We all know what South Green’s nickname is the Dirty South. Why? Because of alcohol, drugs, and above all, smoke from blunts and cigarettes. This means that cigarettes and smoke are a very large problem on the greens, not just South Green.
Starting August 1, Ohio University became a tobacco-free campus. This means that the campus is smoke- and tobacco-free. This is something that might be a little difficult to control. I am in an organization called POWER GAMMA, which stands for Promoting Ohio University’s Wellness, Education and Responsibility. GAMMA stands for Greeks Advocating the Mature Management of Alcohol. This organization is all for this policy, all for making this a healthier campus.
There has been a lot of controversy over this policy. I've talked to some OU students, and there is quite a lot of controversy throughout Ohio U about the tobacco-free policy. There are some who are very happy about this policy. They believe that the campus will be cleaner, and they are happy that they can walk around campus without having to go through cigarette smoke. There are some that are skeptical. How can the campus be completely smoke-free? How are people going to be able to keep the campus smoke-free? These students want to have a tobacco-free campus, but there are a lot of students that do smoke on campus. How are police and others going to keep track of people that smoke? There are others that oppose the policy. These students are those who feel that Ohio University officials cannot tell them where they can or cannot smoke. They feel like they have their rights and nobody, even OU officials, can take them away.
There has been a lot of controversy about e-cigarettes. An e-cigarette is an electric, personal vapor. There has not been a lot of research out there. There could be more harm done with them, and consumers wouldn't even know. For these reasons, Ohio University has decided that e-cigarettes will not be allowed on campus either. This will be reconsidered once FDA has come out with concrete evidence about whether or not it’s beneficial. This will also upset some students. E-cigarettes have become very popular and have become a substitute for real cigarettes, even though it seems as though, they could be just as harmful as real ones.
This policy is about making the campus a cleaner environment and campus. Before this policy, you were able to smoke 10 feet, I believe, away from campus buildings. This policy was alright, didn't do much for the community, but still let the students and anyone else on campus to have the right to smoke.
I'm not quite sure how Ohio University officials plan to control this and keep people from smoking. I believe that will be the hardest task with this, but I also believe that a lot of people want this to succeed. This upcoming school year is tobacco free, and I think that’s pretty great.
