edwinsmith

Another town in the nanny nation to avoid. What's wrong with letting the owners decide if they wish to allow smoking in their establishments? It's still private property isn't it? Just because you allow people to come in and buy/eat food doesn't mean you surender your property rights. If you don't like people smoking in restaurants or bars then you can go elsewhere. You have no right to vote away the freedom of the owners to decide what they will and will not permit in their property.

You socialist pigs will be going after fast food next I guess. Soon we won't be able to get anything but tofuburgers and salads at McDonalds. You've pretty much made CA a socialist slave state and now you're branching out. Why don't you stay at home and let the rest of us enjoy our vices.

AND BTW, there is absolutely NO proof whatsoever that secondhand smoke is harmful.

Edwin

Shovelhead

Not trying to hi-jack a thread, or turn it into an anti-personal freedom issue.

It might not make me keel-over immediately, but now it does make me physically ill.
I seemed to have developed an allergy to smoke.
If I'm in a restaurant with a smoking section, I can still smell the smoke from the other side of the room.
I never realized while I was smoking how much the smell stays with you.
I can walk into a room and tell who the smokers are by the smell in their clothes.

You smoke, your choice.
Wifey & I choose not to have to smell it any more, and will patronize businesses that accept our choices.

Begle1

Edwin, I guess you've never seen anyone have an asthma attack due to second hand smoke? That's enough for me to ban it in public places.

Yet you do have a good point that a property owner should have the right to allow smoking in their establishments.

In all, that's a good debate. I would elaborate, but I have to pee...

greatwhite

Right on Shovelhead, thats how I see it. Your choice as to where you spend your dollars and the owners choice as to which dollars they want.

Illegal to smoke indoors in Manitoba unless it's a private residence or private vehicle. No bars, no restaurant, no service shop, and no private clubs including Legion Halls.

But they (govt) won't give up the tobacco tax they are addicted to. Pack of 25: $11.50 Cdn $10.00 US.

Or the Gambling revenue, but there's no smoking in Bingo Halls either and revenues are down by 40%. Guess the non-smokers don't play.

AK RAM

Anchorage has been smoke free in public places for a long time now, except bars. Same fines apply for non-compliance. Restaurants can still have a smoking section as long as it is separated from the rest of the restaurant. The state taxes cigarettes heavily and prices are approaching $7.00 per pack up here. State taxes go up again $.20 per pack on 1 Jan 05. They are hoping to make it too expensive for the young folks to afford. They definitely have the expensive part down, but the kids are still buying them. Once the habit forms, cost does not seem to be much of an issue.

Geico266

The smoke coming off the end of the cigerette has not been through the filter or filtered by human lungs.

Shovelhead

The person on the unlit end of the cigarette is breathing smoke by choice, the rest of the population may not want to breathe it, but has to anyway.

Geico266

I cannot understand how people can smoke in a room where there are non smokers. I also, cannot understnand how anyone can walk into any bar and light a cigarette. Just because we have done it before not make it right. We had to pass this law because smokers simply do not want to face the reality of what they are doing. Smoking is HARMFULL to humans and it can no longer be tolerated in public places. Trust me, I'm not a liberal, this is Nebraska. We just have common sence.

I watched my father die of emphzema caused by smoking since he was 12. It took him 10 years to die. He got to the point where he could not even have enough air to get to the bathroom. I don't want to die like that. I don't want my children to die like that. How can anyone smoke in a closed room with other humans in the same room?

What if I liked ...say... pepper spray or tear gas. It is a legal product I can buy over the counter. Can I walk into any public place where people are trying to eat & drink and spray it around? Of course not. Just like cocane used to be legal and sold over the counter until the public decided to was harmful and outlawed it.

gsdog1

Hhhmmmm, some interesting commentary.......

FWIW - when going to restaurants I have always asked for the non-smoking section. Could never eat with smoke hanging in the air and enjoy my food.

Another interesting thing that this thread brings up is thoughts of who cashes the most coin off of a sale of butts. It sure ain't Joe and Mary Jane farmer.....

Going after another piece of gum......

Matt

Geico266

I know I'm going to stay longer and spend more $$ now there is no smoking.

As for the non smoking section? The best quote here is back aways " Is there a non-peeing section in a pool? There is not such thing as a non smoking section, maybe a smoking room with its own ventialtion. The non smoking section was a way to try and pasify and trick non-smokers into thinking they are okay. Any non smoker can tell you they can still smell smke when they walk into a bar even if the non smoking section is next to the door. The smoke simply travels into the other room via the forced air ventilation system. Because you can't see the smoke does not mean that the cancer causing substances are gone out of the air. Even if you CAN'T smell it the chemicals are still there.

Would you burn a tire in your house? Why not? I love the smell of rubber burning. Oh wait! That a different subject altogeather!

