoke will not envelop their lives but always be there as small pleasure.
An outright ban will only alienate a group that could otherwise co-exist harmoniously under the new position.
As for the current smoking policy, though Pasadena adopted a strict limitation on public smoking, the campus does not have to mimic the city.
PCC is a place of diverse language, perceptions, and independence. It must be above trends. It must not fold under pressure from its host city or reach out blindly and hastily to the overprotective or those who feel they’re losing a degree of protection.
PCC and the Associated Students must be above absolution when it comes to any policy, in any shape or from. Be it civility to cigarettes. The new measure finds the middle and does just that.

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