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Banning Smoking Doesn’t Stop Smokers

For us non-smokers, we are perfectly happy to see a decline in the amount of tobacco smoke that potentially surrounds us. Watching colleges ban smoking on campus is just another reason for us to be happy. However, there are plenty of people who are very upset with this latest initiative and have no intention of following the new rules.

Besides the intention of curbing the amount of nicotine users, there are various legitimate reasons to want smoking banned from college campuses: non-smokers don’t want to inhale toxins; cigarette butts create a dirty campus; and cigarettes are a fire hazard.

As a non-smoker, I obviously don’t want to smell the fumes of smoke or even the residue of nicotine as it makes it hard for me to breathe. But keeping a clean and fire-free campus are actually the bigger reasons to ban smoking. It is rare for me to see a smoker who does not toss his or her cigarette butts on the ground. If the butts aren’t acting as another form of littering, then they act as a potential fire. I have actually seen small cigarette butts left to smoke and cinder in the grass.

It is for these reasons that smoking has been banned from certain college campuses. But is it really doing any good?

Enforcement is the only way to keep a rule from being broken. As I watch smoke waft from around the corner of a building where a small group of students get in their last drags before class, I realize that banning smoking from campus has had little effect on the students.

Maybe the brevity of this rule affects the outcome (its been under one year for Evergreen Valley College). Maybe it is the minimal signs notifying the students of the no-smoking rule. Or maybe it is because there is no one to enforce this rule. That’s a lot of maybes without any specific answers.

Yes, there is always campus police to enforce campus policies, but is anyone really going to call the campus police when they see some students smoking? If there was a non-emergency number to call for the campus maybe people would be more inclined. As it is, even other school members are unsure how to handle students who are still walking around with a cigarette in hand.

If there is a single smoking person in my vicinity, I am inclined to politely point out the non-smoking policy on campus. However, it gets a bit intimidating when there is a group of people smoking. There is no way I am about to approach a bunch of smokers to tell them to put out their cigarettes. I ask myself, “Why are they going to listen to me? One person?” And it is these larger groups of smokers who are more in need of having their fires put out – the larger the group, the larger the fire hazard.

Obviously, a campus is large so monitoring whether students are smoking in their designated areas is nearly impossible. But what is the best way to enforce the non-smoking policy?

If you have any suggestions of your own, please share them. I am sure other people would appreciate the advice. I know I would.