gasmasks.JPG

Welcome to Pendleton.

(The Associated Press)

Let freedom spread far and wide, we say. As long as its odor doesn't get past your property line.

Oregonians voted last November to legalize marijuana use. Which has already led non-users to complain about the funky new scent they're going to start smelling everywhere.

It is, after all, an economic issue.

Mike Arbogast's neighbor in Pendleton, for example, grows medical marijuana. "We normally open our windows in the early evenings to cool our house down in order to save energy," Arbogast said in The East Oregonian newspaper. "The prevailing winds bring the odor from my neighbor's house to my house. We will not be able to open our windows. It's going to increase our energy bill."

The Pendleton City Council swiftly tackled the problem with an amendment to the eastern Oregon city's nuisance ordinance. Pendleton's ordinance now prohibits people's pot smell from leaving their property.

Another Pendleton resident, Peter Walters, sees this minor legal change as a good first step. Now that the pot-smell issue has been handled, it's time for government to solve a much bigger societal problem: the smell of human flatulence. Let's let him speak for himself. The following letter to the editor, reproduced here in abridged form, appeared in The East Oregonian last week:

While farting may be legal in Oregon, many (including myself) are offended by the flatulent stench. Too often, homeowners and businesses fail to contain farts to their property, forcing the rest of us to put up with the smell. Some habitual farters argue that they need to fart for medical reasons but that doesn't mean my kids should have to smell their farts. The city council should stop looking the other way and pretending not to notice.

I'm not even going to talk about intensity of farts. After all, as Pendleton police Chief Stuart Roberts put it: "It's a very subjective standard in terms of whether people are offended by [smells] or not."

This issue greatly affects me as I have a roommate whose recreational farting has been negatively affecting my quality of life for several months now. He claims that he is taking steps to mitigate the odor after I contacted the authorities. But unless our elected officials add farts to Pendleton's nuisance code, it's as if he who smelt it, dealt it. I call on our city council to set aside all other work and address this problem.

Anyone who's ever had a roommate will agree that Walters makes a compelling case. Ball's back in your court, Pendleton City Council.