UMass plans to ban all tobacco products, but maybe not e-cigs

[Placebo Effect]

Here's a little long-term project for vapers in the New England area.

Plan to turn UMass into a smoke-free campus by 2013 riles community | GazetteNET

Smoking and other tobacco use is slated to become a thing of the past at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, now that officials have approved a plan to make the campus smoke-free beginning July 1, 2013.


. . .



Others questioned the sense in outlawing smokeless tobacco, since it affects only the user, while others said outlawing electronic cigarettes would be counterproductive, since they're designed to help people quit smoking and don't actually emit smoke. "I think it would be better to have the university put in place policies to help educate people rather than issue health-related ultimatums," said Nathan Lamb, a member of the Student Government Association.


Webley and other proponents of a ban reiterated that the new committee that will develop specific policies for the ban will discuss all options, including making exceptions for the use of electronic cigarettes. "Nothing is finalized yet," said Faculty Senate secretary Ernest May. "We have two years to talk about this."

First, the smokeless tobacco bans crack me up. I live in New Jersey and have been in college and grad school for 6 years, and only once in my life have I ever seen a student use chewing tobacco in class. It was a community college baseball player who was a complete dolt. How many people have I had class with that have been using snus or another spitless tobacco? I have no idea, and UMass officials won't either.


However, it is very encouraging to see the Faculty Senate secretary outright say electronic cigarettes may be taken out of the bill. We need to get in touch with some of these people on the opposition side, including the faculty, and get them educated on this issue.

 

[berty]

The references to 70+ percent of the students supporting this ban should be irrelevant. America was founded as a Republic, not a Democracy. Our constitution and bill of rights is designed to protect individual personal liberty and freedoms, so long as they do not HARM others. If you could take a minority groups personal freedoms simply because the “majority” supported it, we would be living in a completely different America today.

The hypocrisy of any University that profits from the sale of low nutrition sugar latent and deep fried foods, known to cause obesity and diabetes, while supporting a ban on outdoor use of tobacco is troubling to say the least.

 

[GitMoe]

My college campus went tobacco free 2 years ago. It was really awful since I was a smoker at the time. You could only smoke in the parking lots which were nowhere near the academic buildings. It basically meant no smoke breaks during long classes. Now that Im vaping I just stealth vape in class. Problem solved....