Posted on 03/15/2006 5:19:23 AM PST by SheLion
How would you feel about smoke-free restaurants? If some state lawmakers have it their way, the "no smoking" sign will be posted in every section of your favorite diner.
If you enjoy smoking after a meal, like Melody Boutwell, you may have to light up outside.
“I do smoke, but I don't like smoking around children. So I typically, even in a restaurant, go outside to smoke,” Boutwell said.
A proposed bill would ban smoking in restaurants and possibly public buildings.
“The debate has increased over the years, and at this point, it is the most intense I've seen it in the last decade,” said Rep. Gene Davidson, D-Adams.
Davidson is the chairman of a committee overseeing this new bill.
He said if it becomes law, smokers wouldn't have much of a choice.
Hardy Ross owns Rippy's BBQ in downtown Nashville.
“We would respond, and we would comply,” Ross said.
His bar and restaurant may attract some smokers but Hardy said he won't break the law.
“Smoking has been around in Tennessee for a longtime, but if they deem that's what is necessary for public health, then we'll certainly comply and make sure there is no smoking in this restaurant,” Ross said.
Whether or not the bill becomes law remains to be seen. Until then, smokers could enjoy a smoke where ever they are.
If the smoking ban bill passes through the committee, it will have to be approved in the House and the Senate before it becomes law.
Over a dozen states already have some type of smoking ban in place.
The states with the strictest rules are Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, California, New York and New Jersey.
All six states ban smoking in public buildings, workplaces, restaurants and bars.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, there is a ban on smoking in public places, but restaurant and bars are exempt.
I am so torn on anti-smoking laws. I don't really appreciate second hand smoke, but I also find that many of the laws go overboard (as in what WA passed.)
When we lived in Tennessee for a year (94-95), we were shocked to find out one day that it was legal to smoke in the grocery store. Our son was born with lung problems (fine now) and we complained to the manager at the local store when someone was smoking next to us in the cereal aisle. Turned out that was perfectly legal and acceptable.
I am a former smoker, and Mr. Cat is a die-hard smoker.
Be civilized and make the change civil: allow a number of restaurants to choose, if they wish to, to continue to allow smoking if they so wish.
I know that an all or nothing approach is easier politically, because it maintains the fiction that you're doing it for my health, but the option of allowing "freedom of choice" would be infinitely more honest...
Be a leader; an innovator; the states which have dealt with this issue have been uniformly stupid... so far.
See I told you! Car licence expired in 1997!!!!!
Period.
We're supposed to conclude from their remarks that this is the typical response to the proposed ban, I guess.
When my children were born, it was legal to smoke everywhere, and one of them was born with lung problems. But that was before second hand smoke followed people around to kill them, so we discovered that simply staying ten feet or more away from a smoker was perfectly effective.
Simply the odor of cigarettes, is harmful only to the neurotic...
I know it's not always easy because when we leave our house and go out into the world, there is a lot we all have to put up with. But, it takes all kinds of people to make our world and we just have to either stay home or adjust.
I could never try to tell others how to live their lives simply because I didn't agree with something. I grew up thinking "Live and let live." All worked well then.
Spineless smoker and a spineless bar owner. Exactly. Wimps! I hope the bar owner closes up within a year. Fork him!
Period.
We're supposed to conclude from their remarks that this is the typical response to the proposed ban, I guess.
And burns me up that a hand full of jerks set down laws governing the rest of us. What a bunch of fun people. ~sarcasm
Public smoking was even more prevelent in NC. We went to a restaurant there that had a "non-smoking section" that was 4 tables in the corner of the main room with about 50 tables.
Right! And for places they CAN'T legislate, then we will all don our little bubble boy suits to protect us from the outside world.
Then, when at home, we can sit in our corners and rock until death. heh! What a life, eh?
Attention all business owners suffering from a smoking ban.
Please fill out this form and submit it for a new web page
Ban Loss
Fortunately, the smoking population is the US is closing in on 20 percent.
Fortunately, the smoking population is the US is closing in on 20 percent.
We still outnumber the NRA.
Fortunately??
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