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okay, i've been to CA exactly once in my life. a business trip mixed with a few days of much-needed R&R. beautiful place (SF area), had a great time, etc. -- but that no smoking crap really was a pain in the butt.

but that was inside. now it's ixnayed outside, too? WTF???

i'd like to live out that way someday, but forgeddabowdit right now. i'll stay here on the southeast coast in tobacco-friendly country where you can smoke INDOORS in RESTAURANTS and BARS and OUTDOORS on the beach or damn near anywhere else.

what a crock!

drnos did you forget about Santa Cruz that also did this.

I agree with the ban on the beaches because most smokers just dump there butts right there in the sand and pollute the place. If people can't smoke responsibly and clean up after themselves, screw 'em. A few bad apples have ruined it for the bunch of us.

Cavallo - as a New Englander that just happens to live in California I say this to you: Stay where you are. OMG is it expensive. $2.15 for a gallon of cheap gas right now. Why? Because they can. They make you buy a fishing license for the ocean! And a seperate one for the lakes! If they can charge you for it, they will. They don't care if your car is safe to drive either... as long as it doesn't pollute the air.

Gotta say something nice about California now. The weather is beautiful.

hey, now. i smoke cigarettes! :P

i also don't smoke outside without having place to put my butts -- i've got a little pocket ashtray thing, cost about five bucks 3 years ago, and i take it with me whenever i leave the house.

otherwise, ditto to what cigarick said. littering is against the law already. aside from that, though, i DO think that cigarette smokers need to be leaned on from all sides to dispose of their butts properly.

a couple of cigarette manufacturers started enclosing these disposable ash containers with each pack awhile back and had a brief ad campaign to encourage smokers to not litter. that went over like a fart in church. :P too bad, though, because that's the right idea -- and promoting responsibility like that is JUST what is needed to avoid laws that suck for ALL smokers of all kinds.

I don't agree with a ban on smoking beach. (But)
I lived in Hermosa Beach (a few miles South of Santa Monica). I think the public felt that all that sand was just a huge ashtray. I support the littering aspect of it and can see their point, but you would have to restrict sandwich wrappers, napkins, diapers, cups, cans, bottles and other garbage as prohibited as well. I found those in as much quanitity as cigarette butts.

They throw secondhand smoke as a secondary reason, but anyone who has been to a beach in California knows there is always a pretty good breeze that blows constantly. I don't think second hand smoke becomes much of an issue after 3-4 seconds.

I can see regulating indoors smoking...gotta live with it. I can see regualting smoking at some outdoor events (baseball games, school areas and other public gatherings) but damn....out in the open air...next to the water...where the wind takes away the smoke.

Okay...how about a stiff fine on littering...I mean all kinds. And stiff enforcement. especially cigarette butts. They don't biodegrade very well.

But just a ban on smoking for the sake of creating a ban...geez.