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Should cigarette smoking be allowed in some bars & restaurants?

Should cigarette smoking be allowed in some bars & restaurants?

  • Total voters
    107
ChrisL said:
I believe these laws were enacted to protect workers who would otherwise have no choice but to be in close contact with other people's second-hand smoke which can endanger their health.
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That was bull**** excuse and it doesn't hold water, Chris. Employees who don't want to be exposed to smoke are welcomed to find employment in places that do not permit smoking. If the anti-smoke advocates are correct there would be far, far more smoke free bars even if the band was lifted. If that is true then it would be easier to find a job in a smoke free establishment than find a job in a smokeless establishment.
 

Honestly. I would have told those people to **** off personally lol. It's a bar. It's not an apple bees.

Although I know what you mean. My Mother wants to try a local bar the town over for lunch...and I keep telling her it's a bar...and she doesn't believe me. Trust me...got drunk there quite a few times. Great place, good bar tenders, right near a college too so always a good time....but since they serve lunch it's just entirely impossible to shake that perception.
 
clownboy said:
And once again that harm doesn't exist with the proper equipment.
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False.

CDC - Fact Sheet - Ventilation Does not Protect From Secondhand Smoke - Smoking & Tobacco Use

 
ChezC3 said:
I agree with everything you wrote. But I think you are too much the optimist with your last sentence...
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Chez have you ever seen the movie Demolition Man? It takes place in the future of Los Angeles California. Los Angeles was taken over by the elites. There were cameras watching everyone at all times. You were fined for cussing or using any type of "hate speech". They banned any physical sexual activity and it was replaced with some electronic mind game because sexual contact was deemed no longer safe to swap spit and bump each other's fun parts because of the spread of disease. All restaurants were called Taco Bell but it wasn't a Taco Bell where you could get a Burrito Supreme. Everyone who was against this nanny state moved underground like Mole people.
This movie was released in 1998. Since then California went from banning cigarette smoking and now has folks trying to have barbecue grills ban because of the "carcinogens" they let off. There is currently "hate speech" legislation working its way through Congress. California has legislation currently asking for people involved in sex scenes in movies wear protective eye goggles. Never say never, there are enough control freaks out there that anything is possible and if they are allowed to continue who knows what any of us will be facing in the near future.
 

Personally, I think it sounds like a good reason. Second-hand smoke can be deadly and cause emphysema and other lung diseases. In restaurants, there are kids working who are not even old enough to buy cigarettes for themselves and they shouldn't be forced to be exposed to other people's smoke at the workplace just because they happen to work at a restaurant.

In bars, I don't really have much of a problem with it, but in restaurants where people are eating? Disgusting. I don't think it's a big deal to wait until after dinner and go outside to smoke.
 

Yeah, since that is real easy. :roll:
 

People fart in restaurants, ChrisL. Your dates have probably farted in restaurants. Your grandmother probably farts in restaurants all the time. But we endure. :fart
 
Risky Thicket said:
People fart in restaurants, ChrisL. Your dates have probably farted in restaurants. Your grandmother probably farts in restaurants all the time. But we endure. :fart
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Cute, but farts don't cause deadly respiratory illnesses and heart disease.
 
Your Star said:
Yeah, since that is real easy. :roll:
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What's the name of that fantastic brewpub in downtown Decatur on the square? I remember when you could smoke there and it was packed. Great beer. Actually I could give you a list a yard long of great bars in Atlanta that became great bars when smoking was permitted. It never hurt business.
 
Although smoking is legal... it is also stupid, disgusting and invasive to others.

No. Smoking should NEVER be allowed in public buildings, at sporting events or in an airplane.
 

One of my favorite sci-fi movies. Loved it.
 
ChezC3 said:
and neither do other people's cars...

I don't own a car, and I am quite upset I have to have my lungs polluted every time I walk out of the house by other people's filthy, disgusting, dirty habit...
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I disagree, for the most part cars are not a habit they're an economic reality.
 

Doesn't mean that the health risks didn't apply. That is the contention here and that is why smoking needs to be banned inside of bars and restaurants.
 
Bodhisattva said:
Although smoking is legal... it is also stupid, disgusting and invasive to others.

No. Smoking should NEVER be allowed in public buildings, at sporting events or in an airplane.
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It may be stupid, disgusting and invasive to others Bodhisattva, but the question was related to private businesses not sporting events or on an airplane. Even though you find it disgusting, others may not. Yet because you don't like it, it should be banned from all public establishments? What has happened to tolerance? Why can't business owners make their own choices? If you don't want to be around it, why can't you find a place that doesn't allow it? And if smoking is so bad then why isn't there an all out ban to abolish it? Is it because those who complain about it the most are enjoying the taxes it generates?
 
