One more thing about smoking...

One more thing about smoking. Yeah, I know I have covered this subject before, but the smoking regulations in California keep pissing me off. Of course, you feel sorta like a loser when you have to walk away from a nice dinner with a group of friends to go outside. Of course it's annoying that you can't smoke in bars or clubs. But a non-smoking beach? Out in the fresh air?

Yes. At least in Santa Monica. Apart from the fact that the anti-smoking rules/laws are hitting the point of going beyond being reasonable, there is some hypocrisy involved as well. The city government not wanting any butts on the beach is perfectly understandable, the same goes for any other form of rubbish.

On Sunday I was out surfing at Venice, and was literally paddling through sewage. However, there isn't a single cigarette butt to be found on the beach. The nasty greenish-yellowish foam can make you sick, give you all kinds of rashes and what not. Cigarette butts on the beach are just nasty, but not more than that.

So where exactly are the priorities? Rats.

The California Smokers Witch Hunt

Most people will probably know California isn't the most smoker-friendly place in the US. Apart from smoking being banned in all public places including bars and restaurants, smoking is also officially prohibited within a 20-feet radius of any openable door or window.

The practical enforcement of the 20-feet law is a completely different story (20 feet usually turns out to be somewhere in the middle of a traffic lane) but the intentions are clear.

But who said "Volksgericht" is old-fashioned? During my stay in Santa Monica, I was getting a coffee at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on OPB and settled in at the outdoor seating area. Facing me was a blind wall (meaning I was compliant with the 20-feet rule) so I lit up.

I had barely taken a hit or a very Californian-looking guy came up to me from across the seating area, and busted out "you're not supposed to smoke here". No excuse me or any form of fake sugar-coated politeness that usually accompanies the general way in this place this time.

He was looking as if I was an old nazi found after 45 years in Argentina, or a tramp sitting on someone's front porch. He looked really nasty.

"You mean it's not allowed here, or I'm not supposed to?" I replied trying to look equally nasty. "You shouldn't smoke here" was his only reply. I felt like givinig this guy a smack. I most definately felt like making a point out of it.


But then I remembered the first rule of travelling: stay out of trouble in foreign places. I consider the US a "contingency 3 country"(the higher the number on a scale 1-6 the more you wanna stay out of trouble) so my ratio disciplined my anger and I put the thing out. Back in Holland I would've probably told the dude to go screw himself and then ignore him while finishing my smoke. Not here.

When leaving I gave him a dirty look. He grinned. Bastard.

This sign indicates the presence of a designated smoking area at Sea World (San Diego). I was very happy when I saw this sign, as it rendered my plans, of taking a strategic place behind a wall, or at the top of the seats surrounding the seals & sea otters show in order to have a smoke, obsolete. The arrow points to the top right. When I checked out the other side of the sign, the arrow pointed to the bottom left. Right. I figured this *was* the designated smoking area so I lit up. Undisturbed :-)


The irony is of course that so much time, effort and nastyness is put into fighting one of the great dangers of our time: smokers. They smell. They're nasty. They're evil. If you stand on Lincoln & Pico between 5 and 5:10 I guess you inhale as much shit as you'd get from an entire pack of cigarettes. And the fact that smokers die younger after paying a lifetime of extra taxes on tabacco is good news for healthcare - it allows them to focus on less nastier people (see picture).