Opinion
Whenever my daughter and I walk by someone who is smoking we look at each other, sigh and, given no other option, hold our breath as we pass by.
We do that because we know all about the number of deadly ingredients found in cigarette smoke. We don’t blame the smoker. Chances are the smoker knows, too.
Unfortunately, the smoker has developed an addiction to the nicotine that is a natural part of the tobacco plant. What smokers might not know is that the tobacco companies that make the cigarettes are not only aware of how addictive nicotine is, but go out of their way to make it even more addictive than it already is.
It’s been proven that they add forms of ammonia to the “recipe” to break down the nicotine molecule to its’ base form, so the smoker is free-basing nicotine.
In order for the smoker to maintain this designed addiction, they are exposing themselves to many, many chemicals that are known to cause early death in a large percentage of smokers.
The sad truth is that the smoker is not the only victim of these deadly toxins. Only 15 percent of the smoke inhaled stays in the lungs. The other 85 percent is exhaled into the air, so as other people, including nonsmokers, walk through the cloud, they too are breathing the more than 60 cancer causing chemicals present in secondhand smoke.
Nonsmokers have already made the choice to live a healthier life style and should expect a certain level of security knowing they can walk around in public places, or go to work, without the concern of being poisoned.
There are some protective factors already in place.
Ten years after the “smoke-free bars” law went into effect, the “smoke-free cars with minors” law started.
This law, which has been in effect since the beginning of 2008, prohibits smoking in a motor vehicle when a minor (17 years old and under) is also in the car. A violation is punishable by a fine of up to $100.
The city of Lakeport has an ordinance that prohibits smoking “within the boundaries of any city park, playground, or recreation center” (cmc 8.44.020). A violation of this law is an infraction.
The Lake County Fair Board has assigned certain areas within the fairgrounds that are off limits to smokers in an effort to protect nonsmokers, especially children, from the damaging effects of secondhand smoke.
California is definitely moving in the right direction, but is the state doing enough?
To help you decide, you might be interested to know that for every eight smokers that die of a smoking related death, one non-smoker does too. That’s because there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
Labeled as a Class “A” carcinogen, the very moment secondhand smoke is inhaled, it starts causing damage to cells and tissue inside the body. Over a long period of time the effect can be very serious and in some cases deadly.
The EPA, the FDA and the U.S. Surgeon General have all agreed that nonsmokers need protection from being forced to breathe tainted air.
Another fact that most people might not be aware of is that the more a young person breathes secondhand smoke the more likely they are to become smokers. With each breath, they are getting nicotine into their bloodstream and sooner or later they too could become addicted to it.
There is also very strong proof that young girls suffer permanent damage to their reproductive system after inhaling secondhand smoke.
Evidence shows an increase in chances that, when older, they might have difficulty getting pregnant, have an increased chance of having miscarriages and giving birth to low-weight babies.
Living in America, people have the right to choose whether or not to smoke. Do they have the right to put nonsmokers in danger?
We have the right to breathe clean air. Since there are more nonsmokers than there are smokers and 48 million of them are former smokers, it would make sense to me that there should be laws and rules in place to protect nonsmokers, not because they are the majority, but because of the high risk being exposed to secondhand smoke presents.
So when my daughter and I walk down the street we should not have to choose to breathe or not to breathe.
As community a member, I support ordinances and policies that limit exposure to secondhand smoke while outdoors – especially in public parks, outdoor events (such as the Lake County Fair), and areas outside a local business we would like to visit.
You have an opportunity to join efforts to protect the health of our community.
If you would like more information about the health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke, or would like to be involved in local efforts to protect the health of our community, call the Lake County Tobacco Education Program, a program of Lake Family Resource Center at 707-262-1379, Extension 113.
For help to quit smoking, call the California Smokers Helpline at 800-NO-BUTTS.
Glenn Koeppel lives in Lucerne, Calif.
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- Written by: Glenn Koeppel
In response to a letter regarding Measure D in another publication on Thursday, April 26, I believe marijuana has medicinal value to cancer patients who have appetite loss and certainly there must be other medicinal uses.
I am for complete decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. I find it to be much less harmful than alcohol.
In other words, I do not feel it's the evil weed, and if people of legal age want to smoke, it I believe they should be allowed to.
I do believe, however that the growing of medical marijuana and hemp for other purposes needs a much harder look before implementation of a growing plan.
In response to the writer's question, “Why is the wine industry welcomed with open arms and embraced while marijuana is condemned as the evil weed with its roots firmly planted in hell?”
This is very easy to answer on several planes. First of all, you are exaggerating. I'm sure most of the people, including people from the Farm Bureau, do not believe that marijuana is is an evil weed with its roots firmly planted in hell. However, I'm sure many people who believe in decriminalizing it want to see strict regulation of growing it as they do with all crops.
Unlike marijuana, the wine industry has a longstanding tradition of bringing culture and tourism to the areas where it's produced.
