Themacs wrote:Illinois has a smoking ban. As a non smoker I like it. It has brought a lot of controversy here as well as it sounds like there. Someone went as far as holding a smoking party at his auto body garage and advertised it. No authorites showed up but he proved his point it was his garage on his privately owned land.
I am a business owner (retail) and I sell ALCOHOL. I like when customers are not in my face blowing their smoke. Some people are rude in that way, most aren't. I like going out to eat and not having to choose smoking or non. My daughter has asthma so we would try to choose well ventelated places but now we don't.
Our law reads that one must smoke 15 feet from any opening to a building. May it be a door, window or drive thru. When the law was first passed people were HOT!!! Bar owners were upset, etc. Some got creative and built patios with smoking areas. I live in a college town (SIU) big bar town. Everyone is surviving. Yes, pain in the butt for smokers though. People push the limits, but now that the newness has died it is easier to swallow for the smokers. There are still bars down here that allow smoking. Is it leagal?? No, but they do it anyway. I still go there, it is my choice.
Not sure if my post really means anything but I wanted to let you know what we are going through.
That's just saying that as a business owner, you are happy that your competitors have been prevented from competing with you by allowing smoking. That's just crass selfishness. And, if there was such an overwhelming demand for smoke-free bars etc. as the anti-smokers pretend, then it wouldn't be necessary for them to pass laws to force it on everyone.
And the thing that's intolerable about those smoking bans is that their fundamental supposed justification, that of "public health," is based on scientific fraud. Scientific fraud is a violation of all the public's rights, and it's only special interests who benefit.