Posted on 12/24/2007 6:40:14 AM PST by mmichaels1970
DAYTON, Ohio -- Tens of thousands of complaints about violations of Ohio's new smoking ban -- many from the same few businesses -- have resulted in just hundreds of fines, leading county heath departments to say they plan to step up enforcement of the law.
Fines for violating the ban, which outlaws indoor smoking in most public places, are about to get bigger and more frequent for delinquent business owners, health officials warned. The ban was approved by Ohio voters in November 2006.
Local health departments began enforcing the law on May 3, and have since logged more than 19,000 violations, or about 100 a day, on 7,300 establishments. Of those violations, only about 230 fines were issued, according to Ohio Department of Health data from the first seven months of enforcement.
The law calls for a graduated series of punishments: After an initial warning, a second violation is $100, growing to $2,500 for fifth and subsequent violations. But that could soon change.
In Montgomery County, where almost 1,300 complaints have resulted in only 58 warnings and 10 fines, officials said they've cleared administrative hurdles and are ready to issue big fines.
"It's going to be our strategy to double the second fine," said Alan Pierce, a supervisor of general services at Public Health Dayton and Montgomery County. "So instead of $500, we can go for $1,000."
Private clubs are among the state's worst offenders, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of the state smoking complaint data. Of the top 10 targets of smoking complaints in the state, eight are private clubs. And members of the Moose and Eagles lodges, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and Amvets call in nearly a quarter of all smoking ban violation complaints.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsnet5.com ...
This is a good example of government out of control.
Nanny State Ping..........
Merry Christmas all.
One Saturday this past summer, I was in the heart of downtown Cleveland in Tower City. I was on an OUTSIDE balcony with three young Army men in uniform who were in town for a West Point game with a local team. We were enjoying the beautiful weather, a chat, and a smoke. Someone called a Cleveland police officer on us. This is what happens when you pass bad law. Ohio could have had something sensible that the vast majority of Ohioans would have been happy with. Instead, we got this junk. And as a result, there are a lot of unhappy people in the state of Ohio. This is what angers people against government and each other. Where has common sense gone?
Merry Christmas to my good Freeper Friends! God bless.
You’ll see the posts against the VFWs and our VETS on the site I posted above.
Sad that lodge members are the ones calling in the complaints.
That is tragic.
My County Health Director was angry about this law and called it, “ridiculous” during a conversation I had with him.
Even Adolph Hitler didn't conceive of such tyranny.
Since when is a Private club, a public place?
Exactly!
Thank you for that link. I’d never seen it before.
Merry Christmas and God Bless to you and all as well!
...Of the top 10 targets of smoking complaints in the state, eight are private clubs.
Words no longer have meaning.
Land of the FREE? Not any more. With the passing of every law, we lost yet more freedoms. HOW many stinking laws are out there now. The imperial federal government, state legislatures, city and town, counties, all these pass more and more and more and more and more laws every day, every week. AND MORE FREEDOM is taken from us. Everything now has a law. What you eat, drink, smoke, drive, walk, breath, look, see, touch, admire, up chuck over. Everything is governed by a law AND TAXED. The government now controls more of our lives than we do. We don't have freedom any more. They claim we have freedom of speech. But, do we really? They can easily just call anything you say or do, a hate crime. Pretty all covering law those HATE laws. We have few and very limited freedoms now. And, they now want to tax people having babies for the carbon foot print. So, now every breath you take is going to be taxed. What freedom? America is not free. It has been taken away by the socialist in congress and other state and local governments.
It’s pathetic that hubby and I have to go to Vegas where he can have a cigar with his adult beverage. Hubby only smokes about 6 cigars per year, but just to be able to do that is a treat.
I read one of those - I feel ill.
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