Patrick Campbell

bigblue i agree. i don't smoke but all of my friends do. the same law exists in new york (city and state) and the atmosphere is just not the same when you can't smoke.

i think that if a place wants to designate itself as a smoking establishment, it should have the right to. and they should have the right to do the opposite as well. i agree that non smoking sections and smoking sections don't work very well usually. but, i don't think this needs to be an open/closed case. there are in betweens and options.

packs in north carolina are still $2 at the carton rate for a lot of big brands.

gsdog1

My initial response to the concept of out lawing smoking was mostly ambivolent, at best. And I certainly would not, and did not, try and knock people about the fact that "smoking" versus "non-smoking" sections is rather ridiculous. Ah hell, my wife could pick up cigarette smoke three days old a mile and half up wind of it. I don't (and didn't say that) I doubt for an iota that some of us got better sniffers than the rest.

With all due respect, this thread was started on the theory that original poster was simply looking for "....all your thoughts also." Then we start coming to conclusions that some of us apparently need to burn used tires in our homes to get to grips with the reality of the situation.

Oh well, you have my thoughts, mostly. I'll end on this - I didn't quit for you or anyone else, nor did I quit to be a freakin' poster child for the politically correct. I quite for me and my reasons, and I tend to agree with what has been said minus the emotional psycho babble. But what the heck, free country and all. Please, continue to pour your emtions out.....

Good evening then.

Matt

One more piece of gum......at least it's the sugar free kind!

zulusafari

http://www.lcolby.com/

Check out this link for another view. I have talked with many medical examiners who support many of the points made by Mr. Colby. I enjoy a nice cigar, pipe tobacco, and good chewing leaf. I never could stomach/tolerate Cigarettes though, so never tried them. My wife coughs every time she is near someone smoking, but doesn't mind the smell of my pipe tobacco. I do not smoke in the house ever and hardly get a chance to smoke outside at work, so I think I have more of a "hobby" than a habit. Our personnel policy is "tobacco free" including smokeless tobacco. I love how they just lumped everything together: "Tobacco smoke and Smokeless Tobacco have been shown to cause damage to instruments and sensitive equipment..." Maybe if someone spilled his/her spit cup into the keyboard!

Seriously though, I find the limiting of smoking in bars as unnecessary. For the most part, patrons of bars have more than an alcohol vice. I would rather have people smoking and drinking in properly designated places, like bars, instead of informal drinking parties where the "bartender" hasn't the training to cut someone off who has had too much.

With all of the chemicals I have been exposed to, I could never pin any respiratory problem on tobacco smoke. Cripes -- they have been saying our diesel soot is highly carcinogenic too, and every kid I know of has or is riding diesel school buses almost every day. Semi traffic is way up, off road construction projects are prevalent, and it must be a rule that Garbage trucks have to smoke like old coal powered locomotives. I like the diesels and the puffs of smoke, but I find blaming lung cancer, emphasema (sp), or asthma on tobacco alone ridiculous.

While I don't prefer to be around cigarette smokers, I feel they have rights too. I find it amazing that we subsidize the tobacco industry and then tax and sue them almost out of existence, then gripe about the lost revenue. I seem to remember the colonists rising up against Taxation Without Representation. With smokers being the clear minority (by a LONG margin) they aren't properly represented when tax increases are made "for their benefit."

I also do not support those who smoke for 30 years blaming someone else for their habit. I will get flack for this, to be sure, but I think my view comes from not being addicted to nicotine. I use as I see fit, but have never had a craving or "jonesed" for a smoke or dip or plug. I have gone weeks/months without any tobacco whatsoever with no problems. My grandmother smoked 2 packs/day for over 65 years, my grandfather breathed second hand smoke for all of that time and died of colon cancer at age 88. Grandpa also drank neet whiskey daily, though not in large quantities.

John Rodriguez

As a smoker I feel it's dumb they're slowly cutting off smokers, like we're second class citizens. I'm glad I live in the bottom of Texas and can smoke as much as I want where I want. Only some fastfood restaurants don't allow smoking like McDonalds, Burger King, and Jack in the Box. Wendy's still caters to smokers, so I frequent there often. It's a bad habbit, but so is drinking too much, being overweight, not exercizing, poor personal hygene, dandruff.. you name it. Everyone has their vices, no one's perfect. And as far as none of that effecting other people, it does. But the way the world's going, it doesn't look like most people have to worry about anything pretty soon.

BTW, premium ciggarettes in Tx = 3.67/pack. I smoke Marlboro Red 80mm box.

firestorm

In florida, they passed a law a couple of years ago about no smoking indoors. The exceptions are 'bars' who's income frome food and merchandise is less than x% of their total income. I agree that it should be up to the property owner, not the tree huggin' Senators. If I want to open a resturant, and allow smoking, I should have the right to. The thing is, some of the Cities are considering ordinances to ban smoking in any and all "City funded" properties and events. Sorry, but the park is big enough for my kid to play on the slide while I have a smoke, without 'disturbing' a non-smoker. If the property or event receives ANY money at all from the city, the ban would be in effect. That is going too far, they keep wanting to pull the 'not good for everybody else' card. What about the loud music at concerts and parades ( bad for hearing), the firetrucks and other tow vehicles in parades ( exhaust fumes). I leave it alone now.