Brickbat: Puff and Pay

The Scottsdale, Arizona, city council has updated its smoking restrictions to include e-cigarettes and vape pens, banning their use in enclosed public spots (such as malls, theaters, bars, and restaurants), in city-owned areas (such as bus stops, playgrounds, pools, and stadiums), and anywhere within 50 feet of public schools. Violators could face fines of up to $300.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Vapor is humidity and the last thing Arizona needs is for its only draw of dry heat jeopardized.

[mad.casual]

It's all fun and games until Chicago, New York, or Seattle bans the visible public emissions of water vapor for anyone from Sep. to May.

[Mickey Rat]

I am not sure why, but it seems among the general public, vapes may be more despised than cigarettes for annoyance. It may be this has been drummed by "do-gooder" frustration that they represent a loophole on prohibitions against tobacco usage.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Most people that vape tend to be douchebags, that is part of it.

[mad.casual]

If only there were a way to ban people from being douchebags in public, right?

Of course, that would hopefully be used against actual mask-wearers and helicoptering Karens first. But then, it would probably be used against low-brow internet commenters before it got to the "douchebags" voluntarily going outside to vape.

Come to think of it, just make every other, or 5th, or 10th vape cartridge pure glycerol (or whatever) and call it performative free speech.

[AT]

vapes may be more despised than cigarettes for annoyance.

That's the only reason nicotine was targeted in the first place too. Don't let them fool you into thinking "second hand smoke" was some kind of horrible public health concern. It never was, regardless of what the self-righteous asthmatics said.

Other people smoking was just annoying. And the reason vaping is even more so, is because it's annoying and it's obviously some kind of pathetic "look at me, look at me!" theater kid display. If people used more discreet/cloudless vape pens, I guarantee you nobody would give them a second glance.

But at the end of the day, these were a response to a percentage of people who routinely fail the Shopping Cart Theory. The same people who hate your vaping are the same ones who look at you with venom because you're just plain too much of a garbage human being to return your grocery cart to the corral like a normal person that lives in a civilized society.

It's not about the vaping or the cart. It's about the person being social trash.

[psmoot]

"Other people smoking was just annoying. And the reason vaping is even more so, is because it's annoying and it's obviously some kind of pathetic "look at me, look at me!" theater kid display."

You think so? I assumed it was the nicotine rush. The only vapers I know of could care less who's watching. High school boys may be a different camp.

The reason smoking is annoying is the smell. Tobacco itself smells fine, the smoke and the smoker do not. I'm quite sure that's what fueled most of the smoking bans, not any altruistic concern about smokers' health.

[mad.casual]

The only vapers I know of could care less who's watching.

The majority of vapors I know specifically and voluntarily go to designated smoking areas or seek out an unoccupied space or duck behind a utility building specifically to avoid confrontation. Many, you wouldn't even know vaped unless you knew what to look for.

I freely admit there are a minority of high profile, attention-seeking douchebags.

[AT]

You think so? ... The only vapers I know of could care less who's watching.

Yes, the giant billowing clouds that are 100% avoidable with discreet/cloudless vape pens have nothing to do with putting on a show for others.

I'm quite sure that's what fueled most of the smoking bans, not any altruistic concern about smokers' health.

Indeed. For the vapers though, it's the show that everyone finds insufferable.

[mad.casual]

It's about the person being social trash.

Are we talking about the people vaping and using shopping carts here or the people brimming with self-righteous enmity over someone else's shopping cart?

[AT]

Nah, it's the social theory.

No incentive for not doing something, no punishment for doing it. The question is whether you're of the social (if not moral) character to act in a way that wouldn't be commonly regarded as obnoxious.

Whether it's intentionally not returning the cart to the corral, or smoking/vaping in a place where other people are going to have to suffer your doing so - the question asks what kind of person you are in a social sense. It ultimately as a test for those worthy of self-governance vs those who have to be told not to be, as you put it, douchebags because apparently "douchebag" is their default setting.

(And, for the record, I would also suggest that the test doesn't end there as well - to wit: the passive-aggressive people who make a big theatric production of conspicuously coughing when encountering the smoker/vaper, or vocally haranguing the cart abandoners without actually directing the harangue at them. Those guys are also douchebags.)

[LIBtranslator]

Tobacco lobbyists--their avarice titillated by images of Inca soldiers' cheeks stuffed with coca and Chinamen sucking on opium pipes--paid politicians to outlaw that unfair competition and turn thim furriners into Proper Christian plug chawers, snuff snorters and cigarette suckers. Now, those same laws suddenly costing thim market share, only prove that the Miracle of Transubstantiation is real, but not always a pretty thing...

[NoVaNick]

Vape bans indoors or outdoors have been a thing for years in hoity toity proggie suburbs, and Scottsdale fits that description. I don’t see many vaping anymore but do smell lots of weed smoke around here. even coming from cars.

[psmoot]

And that's what most annoys me about legal(ish) weed, smelling the smoke. If people used THC vapes, I'd be happy as a clam. That's probably healthier too, I can't imagine inhaling any sort of combustion products does your lungs any good.

Of course, gummies also solve that problem as far as I'm concerned.

[TJJ2000]

Perfect example of how "[WE] RULE" w/'Guns' ends up taking private property.

You want a Vape-Free mall, theater, bar, and restaurant???
GO F'EN BUY ONE with own GD $.

The BS behind [WE] mob RULES your establishment is literally the footing behind socialism.