I can’t stand people who smoke, let alone people who smoke in public places. Maybe being a second-hand smoker for a good portion of my life influenced this, but smoking just pisses me off. It’s bad for us, it’s bad for them, it’s bad for the environment. They’re trying to ban smoking here, and I wish I was old enough to make my opinion count.
hey, I uh, um, said everything i wanted to say in the post, so I am happy that people are responding. not that I doubted that dittohead and alltaken and jeeves would post.
And the government isn’t just making laws to control us, the law is for the punblic safety. Smoking is bad. Pollution is bad. We have to fix one before the other. Why not smoking?
I think I will go to a bar and choose to toss some fiberglass insulation in the air, strew asbestos on the floor, and then burn a bag of hair. Or smoke. Same results. Think about it. Wouldn’t i get arrested or thrown out?
What if the bar is full of people doing this? Want to work there? What if you have no where else to go? Are a pregnant mother with 3 children with no husband who has a low paying waitress job who can’t risk losing this job and deosn’t want to endanger the child?
So that’s it. Wealth, or health?
First of all, I don’t smoke, and if I ever start, I give you full permission to leap out and shoot me dead. In fact, please do it, it’s faster than lung cancer.
Here in Connecticut we just got a law that banned smoking in restaurants, bars, even bowling alleys. No business was hurt very badly by it, and I was glad it passed. HOWEVER, should we really ban all smoking in public? That’s witholding an awful lot of rights. The more rights are taken away, well, that encourages more rights to be taken away. I don’t want to encourage that. And besides, if smoking is outlawed, smokers will be outlaws. As long as they’re outside, they’re only hurting themselves.
Well, I’m not sure where you’re from, but in America, we have what’s known as capitalism, and our people “vote” for businesses with their money. If I were in that situation, I would ask the management to move the smoker or I would leave and never patronize their business again, if it bothered me that much. If enough people took responsibility for their own lives, and didn’t want the government to be a nanny state for them, things would be better, in my opinion. If the restaurant lost enough business due to smoking complaints, they would have to consider banning smoking.
Here in Austin, the city council recently banned smoking in bars. BARS, for God’s sake. The health-crazed nuts who wanted it banned don’t ever go in bars in the first place, but what if they needed to use the phone, and little M’stake gets smoke in her lungs? I don’t smoke, but it doesn’t really bother me when others do. If each breath of secondhand smoke takes a day off my life, so what? It’s not like I’m suddenly going to be missing a few days when I’m 25. It’ll most likely be the crappy ones at the end when I’m stuck in a nursing home, and I’ll be glad to have as few of those as possible.
In closing, if it really bugs you that a privately owned establishment allows smoking, don’t support them with your money, and tell them why you aren’t. If they don’t get complaints, they don’t know there’s a problem, and it comes as a surprise when all of a sudden, the government is trying to close you down or kill off your business. Let the government deal with collecting taxes and supporting the infrastructure, and leave the unimportant stuff to the individual.
Agreed.
BUT… my problems with it are:
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Secondhand smoking actually also takes some of the good days, because it lets you get “stuck in a nursing home” EARLIER, which means you miss days in your normal live.
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Secondhand smoking hugly affects your fittness, which IMO is a big deal.
Ok, well where I live smoking is banned in bars and such. It sucks, but most places have found a way around it. They have an area, usually quite larger than what’s inside, outside where smokers can get their puffs on. LoL
Heck, some of those outdoor areas are larger than the area indoors!
I can understand a ban in a restaurant, where it’s more than likely children will be. But in a bar, where people are going to go get drunk, NO!
and like iO iO said, they might as well ban smoking in your own home. All that’s happening is freedoms are slowly being taken away.
and u can argue that all these “laws” are being put up to protect ourselves from us. but U and I both know that that’s just bullsh*t
And the only reason these kind of laws are being passed or even put on the bloody ballot is because some dumbass had a bad experience with a dumbass whose a smoker, and it just went downhill! LoL
Let me say this: if I owned a resturant I would ban smoking in it. Hence the reasons most resturants have desginated smoking areas. This is my prerogative, not the government’s to impose it.
I think people should have the courtesy not to smoke in areas that clearly aren’t meant for it. But it’s their right to waste their life and I’m not going to stop it. So long as it’s not harming those who have no control over it then it’s fine.
It’s my community’s prerogative not to allow smoking in bars, restaurants, malls, etc. Not the government. Us.
It must be about 7 years now. It’s great. Now, when I go to a restaurant in another city I’m startled and appalled to find people actually smoking there. It’s like going back to a more primitive era.
If you want to talk about government control, look at the tax dollars they make from cigarettes. They actually have a vested interest in keeping people addicted and allowing tobacco companies to get away with putting all sorts of undisclosed (and deliberately addictive ?) toxins in there. Smokers may think they’re defending their liberty, but governments and tobacco companies are using them for profit.
I value liberty too, but I don’t like to see my fellow man dying because he was duped into this disgusting and degrading addiction by immoral profiteers.
I’m not sure whether you support a ban on smoking or whether it’s simply not tolerated where you live (which I agree with, but any establishment if it wishes should have the freedom to decide whether they allow it or not).
Then you go on to turn smokers into victims. They aren’t victims, not by any means. Unless they just came back from being on mars for 50+ years they should know by now that smoking is a sick, dangerous and repulsive habit.
However it’s still not in the government’s job description to ban it, atleast not on private property, publicly owned lands (parks, federaly owned lands etc.) can have a ban, and maybe even should. But a private buisness like a bar should be able to regulate it’s own behaviour, not the government.
If we ban smoking in all but your own back yard then you may as well do the same with drinking any kind of alcohal. Far more immediate deathes come from drunk drivers than from smokers.
BTW- you’re making crazy conspiracy theoires like the government adding and/or encouraging tha addition of quote “undisclosed…addictive…powerful toxins,” is a little far-fetched.
smoking sucks!
end of story :-?
it makes me crazy to see a mother holding a baby and blowing smoke into the baby’s face
in my part of the world smoking is banned in most public places
i can remember a few years back when we had designated smoking areas in eating establishments, what a joke , the dividing line was the air space (polluted) between the two tables
lilo
it has been baned in norway to 
.
by the way… cool avatar hehehe
Well, the tobacco companies have it made, don’t they? They don’t even have to defend their position because the libertarians do that for them automatically.
But then, that makes them accomplices too, doesn’t it?
Hey, I live in Salt Lake City, Utah now(Moved a week ago), and they have that same law! It’s really great! 
Privately owned buisinesses such as bars and resturants should be allowed to chose whether to allow smoking or not. Government buildings (and other PUBLICALLY owned places) should have a ban on smoking, because second hand smoke is harmfull, and many people are allergic to it.
I am so sick of people who want the government to run everyones lives. If you own a bar or restuarant it should be up to you what you allow and don’t.
If you don’t like smoke in a restaurant then GO TO A RESTAURANT THAT DOESN"T ALLOW SMOKING. It’s that simple. Stop trying to force your preferences on everyone else. I hate it when I go to a nice restaurant with a date and some inconsiderate person brings their noisy, obnoxious kids and sits next to me. It ruins the romantic mood I’m trying to create. That doesn’t mean that kids should be banned from restaurants. It means I should go places that don’t encourage kids. And for you parents out there, if a restaurant doesn’t have a kids menu, take the hint and don’t bring the kids. Show a little of the consideration you demand from others.
Tommy
The people who work in the bars have a right to breath fresh clean air. In the comfort of your own home I believe that you should be able to use anything you see fit providing you aren’t harming others.