Smoking Bans
 March 2003

March 31 - Smoking Ban Revision Moves To Senate - Delaware’s restrictive smoking ban could see revisions as soon as Tuesday, April 8, when a bill creating new exemptions will go to the full Senate for debate. The bill, which would reestablish smoking in casinos, bars without food service and nursing homes, has followed a fast track since narrowly passing in the House March 18.  In a 3-2 vote, the Senate Small Business Committee elected to release HB 15 to the floor after taking public comments at an open hearing March 26.

Lobbyists for the state’s three gaming venues were among the 15 speakers at the hearing and attempted to make the case that relaxing the ban in casinos would help build up suffering state coffers.

The statewide ban has been in effect only since November and already the state admits that it is losing tax revenue.  Lost tax revenue gets the legislators attention but the ban is even more devastating for the small businesses that have seen customers flee the smoke-free premises and have yet to see the hoards of nonsmokers, promised by anti-tobacco, taking their place.

Unfortunately anti-tobacco has been successful in its divide and conquer tactic which pits one group of people against another.  Opposing relaxing the ban are restaurant interests who dropped their opposition to the original smoking ban when it was expanded to include bars and casinos.  Now they are worried that bars and casinos will have an "unfair advantage" over the smoke-free restaurants.  Instead of demanding a "level playing field" under a law that disadvantages everyone, the restaurant owners should be demanding that the smoking ban be loosened for all.

March 28 - Statewide Prohibition For New York - To no one's surprise the New York legislature passed a stringent smoking ban affecting every piece of private property in the state except for private homes.  Echoing the extreme law that is breaking Delaware, the legislators claim that this law will save the health system $6.4-billion per year.  Considering there is no evidence that secondhand smoke causes any health hazards whatsoever, it's a safe bet that the overtaxed New York citizen will not be seeing any corresponding decrease in his taxes next year or any year thereafter.

This ban was passed on pure emotion and feeling, as attested by all remarks by those who support tearing property rights apart.  The only recourse for the businesses that will suffer, as those in Delaware have, is to sue the bastards and get the prohibition law tossed out.  Already several suits are underway in New York City and its suburban counties.

March 27 - Suit Filed To Overturn Smoking Ban - After their effort to derail the enactment of Nassau County's workplace smoking ban failed last month, a group of bar and restaurant owners has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to throw out the law as unconstitutional.

The half-dozen plaintiffs, including the luxury Garden City Hotel, also asked U.S. District Judge Denis R. Hurley to issue an injunction to halt enforcement of the law until the suit is settled. A hearing on that request could occur as early as Thursday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.

Although the plaintiffs' arguments address a multitude of irregularities with the suburban New York City county, the best the politicians can offer to defend their outrageous smoking ban comes from Judy Jacobs (D-Westbury):

"We passed this for all the right reasons of health, safety and welfare.  It's now big tobacco versus the legislature."

Put Jacobs on the witness stand and she would be absolutely incapable of uttering one coherent statement that would persuade even an idiot that her prohibition has anything to do with health, safety or welfare.  And, by the way, when did bar and restaurant owners metamorphose into "big tobacco."  Is that the same process that turned a public servant into a gibbering maniac pimping for the pharmaceutical industry?

March 21 - Smoking Ban Killed In Maryland - A proposal to ban smoking in almost every business in Maryland - including bars, restaurants and pool halls - was killed yesterday by a Senate committee.  The vote by the Senate Finance Committee to reject the Clean Indoor Air Act ends what had been an intense debate between health advocates and the restaurant and liquor industry.  The measure would have given the state one of the strictest anti-smoking laws in the country.

This action helps sound the death knell for the smoking ban in Delaware.  Maryland has been one of the beneficiaries of that lunacy as thousands of Delaware residents cross the border to eat and drink in more civilized surroundings.  As soon as it became clear that banning smoking in Delaware was a financial disaster, the tobacco control industry lobbied neighboring states to ship the misery across the borders.  Maryland now joins Pennsylvania is turning its thumb down on a total smoking ban.  To add insult to injury, Maryland is one of the most anti-tobacco states in the Union.  Its reluctance to embrace the extreme policies of California and New York City is an encouraging sign that the anti-tobacco is finally losing its influence.

March 21 - Vermont Smoking Ban Bill Unlikely To Pass - A bill that would ban smoking in all public places, including bars, faces a difficult road in the Legislature.  Proponents and opponents of the measure, which would essentially repeal cabaret licenses in the state, agreed Monday that the bill does not appear to have enough support to pass.

House Speaker Walter Freed, R-Dorset, said the bill is not likely to pass his chamber.

“I don’t think it has much hope or expectation of passage at this point,” he said. “When we passed legislation early on to ban smoking in restaurants, this was one compromise. I think legislators are going to stick to that.”

Vermont was the first state to ban smoking in restaurants.  As with Utah and Maryland, states that enacted state-wide smoking bans, Vermont's law has plenty of loopholes so that one can smoke after dinner in a restaurant.  Such loopholes drive anti-tobacco crazy so all three states have been under assault.  Last year Utah refused to tighten up its smoking ban and it appears Vermont is disinclined to fiddle with its law.  Strictly on an economic level, passing smoking bans during these time of economic uncertainly is irresponsible.  More and more states and localities are discovering the joys of letting the market place decide smoking policies.

March 21 - Alabama City Shoots Down Smoking Ban - The Eufaula City Council on Monday rejected a proposed ban on smoking in public places.  Proposed amendments that would have banned smoking in all public places in Eufaula except bars and lounges failed by a 3-2 margin.

"I think they missed a chance to improve the health of the community," smoking ban proponent Dr. Will Evans said.

Wrong, Dr. Evans.  They improved the health of the community by showing anti-tobacco the door.  They improved the health of the country by recognizing that property rights mean something.  They improved the mental health of the country by showing that "choice" doesn't mean just the right to have an abortion.  Choice means individuals can decide for themselves, without the heavy hand of paternalism, to patronize places that suit their needs.  It's the American way and it still holds sway in most of the country.

March 21 - Anti-tobacco Facing Stiff Opposition In Arizona - After some initial success in Mesa, Tempe and Tucson, anti-tobacco appears to reaching a dead end in the heavily populated areas of Arizona.  Avondale is considering a smoking ban but is hampered because the neighboring city of Glendale recently turned down a smoking ban.  Both cities are attempting to attract restaurants to areas that bring in a lot of people.

It's telling that city officials in Avondale want to assure themselves that enacting smoking bans don't harm the restaurant business.  The cities in the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan that have banned smoking have consistently altered their laws when it became obvious that smoking bans equal lost business.  It has taken several years but politicians are finally listening to the people who make their livings in the hospitality and who are united in opposing smoking bans instead of the anti-tobacco special interests groups who don't contribute one dime to the city tax base.

March 20 - Delaware Reps Lighten Up Smoking Ban -  The state House of Representatives threw a bucket of cold water on Delaware's smoking ban Tuesday, voting 21-19 to approve a bill that would legalize lighting up in casinos, nursing homes and bars.

We recognize that this bill is still paternalistic, unrealistic and based on junk science.  Still, any positive development should be applauded and supported.  The Delaware smoking ban revealed all the ugliness of prohibition immediately after it was passed.  Droves of state residents headed to the borders to enjoy themselves in restaurants and bars that allowed smoking.  Millions of dollars have been lost in this insane experiment designed only to please the tobacco control industry.

Yesterday's vote is only the first step in a process that is far from over.  The bill now goes to the state senate where it can be approved, rejected or modified.  Ultimately, if the a bill does make it out of the legislature, the governor gets her chance to weigh in.  The governor of Delaware is one of the strongest proponents of prohibition.

Thanks to Delaware United Smokers Association.  With no budget, this grass roots organization hit the streets immediately after the ban was enacted and educated the citizens about the fraud of secondhand smoke hazards, the disastrous financial impact and the danger to property rights ushered in by the smoking ban.  Check out their web site for some great photos of people fed up with nanny government and a chilling picture of the nannies responsible for the whole prohibition mess that hopefully will be wiped out in Delaware.

www.deusa.org

March 20 - Voters Kill Smoking Ban -  Voters killed a proposed tougher smoking ordinance and elected William "Bill" Mattiace the city's new mayor during a special election Tuesday in Las Cruces.  

Beverly Gutierrez, co-owner of My Brother's Place, has led a movement against the ordinance since it was first enacted.  The bar areas at her restaurant were filled with ordinance opponents watching election results on a television there. Cheers erupted as the results scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

"They were trying to take too many of our rights away," Marty Bassman said. "What would this lead to next?"

"Next" is already here.  Although the citizens of Las Cruces wisely rejected the new, extreme smoking ban, private property still must jump through hoops to comply with an issue that is not government's business.  Restaurant and bar owners, as well as all other owners of private property, should make their own smoking policies.  The owners can prohibit smoking or allow it everywhere.  That is their choice and their potential customers can choose accordingly.

