HFXCrow said:
That must have a sight to see the "PERI" Staff with a smoke hanging out!
AV: Any thoughts to my post about Cadets smoking onboard?
Different times then too. The pic was taken just prior to my giving them (B Coy - CLI Course) a warm up and taking them for a Coy run through the lovely Burton Orchards/Lindsey Valley.
Your question is interesting.
You can't sell them smokes onboard. You can't give them smokes on board. That's illegal.
But, if they have smokes with them when they arrive -- their possession of them is entirely legal, as is their smoking of them. As far as I am aware, there is
no law that says they need their parents permission to smoke, although many schools etc are putting these little caveats in place. Not like most youth have enough funds to back up a legal complaint/challenge to little infringements such as that on their legal right to smoke. So entities get away with making those caveats. We justify that by calling it "discouragement from smoking". I could be wrong on this point though. But, if they have smokes with them when they get there, AND have a parental permission slip as CATOs state --- then I don't think one could do a damn thing to stop them, or to discourage them from exercising their right to smoke in a designated area. You could only "strongly discourage it".
I'd say that legally, if you have a designated smoking area on board -- and a cadet sparked up a smoke while there, he'd have done absolutely nothing wrong ... and there would be no legal punishment etc that could be imposed.
I suppose though, you could put inforce a "no cadets in the designated smoking area policy", but then a cadet on his break would still be well within his legal rights to say: "I smoke, it's not illegal, I'm on my break, I want one --- please point me to the area where I am allowed to have one; or are you going to deny me my legal right to have one?" Techniclly, you'd then give him the usual "it's not good for you business" ... but legally, you couldn't stop him from lighting one in that designated smoking area if he wanted to. Just as you couldn't stop an adult from doing so, because it is legal for both the adult and the cadet to posess them ... and to smoke them.
Not pretty, but fact.
Now, all that said --- do I agree with kids smoking? No. If I could turn back the clocks -- I would.
If we don't want kids to smoke though, then the government has to get off it's ass and make it illegal for them to posess them, and to smoke them. Why hasn't that already been done? I highly suspect it's because of the sheer volume of tax dollars coming in that they'd lose out on. That's my suspicion precisely because --- they've already made it illegal for underage kids to posess or drink alcohol ... what the hell is the holdup with smokes?