Hey, you! With the cigarette!

Don't let the sun set on your ass in Calabasas, California.

The city of 30,000 this week adopted an ordinance — considered by experts to be one of the toughest in the nation — strictly regulating smoking in public places. The rule bans smoking in outdoor spaces when other people are in the area.

[...]

Calabasas' law, approved Wednesday, is intended to protect residents from the health hazards associated with secondhand smoke by restricting where people can smoke outdoors.

Officials are still working out the details of the ordinance, but the intent is to prohibit smoking in public areas where both smokers and nonsmokers congregate. [The City's do-gooding busybody of a Mother Mayor Barry] Groveman said he hoped that the law would prompt operators of spaces such as malls and restaurants to establish convenient, segregated "outposts" where customers could smoke, much like airport smoking areas.

The new law will work like this: If someone is smoking in a public area in violation of the ordinance and is asked by another person to extinguish his cigarette, cigar or pipe and the smoker refuses, then the offended person can file a written complaint with the city attorney's office.

Isn't that nice? You've got a law that not only segregates one class of people from the rest of their fellow citizens, but also relies on the latter group to become informants, butting into people's use of a perfectly legal product which is sold in stores and heavily taxed by the government.

But hey, this is just something that's going to deal with smoking in the community's public spaces, right? Right?

The City Council has also been debating proposals that would ban smoking in cars that children are riding in, as well as on apartment patios, though no action has been taken on those ideas.

Oh. That's just. Fucking. Great.

That was some nice respect we used to have for personal freedom here in California.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going outside to enjoy a smoke while it's still legal in my neighborhood.

Update: Welcome, protein wisdom readers! If posts about anti-smoking laws aren't your thing, I've got stuff about lonely housewives, robot temps, fur underpants, and a cute puppy, among other things. Enjoy!