Submission: No-smoking policy needs enforcement to generate results

The idea of installing ashtrays on the UCLA campus is well-intentioned but clearly wrong. It would signify that smoking is acceptable on campus when it isn’t, based on both university policy and the health risks to others via secondhand smoke.

The primary problem with UCLA’s smoking ban and the UC-wide ban on tobacco products is that there is zero enforcement of the policy, and smokers are keenly aware of this. As a result, the campus is littered with butts, empty packs, matches, lighters and other smoking paraphernalia.

Both the campus administration and the UCLA Police Department have relied on an “educational” policy to inform people that they should not smoke on campus. The next logical step is to enforce this educational component in a manner analogous to the enforcement of dismount zones on campus, where the campus instituted signs and warnings followed by citations.

In addition, the signs on campus should be modified to read “tobacco- and vapor-free.” Since e-cigarettes sometimes don’t contain tobacco, but generally do contain other toxins, this language would make it clearer that they are also included in the initiative.

I have personally been physically threatened by smokers on campus when I’ve informed them of the no-smoking policy, and it’s high time that UCLA took this important campus-wide health initiative to the next level. Otherwise, smokers will openly defy the no-smoking policy, and the initiative and its goals will have failed.

Jeff Cory
UCLA class of 2011