Colorado's Indoor Smoking Ban

[DavidDvorkin]

My wife, who's been very anti-smoking for a long time, wrote this up as an answer to a letter in a local free newspaper. I converted it to HTML and put it on our site.

http://www.dvorkin.com/essays/cosmoban.html

We don't entirely agree on this. Rather, I love the effects of the new Colorado law. It makes life far more pleasant for me. But I also respond positively to the argument that restaurant owners should have the right to decide that issue for their own property.

Here's her argument. She hopes to expand it in the future.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear DavidD!

I applaud Colorado's indoor smoking ban!

For all the reasons stated, as well...As you probably know, California has already done this, and to very good effect!

I enjoyed reading your wife's writing too........

Kudos to Colorado!

:toast:

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Thanks.

I'm morally torn. I'd hate to be ordered around in that way on my own property, but it's wonderful to be able to go to restaurants and not suffer from cigarette smoke.

It was banned in office buildings here many years ago, and that was a wonderful step for people like me, too.

The number of non-smoking restaurants was increasing pretty steadily here, and there were a lot of places where we could eat out without being bothered. But sometimes, we'd be unpleasantly surprised.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. It is such a relief, and a BIG one, to walk into a restaurant

And not have to worry about where the smokers are...........

It really spoils you for travelling where such bans are not in effect!

:hi:

[DavidDvorkin]

4. We had a rough time in Europe a few years ago

But they're changing now, too.

Colorado has always had a low percentage of smokers, so it's been difficult for traveling in this country, if we go east or south.

[Robb]

5. Colorado's smoking ban is a farce

If smoking is actually a health hazard (no argument here, just making a point), why does the language of the bill exempt casinos, the smoking lounge at the Denver airport, and cigar-tobacco bars with humidors?

It's because legislators want to be seen as doing something, yet recognize the revenue loss and want to minimize it. Meanwhile, small taverns are bearing the brunt.

In my town, a notorious working-cowboy bar (Marlboros and Budweiser, make no mistake) moved down the street before the law was even introduced to people, long before it was passed. They built a substantial outdoor patio intended for smokers. Sadly, the patio is off the front entrance -- and the law also states there's no smoking within 15 feet of the front entrance. That's most of the patio.

Further, even though the bar met the percentage of tobacco sales required to fit the "cigar-tobacco bar" exemption, another part of the law says if you move after Jan. 1, you lose your exemption. Of course notification of the law's very existance didn't begin until much later in the year. It's backdated, and these guys lost.

I never went in there. It was a smoky bar. But that's the way they liked it.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Those are inequities and gaps, but it's not a farce

It does make the great majority of restaurants non-smoking. There were a lot of those already in Colorado, but not the majority. That has hugely increased the choices for eating out for non-smokers.

The exemptions and the effect on some businesses is a different matter -- inequities and gaps, as I said. But legislature didn't just seem to be doing something, it really was doing something. For non-smokers, the effect has certainly been good.

[Robb]

7. It's selective legislation

The law seems to say smoking is a health hazard unless the revenue stream is too important.

It suggests the health of casino workers is less important. It's situational. That's a farce.

I won't argue the idea is a sound one, but it's done poorly here.

Again, in my town, there were only two places that allowed smoking to begin with. None of the restaurants did. The effect on non-smokers was nil. Maybe a few might now frequent the cowboy bar, but I don't really see that happening either. :shrug:

[XemaSab]

9. Tribal casinos are tyically on federal land

and the same might be true for the airport too...

[mdmc]

8. As a radical liberal I cherish all our rights

except the right to smoke indoors in public. My buddy owns a bar; he says we should just go back to Prohibition. We could really party then!