By Marilyn Brennan Santa Monica
Re: Frank Lee’s letter defending his and others right to smoke in their apartments, which he considers the last place in Santa Monica (lots of other cities have no smoking rules too, Frank) where he and his fellow nicotine addicts can smoke.
Don’t worry, Frank — as far as I can see the no smoking laws are anything but a priority in Santa Monica. People smoke at bus stops, in parks, in the promenade, leaning against the buildings they should be 20 feet away from. But you can still walk in residential neighborhoods, knocking into people with lit cigarettes burning their jackets and dropping ash on toddlers (I’ve seen both).
If your definition of a “nutter” is a non-smoker, then here in mine: A nutter is one who steadily consumes the drug that is killing them. That’s pretty nuts. I was that kind of nutter myself for over 35 years, I’m ashamed to say. I even had a lit one sitting in the soap dish of the shower.
So don’t tell me about addiction. When I finally realized — DUH — that I was killing myself and further polluting the environment, I quit. After a year as a nonsmoker, I ran stop smoking groups for the American Cancer Society in New York City and had the highest rate of people in my groups who quit and stayed quit for the years after follow-ups.
You also state that the “moral majority” are neither — which is correct. But in your letter I assume you mean non smokers are the moral majority. There is nothing about not wanting to die a horrible death that is either moral or immoral — it’s simply a choice. However, if you consider yourself, as a happy-go-lucky smoker, with “rights” to be a member of the “moral minority,” aren’t either.
You and some other smokers (who all seem to feel you are really cool rebels) do have the right to kill yourself with your addiction. And it’s an addiction that races your heart, raises your blood pressure, not to mention causes all kinds of cancer. But your right to kill yourself while smelling up the place does not extend to the right to involve me, my children, grandchildren and other non smokers in your addiction. Sorry.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 20, 2008. Read the original PDF.