Over the last 150 years that the wine industry has been in California it has been examined and scrutinized, and farming practices have been improved. The grapevine stays firmly implanted in the soil 12 months of the year, thereby stabilizing the soil – marijuana does not. Everything to do with the wine industry is visible and above board.
Before a winery or vineyard goes in, the owner is required to make improvements and go through an extensive permit process before even being allowed to sink the first shovel. In other words the neighborhood roads are not going to be ruined by winery trucks passing through the neighborhood. Home values will go up when a new winery comes to the area.
Marijuana, on the other hand, is totally unregulated. Home values will plummet when marijuana plots go into a neighborhood.
I've read Measure D. I encourage others to read it (you can see it below).
Measure D was written by marijuana growers and provides no regulation of marijuana growing whatsoever. Nowhere in the measure is there any wording regulating drainage, pesticides or herbicides. There is no wording regulating the erosion control or the dead skunk stench that the plants gives off.
Measure D, under the guise of being a regulatory document, cleverly opens up nearly every neighborhood for growing it.
Measure D allows marijuana growers to grow in agricultural districts, agricultural preserve districts, single-family residential zones, suburban reserve districts and timberland preserve districts.
Self-regulation simply does not work. The expression of “the fox watching the hen house” applies here. It's like having Wall Street govern the banking industry. It's simply ludicrous.
There is nothing in Measure D that says a grower has to be a resident of Lake County. This will bring people from all over the state to grab land for their plots for marijuana. This will raise holy hell with our watershed. The supply for medical marijuana will far exceed the demand for medical marijuana.
However, people will still need to sell their marijuana. What happens to the excess marijuana? I'm sure the states around us will feel the impact whether they like it or not. This is what it's all about: MONEY! Pure and simple. If we just take care of the patients in California we won’t need to grow so much marijuana. That’s why we voted to legalize medicinal marijuana – California patients.
Look around you. Lake County is a big bowl. Much of the land for growing things is already used for growing things in flat areas where runoff isn't as damaging. Nearly everything in Lake County that grows agriculturally maintains its rootstock throughout the winter and holds the soil in place. Vineyards on hillsides are terraced to prevent erosion.
When growers grow marijuana they will be using the watershed to grow it. They will strip the land of trees to allow for sunlight and build grow boxes to level out a portion of the hillside.
Don't believe that? These photographs show two probable plots that have already been developed under everyone's noses. One comes complete with a flat spot for a possible illegal guardhouse RV. Read Measure D so you can judge for yourself its vagueness.
One grower has already produced a crop of nearly 50 plants last year viewable on Google Earth and you can clearly see how the land has been clear-cut of precious madrone, manzanita and other native plants that hold the hillside in place and prevent it from washing down to Clear Lake. It is bare of vegetation. The chainsaws ran for weeks. My eyes watered from the skunk smell through two months of summer.
The newest addition of a probable grow site was clear cut, graded without retaining walls, fences built and rock hauled in all without permits. They were red tagged. Now they are applying for permits after the fact.
If you think that, because it's going to be grown on the hillsides away from you, and therefore out of your area, trust me, in the winter it will come to your neighborhood. It will come in the form of clay and mud and pesticides and herbicides. Your lakeshore property will receive extra nutrients to help those invasive weeds become even thicker.
The growers work on red-tagged property on weekends in direct violation of the law. At 9:10 a.m. on Saturday Dry Gulch Trucking delivered water to the site above us as shown in the photo below. Code enforcement stated firmly this was an illegal activity.
Measure D will be the scourge of Lake County. Measure D makes it allowable to grow in nearly any vacant area.
Budget cutbacks have already gutted the Code Enforcement Department in Lake County. It's hard enough already for them to keep track of the code violations and they simply can't keep up with it. This will be exploited to the nth degree.
Last year I put $1,300 into graveling the fire road that leads to my home. The heavy equipment, four-wheel-drive vehicles and increased traffic to the grow sites a few hundred feet from my house have beat the gravel down into the road and this summer will be just another dusty summer for us.
Will the grower share in the cost of my loss? There's nothing in Measure D asking him to improve the neighborhood. There is nothing in Measure D telling him to repair his damage.
Kill Measure D in June. Kill it DEAD. Send a message. Not because it's about marijuana and its medicinal value, but because it's a poorly constructed document that will ruin the environment and the beauty of Lake County. It will demolish the value of your homes. It will make your life very uneasy. Share this letter with your acquaintances.
If you see trucks filling up water tanks with lake water at suspicious times and places, it's illegal. Get a license number or photo.
Finding an answer is not going to be easy. But let our county supervisors do what we elected them to do and over the course of time find an answer.
There is a citizens group that would like your support called Citizens to Protect Lake County-No on Measure D. It has the support of the Lake County Deputy Sheriffs Association, Lake County Farm Bureau, Lake County Chamber of Commerce, Sierra Club, Clear Lake Riviera HOA, Buckingham HOA, Kelseyville Business Association with many more to come soon. Contact for the organization is
Greg Cornish lives in Nice, Calif.
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- Written by: Greg Cornish
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