So while American states are screwing around, spending their anti-tobacco money on hookers and booze, Nova Scotia passed a new law yesterday that will ban smoking in vehicles with children under the age of 19. Not smoking with the children under 19, I mean. Let's say you want to smoke, and you're in a car in Nova Scotia with children under 19. You won't be able to ask them for a cigarette. Wait, that's not right either. By the way, "Children Under 19" would make a good band name, wouldn't it? Okay, just read the article. Canada hates smoking.

The new law will likely be enforced by police in their cute little red outfits and hats, though I'd like to see a mountie chase down a car on his moose, especially a car where all the children under 19 are smoking. The provincial law is based on laws passed in the Nova Scotia town of Wolfville, Bangor, Maine, Arkansas, Louisiana, and California.

Levels of second-hand smoke inside a car can be even higher than in a smoky bar, unless you live in one of those magical places where smoking is banned in bars. This makes me think about some of the excuses police might hear when they pull over someone for hotboxing their kids. "You got me officer," they'd say. "But if it helps, we are going to a bar right now, where the air is much cleaner."