Editor,
UNM’s recent decision to limit tobacco use on campus has become a point of contention among the entire student population, but no group has been more outspoken than UNM’s nonsmoking students.
According to their multiple letters to the editor and their testimony offered to any peer within hearing distance, nonsmoking/anti-smoking students feel that despite the fact that this long-awaited “restricted tobacco use” regulation has finally been instituted, it remains unenforced by campus security. While it is true that many inconsiderate
students choose to ignore this new policy and continue to light up whenever and wherever they please, the majority of smokers on campus (however much they disdain the policy) have accepted the new rules, and only enjoy their butts in designated areas.
For those people who have written to the Daily Lobo with their complaints regarding those few students who choose to smoke in “nondesignated areas” and whose “reckless” smoking has caused “allergic reactions” and “unpleasant smells” — I suggest that instead of outlining their bellyaches in the University paper, these folks should grow up and actually speak to the smokers that cause their discomfort. This may sound harsh, but I guarantee it will be far more effective.
As a smoker, I recognize that my habit can irritate or disturb those around me, so when I’m on campus I smoke only in designated areas or remote and private locations. During those few times that I smoke among or near a large group of people, I try to be as considerate as I can. If for any reason I feel, or am told, that my smoking is somehow causing another’s distress, I immediately extinguish my cigarette, and I know that I’m not the only smoker who reacts this way.
So please, stop writing derogatory letters about UNM campus security — they are completely innocent. Instead, try my method — just ask the jerk to put out his smoke.
The only way that smokers will change their behavior is if they know they are causing people distress in their direct vicinity.
Marny Daniels
UNM student
