ASBURY PARK, N.J. -- Belmar is on its way to becoming the next Jersey Shore town to ban smoking on its beaches, but one group says the anti-smoking movement has gone so far that government is re-engineering society to eliminate smoker freedoms.

It may not be too long before the anti-smoking ban is statewide. A bill is pending in the Legislature that would stamp out smoking at all public beaches and parks in the state, in what one assemblywoman called an effort "to change the culture of the next generation."

"It's the right thing to do. It's clearly in the public interest to expand these laws," said Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, the primary sponsor of the bill, which is up for a vote in the Assembly next week.

At least 18 beaches in the state had banned smoking as of 2011, the latest year for which figures are available, but one group sees the prohibition as social engineering and unnecessary government intrusion on civil rights.

"They're attempting to de-normalize smoking," said Michael J. McFadden, the Mid-Atlantic regional director for Citizens Freedom Alliance, a smoker's rights group. "Now, if you want to smoke, they're going to make it so difficult for you that you have to go hide behind a dumpster."

Some smokers say they already know the feeling.

"I'll come off the beach to smoke," said Natalie Ford, 22, of Jackson. "I won't do it in people's faces. I hide it if I'm passing a baby."

Even some nonsmokers sympathize with the smokers.

"The roped-off areas on the beach are stupid," Anna Wassil, 77, of Belmar, said of the designated smoking areas currently on Belmar's beaches. "They (smokers) look so embarrassed, standing there."

McFadden, author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" and "TobakkoNacht - The Antismoking Endgame," said that 20 to 30 years ago, one would be hard pressed to find people who would be bothered by a whiff of tobacco smoke outdoors.

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Jersey beaches snuffing out smoking