26 August 2024
The ban will apply to people living in apartment blocks in Carlsbad and includes lighting up on balconies and decks
By Keiran Southern, The Times
A California beach town is banning residents from smoking inside their own homes, saying the health benefits outweigh concerns over government overreach.
Carlsbad, a surfing hot spot near San Diego, has decided to prohibit people from lighting up inside apartments, condos and other shared buildings where multiple families live.
From January residents will not be able to smoke or vape cannabis and nicotine products indoors or on balconies, porches and decks. The law does not apply to single-family homes or hotels and motels.
Melanie Burkholder, a Carlsbad council member, told the San Diego Union-Tribune: “I wrestle with the idea of how can I tell somebody what they can or can’t do in the confines of their own place where they live. But … we have to watch out for the best interests of the majority of the public.”
At least 84 of California’s 483 municipalities — including Beverly Hills, Cupertino and Pasadena — have enacted similar bans in multi-family private residences, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.
Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths in the US each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many residents in Carlsbad said the smoking ban would improve public health while making housing more pleasant despite concerns over how it will be enforced. Due to limited resources police will not enforce the law, but landlords and other tenants will be able to take legal action against anyone smoking indoors.
The ban has been criticised by some residents. Gary Pearson wrote in a letter to council members that attempting to control behaviour inside private homes was an “insult” and that city workers trying to implement such a ban were “tools of the progressive left”.
Others said it was a “clear case of government overreach”. Will Creagan, chairman of a San Diego County-based property management company, said: “So you pass an ordinance and then tell the property managers, ‘You need to enforce this’ … good luck.”
In 2022, roughly 11 per cent of Americans were smokers, according to official figures, a drop from 42 per cent in the mid-Sixties.