Why I’m a libertarian who supports smoking bans

I believe one of the few legitimate purposes of a government is to protect people from one another.

Secondhand smoke is a form of assault.

Therefore, tadalafil cialis government can legitimately regulate smoking in circumstances where one person’s smoke is hazardous to another person.

(People try to make this into a private property rights argument and it simply is not. Restaurants and bars are not private property in the same way that private residences are. We try to restrict many other health hazards in restaurants and bars, viagra why does smoking deserve a special exemption?)

I also don’t accept the assertion that smoking bans are an illegitimate restriction of freedom.

The ONLY legitimate restrictions of freedom are those that keep people from hurting each other. Secondhand smoke clearly falls into that category.

To paraphrase Oliver Wendell Jones, check your right to smoke ends where another man’s nose begins.

(To be clear, my entire argument rests on the fact that secondhand smoke is hazardous to other people’s health. If this were not true, I would be in agreement with the people who oppose the bans.)

16 comments May 19th, 2009