Honduras law lets police be called on home smokers

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Yahoo News:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The last refuge is vanishing for besieged smokers — at least in Honduras. A new law that took effect Monday says family members can call in the police on people who smoke at home.

The new measure bans smoking in most closed public or private spaces and orders smokers to stand at least six feet away from nonsmokers in any open space.

The law explicitly bans smoking in schools, gas stations, nightclubs, restaurants, bars, buses, taxis, stadiums and cultural centers but it doesn't clearly ban smoking at home.

A clause, however, expressly says relatives or visitors can summon police to deal with smokers at home: "Families or individuals may complain to law enforcement authorities when smokers expose them to secondhand smoke in private places and family homes."

Rony Portillo, director of the Institute to Prevent Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, said those who violate the law will first receive a verbal warning and after the second offense could be arrested. To be released they would have to pay a $311 fine, the equivalent of a monthly minimum wage salary in Honduras.

"The law is clear and we will comply with it," Portillo said. "Authorities will intervene (at a home) when someone makes a complaint."

Some say the law will be almost impossible to enforce in this Central American nation of 8 million people with a rampant crime problem and only 12,000 police officers.

"Police won't be able to enforce it because they can barely keep up with the crime wave that has been overwhelming us to be able to go after those who are smoking at home," said Jose Martinez, a 38-year-old computer engineer who has smoked for 20 years.
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Coming soon to an American state/city near you...

[AceRimmer]

I guess Michael Bloomberg realized he could never get elected to the White House, so he secretly ran, and won the presidency in Honduras so he could make more people miserable with his anti-smoking nazi, nanny-state idiocy.