[syriacus]

look at it from the point of view of the smokers, shouldn't they also have a place to go and socialize?

I don't begrudge them that. They are victims of the law.

I am dissatisfied with the law that also makes it necessary for kids, who are going to lessons at the local music shop, to walk past the groups of smokers standing on the sidewalk outside the nearby bar and restaurants.

[Gabz]

I am dissatisfied with the law that also makes it necessary for kids, who are going to lessons at the local music shop, to walk past the groups of smokers standing on the sidewalk outside the nearby bar and restaurants.

The irony of that is among the myriad of "reasons" for these bans was the favorite canard "it's for the children." It mattered not that the children weren't permitted in the bars to begin with.

The law of unintended consequences. They wanted them out of bars and restaurants (out of sight, so to speak( and now they are whining about them being in plain sight.

I'm not talking about you, you have a very reasonable attitude on this, and I can appreciate where you are coming from. Unfortunately the majority that favor these bans are not in possession of similar reasonableness.