Sammamish City Councilmember John Curley: Let them smoke in parks

The City of Sammamish is considering a ban on smoking in
its parks, and 97.3
KIRO FM host John Curley, also a Sammamish City
Council member, is speaking out against the idea.

“I don’t smoke, but I defend the rights of individuals
that do because last time I checked smoking is still
legal,” said Curley.

Curley said as far as he knows, science is still out on
the dangers of secondhand smoke in an open-air type of
environment, so if you disregard the claim that it’s a law
to protect citizens, it’s really just a regulation against
a nuisance.

“Once you say this is a nuisance law, then it opens the
whole can of fish,” said Curley, “which by the way, can
smell bad and be a nuisance as well,” he joked.

For example, a park full of screaming kids could also be
considered a nuisance.

“That is a nuisance for some people. I come to Pine Lake
Park or I come to Beaver Lake Park I just want to enjoy
myself, enjoy the sound of the water lapping up against
the gentle rocks that have been placed there. I just want
to hear the birds, but I hear your kid, ‘Whaaaaahhhh.’ So
we should put up a sign, ‘no screaming, crying babies or
kids?'”

“The smoking thing is a nuisance, and the kids screaming
is a nuisance as well, so you could open the whole thing
up and we could have a whole bunch of non-nuisance laws,”
said Curley.

He thought he might be the minority when he spoke out
against the ban.

“We shall see,” said Curley. “I just always have a
problem when we’ve got to get the government to come in
and regulate on this sort of stuff.”

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor