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The Dispatch wrote
Smoking-ban changes opposed by both sides
Sunday, November 16, 2008
By Jim Siegel
Two years after locking horns in a bitter fight over a statewide indoor smoking ban, the Ohio Restaurant Association and anti-smoking groups are now on the same side, fighting proposed exemptions to the law.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the smoking ban in 2006, and since then some veterans groups, bar owners and others have called for the legislature to carve out exceptions to the law.
Thirteen senators have signed onto Senate Bill 346, which would allow smoking at certain family-owned businesses and private clubs. Meanwhile, House Bill 592 would exempt stand-alone bars from the ban.
Related Stories:
- How have businesses fared since the smoking ban?
- Zeno’s Bar challenges smoking ban enforcement
In my view, any public servant who spends time “carving out exemptions” to the smoking ban, should probably be replaced with a public servant who will address more important issues that are facing Ohio. What a complete waste of time and effort.
I don’t smoke. Never appealed to me. But this proposal? :
“The legislation would allow one member on one side of the street to allow smoking, but the member on the other side couldn’t. We don’t think that makes sense.”
Umm…I think that’s pretty stupid. It’s not a matter of “fairness”, it’s a matter of health. And having it illegal on one side of the street and legal on the other doesn’t equate to being “more fair” at all. If anything, it’s unfair since who decides which of the two firms gets to allow smoking? Which street gets to do it and which one doesn’t?
i do smoke and at first hated the ban. (what was the treehouse going to be like without smoking!? )
i must say i do not mind it at all anymore. you don’t reek (i should say “as badly” for us smokers) when you leave a bar and i’ve found that when i do go to smoking bars (pittsburgh is still old school and some places in west virginia around steubenville) i have a way worse hangover. even in the couple of bars around town that don’t care and don’t follow the ban, i still wake up in a way worse state when i sit and marinade in cigarettes all night. there’s nothing worse than smelling your clothes on your floor from your bed after a long night of partying.
they should just leave it go, businesses should have adapted by now to accommodate and it should not be affecting business anymore.
I honestly am so sick of this. If cigarette smokers followed the same rules and manners pot smokers followed, there would be no problems. Pot smokers only smoke when they are sure no one is going to notice and in the company of other pot smokers. I was in somenones home who is a chain smoker and I honestly thought I was going to freak out. It is so completely disgusting to breathe in that heinous odor. If you need to smoke, do it in your car or away from others….most people HATE to have a lingering smoke odor in their hair and clothing. This makes me so upset. Non smokers should get tanks of nasty smelling smells to spray around smokers to see how they feel. Gross.
Except. One is legal and the other isn’t.
Perhaps the State of Ohio could issue some sort of set number of licenses that venues could apply for to allow it, just as they do with alcohol permits.
Your venue pays $10,000 per year if they want to allow smoking.
Cap the number of permits at 10,000 for the state.
Extra $100 Million per year into the
cougherscoffers.So wait…now it’s rude for someone to smoke in their own home?!?
So wait…now it’s rude for someone to smoke in their own home?!?
No, you can do whatever you want in your home, just that as a guest who did not want to be rude, I was in a quandry on what to do so I did not cough my brain out or get sick because I wanted to spend time with them and had hoped to do so without inhaling so much smoke. I will tolerate it if it is someone who is my friend and I am in their private home…don’t like it and I would not expose them to such nastiness, but I can deal. In a public place, food establishment, bar etc. completely unacceptable and so “out” to smoke inside. Come on folks, it is nearly 2009–evolve already or get the smoke free variety.
Yes, that is my preference if it is in public…go to your car or away from other people and then there would not be a problem fighting about smoking bans in public places.
So what you’re saying is… if people didn’t smoke in public places… then there wouldn’t be a debate about people smoking in public places?
Not sure I follow.
My preference is that if I’m outdoors smoking and it bothers you, that you go away from me.
My preference is that you go away from me.
fixed that.
My preference is that you go away from me.
fixed that.
:lol:
I am 50/50 on this up in till a month ago I was a long time smoker. I don’t think in restaurants it should be allowed. But in bar’s I mean that’s where I am split on it. But out side in public light it up its out side it is not relevant . Even now that I don’t smoke I am still for smokers rights but I seem right down the middle on the ban’s .
There’s some awfully blurry lines there though. Most restaurants serve alcohol and most bars serve food.
There’s some awfully blurry lines there though. Most restaurants serve alcohol and most bars serve food.
And most people voted to ban smoking in both.
I probably smoke more than anyone you know…and by “you” I mean everyone. Guess what, I don’t give a rat’s ass about the ban. i’m perfectly content smoking outside on a patio, or not smoking at all till I leave a place. That said, the minute you start bitching about how smokey the entrance to a place is, or the patio is, because we DID WHAT YOU SAID…there’s gonna be a problem. Non-smokers don’t actually own the entire world outside my door, you got a great deal…enjoy it…and quit fucking with me.
And this thread is about several groups trying to change that. Which is why we are talking about this.
yea that is a blurry line for sure I mean at meals I could wait till I left to smoke. But in bars late at night it seemed like my friends that didint smoke on a day to day basis would smoke in a bar if drinking were involved.
for me at the time drinking and smoking went hand and hand. Interesting the debate is indeed.