March 20 - Positive Report From The Front - Minnesota has resisted smoking bans strenuously.  We hope that tradition of freedom continues.  Archie Anderson, FORCES- Minnesota, files this report from Mora:

I have never seen such a turn out in a small town to oppose the four anti smokers that spoke of an ill-advised smoking ban.

Respect was everywhere even the anti's were civil but spewed the worn out statistics on second hand smoke which was countered by a gentleman who has a brother that works for the National Institute of Health and calls the second hand smoke studies 95% bull and about 5% of truth.

The businesses really had their presentation together and gave the city council a very direct answer to a smoking ban. The council members were very attentive to the largest group to attend a council meeting in fifteen years.

When the mayor closed the meeting he said "I want to thank all of you that came up and smoked.  I mean spoke."  

There will be a decision on the ban in two weeks. I told Mr. Hallin who wrote the op-ed piece for the Kanabeck County Times how good of an article that he wrote and it is being read by thousands of people all over the country and in Canada. The veterans were absolutely the voice for freedom and choice and stated exactly why they served their country. I was so proud to stand among them. I had a smile on my face the whole seventy miles home and as I sit here writing to my long time friends I have a deep feeling that freedom will survive and be even stronger as a result of decent Americans that detest legislating the behavior of free citizens.

March 19 - British Night Club Too Hip For New York City - With its smoke-filled bars and boozy reputation, it has become the favourite hang-out of A-list celebrities. But if London's hippest private members' club, Soho House, thought its very British brand of hedonism would be embraced by New York, it has another think coming.

As it prepares to open an offshoot in a sprawling Manhattan warehouse conversion, it looks set to fall foul of a new law banning smoking in all public places across the city. The ruling, the brainchild of New York's conservative mayor, Michael Bloomberg, takes effect on 30 March – 10 days before the launch of the new club, whose members already include Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore.

Though renowned as one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities, New York retains a strong puritanical streak reflective of the concerns of "right-thinking" Americans.

Far from "retaining" a strong puritanical streak, New York City, along with America's West Coast, is the center of prudish repression.  If Soho House were to land in New Orleans, Chicago, Philadelphia or even Salt Lake City nary an eyebrow in those cities would be raised.  The proprietors can expect a visit from Mayor Bloomberg and his smoke-sniffing nanny brigade on opening night and if any naughty smoking is going on the police will be summoned, just as they were when the Rolling Stones played Madison Garden.

March 19 - Ban Smoking; Say Goodbye To Smokers...and their dollars - As a smoker I have not and will not patronize any establishment that doesn't allow smoking. I have not been to a movie in at least a decade since smoking was banned in theaters. It's not out of the inability to smoke. It's out of principle. If I exist, there are others who feel the same.

In a bar, smokers outnumber nonsmokers (a number of whom will have a cigarette with a drink!). The venue hardly lives up to the same percentages as the general population. Scott Wexler is right. Smokers do stop going to bars when all the fun is taken out of it. Count me as one of them and that includes taking my money with me.

Not much more to add to this piece by Audrey Silk of N.Y.C.L.A.S.H.  The experiments in California and Delaware have proven that smoking kills small businesses.  In California, the largest state and a tourist destination, the growth rate in the hospitality if half that of the United States as a whole.  In Delaware the anti-smoking politicians are faced with staggering losses reported by bars, restaurants and casinos.  Meanwhile hot spots like Las Vegas, where smoking is not an issue and property rights are respected, are booming.

March 19 - Anti-smoking Politicians Feet To The Fire - Opponents of Pueblo's total smoking ban have raised enough signatures to force recall elections against City Council President Bill Sova and Councilman Mike Occhiato, two of those who voted for the ban in December.

City Clerk Gina Dutcher said Sova and Occhiato now have five days to resign, or the City Council must, at its Monday meeting, consider the alternatives being offered by opponents.

These two anti-tobacco zealots are mighty miffed that the people of Pueblo, Colorado rose up and knocked them off their perch for overreaching.  Despite intense local opposition to the smoking ban, these two bulldozed it through and now may lose their jobs.  The story from Pueblo is inspiring for people everywhere who are sick and tired of hyperactive politicians who who kowtow to special interests.

