# Smokers have rights- to suck on a lemon full of spit **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 21, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200 "2000-11-21T23:11:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/1 "2000-11-21T23:11:42Z")
I’m sorry smokers, but I can’t take it anymore. You have the right to smoke anything you want…but don’t spread your vile filth around me! I live in a beautiful forest. Walking to class is a hike through majestic redwoods. It is amazeing. And there is always some jerk walking right in front if me with a cigarette. As I try to breathe in the fresh mountain air, I end up breathing unspeakable sickening stench. What makes you think that it is cool to do something that repulsive in public. I mean, we try not to yell, hit people, fart, dance badly, commit acts of self mutilation or other things that may be offensive to others in public, but it is somehow perfectly okay to bust out a cancer-stick and fill the air with disease causeing grottiness. I know you have a right to smoke, but common sense ought to dictate that it ought to be kept in private. Which leads me to my real rant. The college campus I live on has student residences, faculty offices and classrooms interspersed amongst each other. That means your home may be next door to a classroom, or a library, or an office. It’s a cool system, except for one thing. I live about ten feet away from a busy classroom. After class and during breaks, people ignore the “no smoking with twenty five feet of a residence” rule, and smoke their death rods practically on my front door step. The other day I walked in to my room, only to be confronted by the horrible smell of cigarette smoke. I walked outside, and sure enough, there was someone smokeing right next to my house. I politely said “Hey, do you mind smoking a little bit farther away from my house?” and he gave me an evil look and said “The wind is blowing the other way.” I expained to him that my room smelled like cigarette smoke, that was obviously his, and it bothered me. It’s not like I sit around waiting for someone to smoke near me so I can harrass them. But when other people’s smoke does bother me in my home, and it is a changeable situation (and especially when the smoker is going against university policy by smoking next to a residence) I am going to ask them to stop. Anyway, he stomped off, and I opened my windows and aired out the room. But the idea is that you have no right to smoke on my front door step. You are not a victem of an opressed group just because you like to do things that are offensive to others. I could have told him about why I don’t smoke. I could have told him about how I was paralyzed with fear for weeks when my mom found something in her lung (it turned out to be benign, thank god). I could have told him any number of things…but I just asked him to go do his thing somewhere else. So in the end, smokers have rights, but that does not entitle them to be jerks. To jerky smokers, a hearty “GO suck on a lemon full of spit!” ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/2 "2000-11-21T23:24:10Z")
I’ll take “things they should have thought about before kicking us out of the buildings” for $500, Alex. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/3 "2000-11-21T23:30:26Z")
Try the ones I see on campus all the time-who throw their discarded, still lit butts on the ground, or into the bushes. I’m just WAITING for the fire to start… :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/4 "2000-11-21T23:42:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Try the ones I see on campus all the time-who throw their discarded, still lit butts on the ground, or into the bushes. > I’m just WAITING for the fire to start… > :mad: \*\* Mr. S saw a guy **wearing a “Volunteer Firefighter” T-shirt** do this at a gas station several weeks ago. You know, mid-October, when the leaves are all dry and crackly . . . I mean, of all people, you’d think _this_ guy would give a shit. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/5 "2000-11-21T23:52:39Z")
:eek: _wishes she had the drop-jaw smiley_ Now THAT’s Scary! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/6 "2000-11-22T00:29:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scarlett67 \* > \*\*Mr. S saw a guy **wearing a “Volunteer Firefighter” T-shirt** do this at a gas station several weeks ago. You know, mid-October, when the leaves are all dry and crackly . . . > > I mean, of all people, you’d think _this_ guy would give a shit. \*\* He dropped a lit butt into dry leaves at a gas station? The mind reels. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/7 "2000-11-22T02:14:34Z")
I really don’t mind when someone else smokes around me. My years in Theatre (everyone smokes) has allowed me to develop the instinct to stand upwind. However, if someone deliberately blows smoke in my face, they’re getting an ass-whippin’. ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Feelgud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Major\_Feelgud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Feelgud)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/8 "2000-11-22T09:28:57Z")
I wish they would ban smokers from smoking in front of buildings. Yes, I know they can’t smoke inside, but now they’re smoking right in front of the door, and I have to breath their vile smoke when I go in and out of the building. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/9 "2000-11-22T10:10:14Z")
