Op-Ed: Tobacco Free Campus Initiative makes light of students’ rights

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Using tobacco products is the choice of the individual using them. We have the right to treat our bodies the way we want to treat them, and this right should be protected. I don’t smoke cigarettes, and I don’t support it, but shouldn’t students have the choice to smoke or not?

Tobacco is legal. This gives us the right to use it if we want to. Smokers are entitled to the same rights as those who choose not to use tobacco products: the right to choose. Civil liberties apply to smokers just as much as nonsmokers.

Smoking cigarettes is a person’s right, and to take away this right would be infringing upon our freedom to make our own decisions about our health and our bodies. We have the right to treat our body the way we want to. This includes eating healthy and working out, but also includes smoking, eating junk food and drinking alcohol. We should be able to reserve the responsibility to take care of ourselves the way we want.

I don’t think the university should have the right to ban tobacco on campus. What are all the students who smoke going to do? A student can’t just flat-out quit if they’re addicted.

It’s also troubling that the university has no plans for how to enforce the ban. Even if there is a ban on smoking on campus, students are still going to smoke. Maybe they’ll do it behind buildings or in the dark, but students who are addicted to cigarettes are still going to smoke. Not all students have cars to go off campus when they have cravings, and this is going to cause a lot of resentment.

The decision to make the University of Maine tobacco-free could only cause problems for the university. How many students are going to refuse to attend school here if they can’t smoke? With a university as big as UMaine, it’s impractical to put into effect a tobacco ban that will do nothing but alienate and frustrate a large number of students.

Yes, sometimes the choice to smoke affects more than just the smoker. Sometimes secondhand smoke can be a nuisance or a problem, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue on campus. I have never been affected or offended by secondhand smoke on campus, nor have I ever heard one of my friends or anyone else complain about smokers on campus.

I understand the university’s desire to make the campus healthier and friendlier, but they should be posting fliers highlighting the risks of tobacco and making resources more accessible to students – not completely banning it.

There are already enough smoking regulations on campus, including smoking 20 feet away from entrances and not in buildings. The university needs to first enforce the regulations already in place, because I’ve seen students smoking right next to buildings and major walkways. If they can’t enforce these relatively lenient regulations, how are they going to enforce a full ban on tobacco?

The money to enforce this ban is going to come from rising tuition costs for smokers and nonsmokers alike. Should the large non-smoking population have to pay to stop the smoking population? Not if we don’t want to.

I think the right thing to do in this situation would be to let the students and faculty decide. It’s our money and our freedom; let us decide what to do with it.

Sasha Kauffman is a first-year communication student.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010, 3:07 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.