Smoking Ban Changing Air We Breathe

The smoking ban on all Oklahoma schools is in full force now. Students may now only use tobacco products off of school grounds. Since last spring the University of Oklahoma has offered smoking cessation classes for students who want to quit. Since that time 11 people have used the service. According to Nicole Pritchard from the OU Health Services 100% of people who started the school’s smoking cessation continued through it to the end. As evidenced by relatively low numbers of attendees at the classes. The classes are for those who want to change their habits. If students don’t want to quit smoking then they won’t go use a system to change.

OU senior Carson Gober hasn’t changed his smoking habits, and doesn’t plan to. “No not really.” Gober said, “Maybe for only the saving money part of it” According to the Bruce Chan of the OU Police Department there have only been 24 warnings issued. One was a written warning, and in some of the 24 warnings there were more than one person; so more than 24 people have been warned. Gober has noticed that the students have been respectful of the ban. “No, I have only seen like one person smoking since the ban.” OU Junior Brittany Weaver is not sad about the ban. She has strong opinions about smoking, but she does concede that she would be fine with designated areas for smokers. The original plan was for there to be designated smoking areas, but Governor Mary Fallin signed an executive order that prohibited smoking anywhere on state owned property. Some smokers who go to school here smoke just off of campus at the corner nicknamed “Cancer Corner.” Whether the ban on smoking will encourage students to quit is questionable. Gober is doubtful that the laws really affect smokers who don’t plan on quitting. “It doesn’t stop people it just forces them to find ways around the rules.” According to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation there are 774 smoke free campuses in the U.S. with Oklahoma, Iowa and Arkansas having laws that prohibit tobacco use on school property. More and more campuses are moving toward 100% tobacco free campuses each year. With this in mind it seems as if the question is not as much if a school will ban tobacco, and more when it will ban tobacco.