When I last checked, tobacco was still leagal for consumption by adults. That said, I **do not** smoke tobacco or enjoy being around it. But I recognize that people have a right to consume a **legal** substance in a legal fashion. With that out of the way, let me tell you **even sven** , to exercise your rights. If you have followed my comments in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=42115) thread, you’ll know that I **hate** people who litter cigarette butts. Now, on to the meat of the post. GROW UP, use your legal remedies. No smoking allowed in certain areas? Bring in the authorities and display the evidence to them that people are not distancing themselves properly from building entrances (as with the above mentioned post, you should be able to guess that there will be a lot of butts on the ground in these areas). Report violations when you spot them. Someone out of (and away from) doors smoking where you don’t like it? **Fricking move!** (you can also overtake and walk ahead of them or let them outdistance you). Sorry, until tobacco is **illegal** that person has rights too. You excersise yours, hopefully they will respect yours when they excercise theirs. All of this “suck on a lemon full of spit” crap is just vindictive BS. Use the laws where they apply in your favor, stop whining and go get some results. If I’m on a jury trying the offenses cited in your case, I’ll help you convict. Past that, you’re on your own. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/10 "2000-11-22T10:29:40Z")
I don’t smoke, and haven’t for better than ten years. But the smell of a freshly lit Marlboro **still makes my mouth water and my senses reel**! Dammit, dammit, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/11 "2000-11-22T16:03:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by even sven \* > \*\* > So in the end, smokers have rights, but that does not entitle them to be jerks. To jerky smokers, a hearty “GO suck on a lemon full of spit!” \*\* So why is your post so full of all encompassing anti-smoking rhetoric if it’s just the jerks you hate? I smoke. I am not a jerk. I use ashtrays. I never presume to light up in someone else’s house. I don’t smoke while in close proximity to children. I obey posted smoking/non-smoking zone signs. Hell, I’ll even step outside of my own house to light up if there is a non-smoker visiting me. But apparently I _am_ jerk just because I choose to consume “death-rods”. There are plenty of vices and behaviors that offend me (such as listening to country music, or voting republican), but I recognize that people have their rights, and I don’t swear at them and lord my superiority over them because I don’t share their tastes. If there was a guy standing outside your door smoking, fine he’s a jerk. But it may as well have been a guy standing outside your door playing his boom-box too loud, or screaming obcenities at someone, or fucking a chicken, or whatever. It’s not the vice you’re pissed at it’s the person partaking of it. So don’t lump me in with all the smoke-in-the-face-blowing dinks and let me enjoy my freakin’ Camel while I got two minutes to spare. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/12 "2000-11-22T16:09:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Major Feelgud \* > \*\*I wish they would ban smokers from smoking in front of buildings. Yes, I know they can’t smoke inside, but now they’re smoking right in front of the door, and I have to breath their vile smoke when I go in and out of the building. \*\* To repeat: I’ll take “things they should have thought about before kicking us out of the buildings” for $500, Alex. To expand: Fuck off. Outside is my limit. If you convince “them” to ban me from the front of buildings, tell “them” to bring guns, and to make the first shot count. I will not cooperate if “they” try to stop me or arrest me, and I return fire. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/13 "2000-11-22T16:37:56Z")
Are there such things as non-smoking apartment buildings? There damn well should be, though the ACLU would no doubt have kittens about it. My Mom lives in a garden-apartment complex. The fellow who lives one floor below smokes (usually cigarettes, but sometimes cigars). My Mom has bronchial asthma (caused, I might add, by being married to my father, who smoked himself to death). Her neighbor’s smoke rises right up through the floor, and there’s not a damn thing she can do about it except turn on her a/c or open the windows, which does little if any good. Now, there is obviously no way you can ask someone not to smoke in his own apartment—so ARE there any non-smoking apartments? Anyone else have this trouble? ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/14 "2000-11-22T16:39:32Z")
Hey manny - I think that’s the “daily double!” 😃 Seriously, though, manny and Jack said it better than I could - if there **isn’t** a sign that says “No Smoking” and I’m smoking there, get the hell out of my face. If there **is** a sign that says “No Smoking” and someone is smoking there, why don’t you do something about it instead of ragging on those of us who follow the damn rules. And don’t even **presume** to tell me where, outside, where there are no “rules” posted - whether it be a “beautiful forest” or the thirteenth ring of hell - I can smoke. As for keeping things in “private”, bite me. I’m entitled to go out and walk in the damn woods too. And if the rancid smell of my death rods bother you, MOVE. GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME. I COULD CARE LESS. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/15 "2000-11-22T16:46:22Z")
