Orange County cities adopt Nanny State policies on vaping, smoking

Several Orange County cities have passed or are considering new restrictions on outdoor smoking and vaping. Such activities already are highly restricted, so it raises the obvious question: Are these cities – including Orange, which could soon face bankruptcy – so devoid of actual governance work that they are just looking for ways to regulate citizens?

Many existing smoking regulations are, of course, reasonable. Unlike many other bad habits, smoking imposes “externalities” – i.e., the smoke can annoy people who are standing nearby. No one wants to go back to the days where people routinely lit up their cigarettes indoors. But the small percentage of Orange Countians who still smoke ( around 10% ) are going to smoke somewhere.

Outdoor spaces are the obvious place. It seems absurd fo