Editor:
I read your editorial, "Smoking law needs to go further," July 20, and was smoking mad that you're proposing that all smokers [be barred from smoking in their apartments and condos] after three years!
Someone said to me that they thought Santa Monica was a liberal town and I reminded them that the Nazis were short for the National Socialist [German Workers'] Party! We are engaged in social engineering and are now making smokers like the Jews. Jews were forced to wear a star of David on their clothes and homes, and now tobacco and pot smokers will have to turn themselves in and declare their apartments smoking for all the smoke Nazis to hate and throw them out of town. Instead of a star of David, a big cigarette will be painted on smokers' doors.
These anti-smoke Nazis have stated that their plan is to make our city smoking-freeover time after all smokers leave or die off, just as the Nazis said about the Jews, gypsies and homosexuals.
If we outlaw smoking in Santa Monica then we should also make selling tobacco illegal here in markets and shops and we should not collect any of the very lucrative taxes we so very badly need.
Despite all the lies about second-hand smoke being harmful, there are no studies using pure, organic tobaccos, which are available today. There are no studies showing pot smoke being bad for smokers or second hand. Now we are criminalizing medical marijuana smokers even though it was legalized by vote in our state and may hopefully become completely legal for adults in the next election. Some of our City Council members have even stated they're in favor of legalization.
Those who are bothered by their neighbors smoking could have always moved into a non-smoking building. Obviously these cry babies didn't care enough about smoking when they moved in that they didn't look for a non-smoking apartment building. This was up to the owners to put in their contracts and there are already many non-smoking buildings. Owners have always been concerned with smoke damage and fires in their property and this should only be up to the property owner. We are ruled by some self-righteous fascists who think they know better than everyone else what is good for everyone else. No bags or hedges, yet they vote to add a poisonous industrial waste called fluoride into our water!
As for Councilman Bobby Shriver pushing this issue, he should have stayed out of it. He and his rich Kennedy family have always lived in mansions, not apartments. His relative, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is famous for smoking cigars. His uncle John Kennedy smoked cigars and so did his pal Bill Clinton. Will he tell Bill and Arnold not to smoke when they are here? Then they should make mansions smoke-free also. Smoke can blow next door to his rich neighbor's mansion.
Please, enough stupid laws, and just leave everyone alone already! It has been said that the best government is one that governs least.
Martin Sampson
Santa Monica
