Holy smoke! What gets into these nanny-state lawmakers?

Regarding tobacco, America's original export, people in the state of Washington are now less free than the people of Cuba. Since December 2005, smoking has been banned here in taverns and bars. Not long ago, Seattle tried to ban it in public parks.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, bucks this trend by offering House Bill 1683. It would license special bars for cigar and pipe smokers, such as Oregon has. Good luck to him — but the momentum is toward unfreedom.

An example is Senate Bill 5026, by Sen. Scott White, D-Seattle. It would ban smoking in private cars if anyone in the car is under 18 — even if the windows are open.

Now comes House Bill 1246, sponsored by Rep. Eileen Cody, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the progressively named House Health and Wellness Care Committee. Cody's bill would ban the sale of flavored pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and cigars except on tribal lands.

In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned cigarettes flavored with fruit, candy or cloves, because they were said to appeal to kids. Cody's bill has the same rationale: protecting kids.

Kids younger than 18 are already forbidden to buy tobacco. Young adults do buy flavored small cigars, but mostly to roll out the tobacco and throw it away. They're refilling the tubes to make "blunts" — marijuana sticks.

Regular cigars, made of rolled, long-cut tobacco, don't typically appeal to youth. They cost too much, they're too strong and they take too long to smoke.

"Our demographic for hand-rolled cigars is early 30s to late 50s," says Joe Arundel, co-owner of Rain City Cigars in Seattle. "Cigars are a social thing, often with a drink. I have a guy on the Eastside who buys Ashton Coronas for himself and Tatiana Vanilla Classics for his wife. They go out on the deck two or three times a week. I have a group of women who buy vanilla cigarillos. I call them the Bad Girls' Club."

Pipe smoking also doesn't typically appeal to youth, though the state now forbids the purchase of pipe tobacco through the mail to "protect the kids." Most pipe tobacco is flavored — cherry, amaretto, rum, maple, etc. At Arundel's store, 28 of the 34 types are flavored. Cody's bill would ban their sale except on Indian reservations.

Secretary of Health Mary Selecky testified for the bill. At the hearing, Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, noted that she and her allies have been coming to the Legislature every year wanting some new restriction or tax on people who use tobacco. They have often prevailed: Washington's cigarette tax is $3.025 a pack, the highest of any state west of New York.

"At what point are we going to say we've done enough?" Hinkle said. "You can't stop people from being stupid, or having some fun smoking a cigar once in a while. My father-in-law is 81 years old. If you cut him in half, both halves would live. Every day he chews wintergreen snuff.

"At some point we have to say, 'This is America. This is freedom.' "

Hinkle paused. "No one wants to ask this, but when will you guys stop coming here every year?"

"When people don't use tobacco that kills," Selecky said.

Chew on that answer.

The public-health people will not stop at kids. The anti-flavored-tobacco bill is an attempt to make 30-year-olds, 50-year-olds, and even Hinkle's 81-year-old father-in-law live by a rule designed for 14-year-olds.

In the nanny state, you never come of age.

Bruce Ramsey's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is bramsey@seattletimes.com