I’m not a smoker. I never have been. I’m also allergic, so that helps. I’m also shallow enough to seriously dislike smokers. When I was single, I’d see a hot guy and think “Wow, we could build a beautiful life together” and then see the cancer stick hanging from his hand or mouth and think “Nope. Don’t even want a quick fling.” Interestingly, just about every guy I have been with had smoked at one time.

So my point, and there is one, is that in Vancouver we had a new non-smoking by-law enacted at the beginning of the summer or there abouts. No smoking within 6 meters (about 20 feet) of doors or air-intakes. If you do the math, this means nobody can smoke on the sidewalks in downtown either since they’re about 8 feet from storefront to curb.

What it really means is that EVERYONE smokes along the curb of the sidewalk, if they’re nice enough to actually step away from the doorways. And it also means that us non-smokers seem to be walking through more and more clouds of second-hand cancer. Blech.

Is the by-law being enforced? Not that I’ve ever seen. Stores and business hardly even care. People are smoking everywhere and it seems there’s more of them (probably tourists – aka Tour-ons) which makes me, as a non-smoker, very unhappy. The very “rules” that are supposed to improve my ability to not inhale cancer/smoke is actually causing me to get MORE of it.

City of Vancouver – HELLO! Either enforce the laws or don’t enact them. I’m sure this isn’t unique to Vancouver but it’s where I am.