In Carlsbad, residents who reside in apartments, condos, and townhouses will now have to consider whether or not to ignite inside their properties.
The beach city on Tuesday became the first place in all of the county’s native multifamily housing complex to expressly outlaw marijuana and vaping products.
Some people expressed concern about the city’s law preventing the government from interfering with their private lives, but others praised city leaders for giving priority to the health of non-smokers who reside in buildings that are drenched by their neighbors ‘ secondhand smoke.
Proponents of the restrictions noted that , smoke smoking , is the leading cause of preventable suicide in the United States, resulting in more than 480, 000 deaths annually, according to the , U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Secondhand smoking exposure can cause a variety of illnesses, including heart disease, stroke and lung cancers, national health authorities say.
Residents Katrina Preece, who spoke to the City Council last month about the effects of secondhand smoke, said,” This is more than an annoyance.” This is a distressing and disturbing wellness risk.
About a year ago, officials in Carlsbad began talking about a law prohibiting tobacco on multifamily properties with three or more products.
Cigarettes was for ages permitted in areas such as cafes, shops and even helicopters. However, as more people became aware of the potential health outcomes, the cost of lighting up continued to rise, and many towns took actions to ban cigarettes in most public places, the practice has largely vanished from American society.
At least 84 , additional California towns, including , Beverly Hills, Culver City, Manhattan Beach and Pasadena, have banned tobacco in some residential private dwellings, according to the American Smoking ‘ Rights Foundation.
In addition to barring citizens from lighting up inside private houses, the Carlsbad law also prohibits smokes on private terraces, patios, decks, patios and common areas that are not designated as smoking locations. The law does not apply to single-family homes, even those that have an accessory dwelling unit.
A smoking ban, according to Mayor Keith Blackburn, would help property managers more easily enact their anti-smoking policies during a council meeting last August. Numerous condominium complexes in Carlsbad already have smoking-free provisions in their leases.
” A lot of times managers do n’t want to get into a confrontation because it’s just a policy or it’s just in the lease and]the renter ] knows you’re not going to evict them for smoking”, Blackburn said. ” So I looked at this and I thought, at least for the managers, we’re going to give them a tool”.
Others were concerned that property owners would no longer be burdened by the law.
The city, citing limited resources, said police and code enforcement officers will not enforce the law. Instead, landlords and other tenants will be able to take legal action against violators.
The lone dissenting vote on the ban, according to councilmember Melanie Burkholder, should n’t involve local police telling residents if they can smoke inside their homes.
” It just seems like it’s kind of out of place”, she said during a meeting last year.
Good luck! Will Creagan, chairman of Southwest Equity Partners, a property management firm based in San Diego County, wrote in a letter to city staff this month that it is more obliquely stated:” So you pass an ordinance and then tell the property managers,” You need to enforce this. This is another clear case of government overreach”.
The law will go into effect in January.
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