March 17 - Down To The Wire In Delaware - A close vote is expected Tuesday when the Delaware House considers a bill amending the state's 4-month-old indoor smoking ban by exempting bars, taprooms, casinos and some other places catering to adults.  A News Journal poll of House members last week found 19 in favor of allowing smoking in some places where it now is banned, nine opposed to easing restrictions and 11 undecided. Two could not be reached.

With 23 amendments pending that would alter House Bill 15, exactly what legislators will be voting on this week is up in the air. Many legislators said they cannot say how they would vote until the amendments are added or rejected.

The unpopular and financially devastating state-wide smoking ban could be modified significantly if only two of the 11 undecided vote yes.  The pressure from anti-tobacco is intense for if Delaware liberalizes its law even slightly the house of cards erected by the tobacco control industry will be weakened enormously.  

Almost immediately after California's equally unpopular and financially disastrous bar smoking ban went into effect, the state Assembly overwhelmingly passed a bill that would have repealed the bar ban.  The bill went to the state senate where it was bottled up by committee chairs who swore they would never allow the senate to vote on it.  The bill then expired even though it would have been passed by the senate.  It's encouraging that Delaware's Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr., D-Bridgeville, said he will not use Senate procedures to bury the bill in a hostile committee.

"It deserves to have a debate and a vote," Adams said.

March 14 - Oh, To Hell With It, Let's Ban Smoking Everywhere - The anti-tobacco industry has been shrieking like harpies over the perceived efforts by the Florida legislature to weaken the state-wide smoking ban voted in by the people.  Thwarting the will of the people, they screech as legislators, listening to the constituents, attempt to cause the least harm to as few businesses as possible.

One legislator has had it with the squabbling and is proposing that smoking be banned everywhere, including standalone bars which were not touched by the constitutional amendment that was voted in last November.  The amendment does permit the legislature to go further than the banning smoking in restaurants and office buildings.  Also proposed is banning smoking in outdoor restaurant patios.  Anti-tobacco, of course, is silent about this "thwarting the will of the people."

March 12 - No-Smoking Day in the UK - But smokers are sick of it  - (press release) ‘Smokers are sick of No Smoking Day. They are made to feel guilty about their habit and that puts them under pressure to quit, which is the last thing they need. Smokers know if they want to give up. They don’t need the nanny state to tell them when to do it.’

March 12 - A debate for liberty - A debate on the FOREST'S website for a sad event (UK's No-Smoking Day) - Lord Harris of High Cross, chairman of FOREST, engages his opponent Lord Laird of Artigarvan, a former Ulster Unionist MP in the debate for liberty. Check it out!

March 11 - Smoke Nazi-Free Dining Will Pack Them In - Reality hasn't been kind to the anti-tobacco fanatics lately.  When they promised Delaware that happy days would here again if only restaurants, bars and casinos banned smoking, the gamblers, diners and cocktailers deserted the state while the border towns in neighboring states reported skyrocketing business.  Now New York City gets a close-up look at the unraveling lie that banning smokers (and a quarter or a third of the customer base) is good for business.

Due to a quirk that makes Grand Central train station exempt from New York City's anti-business smoking ban, the eateries and bars in the old train station is poised to make a killing.  Smoking sections are being expanded in anticipation of the hoards of New Yorkers who will be booted out of their favorite restaurants and bars at the end of the month.  The hottest place in a town that prides itself on its sophistication will be a train station.  The hospitality industry would, if it has any sense, document the booming businesses at Grand Central and contrast that with the declining sales everywhere else in the city.  Expect, however, the restaurants and bars that are losing money to demand that the exemption at Grand Central be terminated.  Divide and conquer, the real success of the anti-tobacco industry.

March 11 - Let Them Smoke And They Will Come.  Ban Smoking And It's Bye Bye Toledo - A resident reports that the Professional Bowlers Association abandoned Toledo, after a 20-year run, as the location for its national bowling tournament.  This year the event moved to Taylor, Michigan.  Although the local anti-smoking press has ignored the snub, the word is out that the association was skittish about continuing its relationship with a city that is in bed with the anti-tobacco, anti-business crowd.

During the tournament last year the city was embroiled in a court case over its smoking ban.  Although the smoking-ban law imposed by the activist health department ultimately was resolved in favor of freedom of choice, the PBA executives obviously realized the city government, from the anti-smoking mayor down to the radical health department, will not rest until all the good times are extinguished.  Most people who come to town to watch the tournament smoke and many of the bowlers themselves smoke.  Better to take the tournament to a city and state that still values property rights and where the customers are right.

SMOKING BANS

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