To clarify - the above is in no way intended to be directed at Eve - it is to the OP. Eve - I’m sorry to hear about what your mom is going through. Would a good air filter help at all? I did try searching the web for non-smoking apartments, but the results I got weren’t real helpful. Have you talked to any real estate or rental people who might be able to find something that would be workable? ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Commander\_Fortune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Fortune)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/16 "2000-11-22T16:51:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Are there such things as non-smoking apartment buildings? There damn well should be, though the ACLU would no doubt have kittens about it. > > My Mom lives in a garden-apartment complex. The fellow who lives one floor below smokes (usually cigarettes, but sometimes cigars). My Mom has bronchial asthma (caused, I might add, by being married to my father, who smoked himself to death). Her neighbor’s smoke rises right up through the floor, and there’s not a damn thing she can do about it except turn on her a/c or open the windows, which does little if any good. > > Now, there is obviously no way you can ask someone not to smoke in his own apartment—so ARE there any non-smoking apartments? Anyone else have this trouble? \*\* I have some friends whose ex-upstairs neighbor actually left a note on their front door asking them to not smoke in their apartment! Yeah, that was gonna happen. I’ve never heard of a non-smoking apartment building. I have however seen “non-smoking” as criteria for tenant renting a house. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/17 "2000-11-22T16:57:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Major Feelgud \* > \*\*Yes, I know they can’t smoke inside, but now they’re smoking right in front of the door, and I have to breath their vile smoke when I go in and out of the building. \*\* Boo fuckin’ hoo. We already have to go outside, regardless of weather, but that’s not far enough away apparently. How long are you breathing the vile smoke while walking in and out of a door? 5 seconds? Most people can hold their breath for that long. These non-smokers that don’t want their rights infringed upon force smokers farther and farther away, because apparently the non-smoker’s rights outweigh the smoker’s rights. We’re already inconvenienced by being outside, how much further will you drive someone away? So it may be an inconvenience for you to have to walk through the smoke, but really, how long does it take you to go through a doorway? ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/18 "2000-11-22T17:17:55Z")
I love watching in old movies and TV shows where everyone smokes anywhere they want. There’s something really nostalgic about seeing people walking around their workplace with a cigarette all the time. ---
**Author:** ![zwaldd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a9adbd/32.png) [@zwaldd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwaldd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/19 "2000-11-22T17:43:33Z")
from **missy2u** > [@](#): > > if there isn’t a sign that says “No Smoking” and I’m smoking there, get the hell out of my face. why is that? smoke is like noise. since you’re producing it, it obviously doesn’t bother you. but what if it’s bothering someone else? fuck them? there’s no sign in my apartment that says ‘turn down your music’, but i keep it down to be civil to my neighbors. we all have to live together. once i was in my apartment complex laundry room getting my clothes out of the dryer and someone was smoking there. since i had just washed cigarette smoke odor out of some of those clothes, i asked the guy to not smoke in the laundry room so i can at least get the clean clothes back to my place before they started stinking again (in more polite words). he looked around the room to see if there was a no smoking sign (i could tell this was what he was looking for). there was no sign, but he put out the cigarette anyway. would you have told me to fuck off? ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200/20 "2000-11-22T17:58:20Z")
No, zwaldd, I (personally) would not have told you to fuck off. I would have put it out. Frankly, I wouldn’t be smoking in the laundry room to begin with - I really do try not to smoke inside anywhere but my house and my local bar. And the smoking room at work. I know it bothers a lot of people, and frankly, I am a big enough wuss (did I spell that right?) that I really don’t want to get anyone upset with me. **But** if I am at work/school/the shopping mall, and have been told that I must smoke outside (that being the operative word) I take real exception to people telling me their troubles with my horrid stinking habit and how I’m making their out of door lives miserable when MY life has been inconvenienced just to make their lives more pleasant. See the difference? I hope I’m not coming across as being bitchy to you…I’m having “a day”… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smokers-have-rights-to-suck-on-a-lemon-full-of-spit/42200.md?page=2)