Your Star said:
Doesn't mean that the health risks didn't apply. That is the contention here and that is why smoking needs to be banned inside of bars and restaurants.
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I understand that. My position is that it should be a decision left to the business owner. Potential employees and patrons can make their decisions accordingly. Everyone should be free to choose. Seemed to me that you were saying people would find it difficult to get a job in a non-smoking bar or restaurant if the law was lifted. That's why every bar and restaurant you or I could ever patronize always has employees taking a smoke break outside by the dumpsters, innit?

If the owner of the brewpub in Decatur could allow smoking would he/she? I have no idea. It didn't hurt their business in the past. I'd recommend that restaurants could establish smoke free patios. Non-smokers could work in non-smoking establishments. I don't see why that would be inequitable.
 

• Yeah, that CA for you. Truly the ultra-nanny state. The cool thing about vaping is that nobody can tell you're doing it unless you deliberately make a show of it. On the plane, not wanting to travel in handcuffs, I just hold the vapor in my lungs for 10 seconds and nothing comes out to give me away.


eohrnberger said:
True, but last I checked, employees aren't forced to work in any particular establishment. They have as much a choice as the owners of the establishment.
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No. And nobody is forced to live in a State. Or a country. Etc. Etc.

There are many laws regarding employees. Thousands, maybe even millions of stupid (and smart) laws. Welcome to America.
 
I have to strongly disagree smoking is horrible for the person smoking and everyone around them, we need to do everything to discourage it by making it socially unacceptable and keep all public places smoke free.
 
pbrauer said:
I disagree, for the most part cars are not a habit they're an economic reality.
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Relativistic twaddle. tobacco isn't? It was the damn crop this country was FOUNDED ON! Some gratitude...

What do you think your taxation in basically, mmm, EVERYTHiNG would be if the government didn't have the tobacco tax to play with?

I'd just as soon have you say thank you for your contribution, leave it at that and allow smokers the right to smoke wherever an establishment determines it wants to allow it.
 

I can agree with that. If an establishment wants to allow it, I don't see why they shouldn't be able to; at least employees will then still have a choice to work in a smoking versus nonsmoking environment.
 
ChrisL said:
I can agree with that. If an establishment wants to allow it, I don't see why they shouldn't be able to; at least employees will then still have a choice to work in a smoking versus nonsmoking environment.
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Exactly, I'm not saying that it doesn't need some curbing, but you've got to give the people a choice...
 
ChrisL said:
Cute, but farts don't cause deadly respiratory illnesses and heart disease.
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But it is mostly methane, which is a "Greenhouse Gas", therefore it accelerates global warming.

Personally, I can't wait until I can retire and move the hell out of California. This mommystate is driving me crazy, and I have only been back here a year.
 

Sure okay, but it's still different from cigarette smoke.
 
What's further, these vile cretins in Illinois have passed a law making a habit basically that I've done for 25 years a felony! Whenever there is an ashtray around, I toss my butts in it. But if there isn't one? FLICK! Off into the wind it goes. Now, I have to worry about a felony for doing something people have been doing since cigarettes began...

And what's worse, cars? yeah, they don't come with ashtrays in them anymore...

This crap is getting out of hand...
 

What if I find the idea of pork products, or combining meat and dairy offensive? Do I have the right to demand that everybody adopt a kosher lifestyle just because I personally find that not doing so is offensive?

That is the problem with most of the arguments by the "ban it all" crowd. They have no problem banning something because they agree with the ban, but would fight tooth and nail if they were against such a ban.

Personally, when those laws started to get passed in California I did not smoke. I did not care for smoking, but I also saw it as a restriction placed by force upon business owners on what is a legal substance.

But hey, let's just crank everything down. I say we ban the sales of alcohol in any place that people under 21 can see them, because it glorifies alcohol.
And require liquor stores to have opaque windows, and follow all the laws of porn shops to keep our kids safe.

And ban all movies that show a vehicle used in an unsafe manner, because it can encourage kids to do the same thing when they start to drive.

This "ban it all" attitude is something which greatly disturbs me. We even have cities where perfume is banned because of people with "environmental allergies". And I have been in parks where dogs were not allowed.

WTF ever happened to personal responsibility, and minding your own business?
 
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