Hypocrisy at it's finest! SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Smoking Causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.

The fact that they allow these things to be sold in the first place is outrageous!
But as long as the tobacco industry keeps feeding our fine GOV the big bucks, they will tolerate it. So go ahead AMERICA, and keep killing yourselves one stick at a time... just don't do it in your car when a child is present. If they were that concerned they would ban smoking altogether.

Ok to kill yourselves, but we are going to tell you how and where you can do it. What a load of bullshit!

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This is a bad step...

The governement is saying this is GOOD for our kids (which it is, no doubt). However, what about when they move on? What about MANDATORY vaccinations, etc.

I think that these matters should be in the hands of the parents, not the country. Although there are many parents who are not able to correctly care for their child, there are many others who are.

This is a very controversial topic and this is just the first step.

Mandatory vaccinations is another debate all together. However, the same argument could be made for child safety with another twist in public safety. Again I ask...What if some parents want to inject snake venom into their child in the name of religion to ward off evil spirits? The parents are doing what they deem is necessary for the child and there is freedom of religion. At least that argument could be made in this case. Smoking in an enclosed car with a small child is just stupid and lazy. Not to say injecting snake venom isn't.

As an adult make you own decisions and inject yourself with windex for all I care. Smoke till you cough out a lung, but don't subject your child to something which could be avoided. 20 years ago OK...We did not know everything associated with cigarette smoke. Today a different story. In my eyes it is child endangerment and if you go that far for your nasty habit I'm guessing your not much of a parent to your child. With that said, there is no law against being a bad parent. There is however a law against child endangerment.

The "hot boxing" leads to an interesting angle, just another way to get the probable cause to search the car in my conspiracy theorist thoughts.

As far as smoking (cigarettes) with a child in the car is concerned, Maine passed the law a few days ago. The fine is $50 the first offense and $100 each subsequent offense. I think its a good idea, thinking of how damaging I find it to be in a space even momentarily with a smoker, how horrid it is for a child to be in a car with a cig constantly burning. I think its a step in the right direction, but as the lobbyist ads say, we are the state who taxes cigarettes highest. Good.

Pack of Marlboros in Maine :$6.75
Same pack of smokes 60 yards over the NH border: $3.50

Ok, here's a question:

How come, it is not illegal for a pregnant mother to smoke cigarettes? How come it is not illegal for a pregnant mother to drink hard alcohol?

Yes, I do understand that most pregnant women do not smoke cigs out of common sense, but why not make it a law? Of course I don't think gov't should be allowed to tell people what they can and can't do with their bodies, but where does that line begin and end?

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"When two people agree on everything, one of them is not necessary" - Arliss

My guess is because some don't consider life until after birth. I feel that is ridiculous; however, you can terminate a birth at almost any stage of development depending who you see and local laws. After the baby passes the birth canal things change.

Now...Could you make what you claim illegal? I suppose you could but it would be impractical if not impossible. About the only way I could figure is making this illegal in public places seeing there is no way to monitor this in peoples homes. Also, can you tell when a woman is pregnant in the first say two months? My guess it depends on the build of the woman. So with that in mind the law is impossible to enforce.

Now smoking in a car with a child. That is pretty easy to witness and enforce. Like I said earlier. It is hard to define a bad law, but I know one when I see one.

Good arguments though. It was the best yet as to the complicated nature of this law.