Smoke 'em if you got 'em
Robert Brown owner of the Cheers to You bar in downtown Salt Lake City is considering playing a game of chicken with the state departments of Health and Alcoholic Beverage Control.Tonight at midnight the new smoking ban in bars and clubs goes into effect. If you can't imagine bars without cigarette smoke, join Brown's club. (I mean that figuratively, at least at this point.)
Brown and his lawyer think they've found a loophole in the state's smoking ban that will allow his patrons to continue to light up coffin nails. (Oh yeah, like that missing comma that means we don't have to pay income tax.)
The Health Department, of course, has issued an official declaration saying Brown is full of it. Now, Brown's trying to figure out how far to push the bureaucrats before they come down on him like a 1,000-pound poop hammer.
Meanwhile, I'm calling on the geniuses out there to come up with a self-ventilated lexan bubble that fits over smokers' heads. We'll make a million.
13 Comments:
I think that there is already too much government in a p[ersons life and this is just like " you must wear seat belt" When did the government get the right to get into a persons right to make decisions about their own health and how they choose to die? there are still alot of smokers in Utah and they also pay taxes and put money into the states economy and would like to have a night club they could go to and smoke...it causes less accidents than the drunks on the road. When are they going to say no night clubs can serve alcohol ?
What really pisses me off is that smokers think they are only affecting themselves and their lives with their habit. All of us have to pay increased medical insurance costs because they choose to smoke. If they have no insurance we all get to pay for it through higher medical costs that the hospitals and doctors have to pass off onto those that can pay. They affect their families in emotional ways near the end when they have to accompany the smoker through his dying process. Wake up!
Seriously though, you can still choose to smoke anywhere you want, you just have to deal with the consequences. Just like with a seatbelt, you pay a fine. Don't want to pay the fine? DON'T BREAK THE LAW.
Laws have reasons behind them.
why are people actually fighting for the right and privilege to enter a bar and cover their lungs in tar? what a great way to start a new year....i guess.
*cough* *cough*....i can't breathe!!
some people are just, well....stupid.
Everyone affects other people in their lives with what they do in life, not just smokers. And the fact we just buried my sister-in-law after she died from lung cancer, never touched a cigarette in her life, just goes to show that people like to play the judgmental part when it comes to smoking and it's affects. People I know who smoke are extremely considerate, don't smoke in their own homes, or around others. This whole smoking issues just brings out the holier-than-thou non smokers who are craving to pass judgement.
While I applaud any effort to fight this nonsense, methinks Brown's theory is a stinker. At best, victory would result in a quick revision of the law. Better to resort to arguing the rights of club owners and patrons. Change your rules and membership applications to clearly state that each adult member and their adult guests waive any right they have to smoke-free air and embraces the company of thse who choose to smoke. Refund the dues of anyone who balks at the new club rules. And then go to court on behalf of yourself and all of your members and see what happens. As a side benefit, nothing would get rid of the private club requirement faster than a court ruling that they're exempt from the ban!
It's not a big deal having lived in a State where I smoked and they passed a similar ban. It will cut down on the whole mess and smokers will adjust quite nicely.
The sensible thing to do when passing laws like this is to give people the freedom to choose. Keep the option for bars to allow smoking.
This is just one more step in prohibition. Maybe we should pass a law outlawing temple clothing stores, for the simple fact they furnish underwear that is linked to a cult religion. Better yet, outlaw the wearing of such clothing within 30 ft of a public entrance (although I'm for that with smoking)... I'm sure there's a suicide, or prescription drug death rate correlated to the religion's practices and teachings. You get the point.
Here in Sacramento,CA the only way a patron can smoke in a bar is if the the bar is family owned and operated by such. Otherwise you smoke outside. But my best friend,who was a smoker and also worked in a smoking bar,died Sept 14, 4 months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
I like to call myself the "Public Health Regulator" the youth of today in the hood of DC refer to me as "Utah" simply because I am white in Chocolate city. . I digress. It has been highly and let me say HIGHLY amusing to see the various threads not so much on this blog but the articles posted through the Trib. I am not trying to sound like an "academic" because I am so far from an academic that in school (I should mention I am working on my masters in public health) my professors are constantly telling my to STOP writing in prose etc. . . but I have never in all my days heard such idiot arguments!
Here are the Top Arguments:
1. The Mormon Card: Public Health IS NOT the Mormon church. I am a non active Mormon and please look at NY, CA, DC, OR and other states that have all state smoking bans to name a few. There are not so many Mormons in their state legislatures.
2. Smokers have "rights"
Actually smokers DON'T have special rights. They are not a protected class (race, religion, age, sexual orientation, ethnic decent) NON-Smokers have just as many rights to ENJOY their daily living
WE (the American public) spend 250 billion yes BILLION dollars in smoking related health costs EVERY year. $250 billion.
3. "Being told what to do"
For those of you that don't like being told what to do. . .maybe we should make RAPE legal again in Utah? How does that sound? Should we not put children in car seats? FINALLY I can teach your 5 years olds about condoms! HOORAY! Also, I don't think we need drivers licenses and hell while we are at it drinking and driving sounds ok too. When that kid in high school is giving your kid a try and crack- No Biggie! We are not going to tell him WHAT HE CAN and CAN'T do! We want to give him "choices"
4. Bar Owners will lose money.
Actually. . NO. I know for a FACT that in DC business has increased. People want to go out and not smell and not be KILLED in the mean time of having a good time with their friends.
5. "If people don't want to be around smoke then don't come to the bar" Ok. I didn't EVER go out when I went to college in Utah because of my severe asthma, but WHAT ABOUT THE EMPLOYEES? Shouldn't they be able to enjoy a smokefree workplace?
6. MY FAVORITE: SECONDHAND SMOKE DOESN'T KILL.
HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I mean really. . . it is so ignorant I cannot even start to discuss. I mean I would think the Surgeon General knows a few things or two. . I suggest that these folks that don't think that secondhand smoke kills take their children get into their cars roll up all the windows and smoke a few packs with their kids in the car. . think they would do it?
COME ON UTAH! You have the lowest smoking rates in the country KEEP BRINGING it the lowest. . don't kill your bartenders and bar-goers in the mean time!
yawwwwwn.
thanks for your long-winded, hyperbolic, cliche-ridden post, JANAB.
way to waste my time.
ass.
I am a bartender in Utah who has been a smoker and quit; I do not agree with the last comment at all. I think my state went way too far with this law.It should be the club owner's choice to have smoking or non smoking bars. Anybody has the choice to go into a bar so there should be a choice of non or smoking. If you choose to go into a smoking bar fine/great so while you destroy your LIVER you choose to destroy your lungs. Go to a non-smoking bar great kill your liver. One way or another drinkers will drink anywhere they want. Smokers should also have a choice when it comes to bars. As for employees GET A DIFFERENT JOB!!!!!IT'S A BAR!!!!!!!!!!
If bars want to allow smoking, it should be the bar owners choice. NOT the state TELLING them they can't allow it. What about the hukka bars in salt lake? what about cigar bars? Have smoking and non smoking bars...so those who don't want the smoke don't have to be around the smokers, and vice versa. This is just another example of legistlating morality on the people of Utah. How bout we let people chose to do what they want and not try to throw up a roadblock every 10 feet.
It's really not about who gets affected by others smoking. Plain and simple, the gov., is too involved in peoples lives. Quite frankly, we as the voters have allowed this to happen. Can't do this, can't do that! I'm not a smoker, but it's my choice, if I want to go in where others are smoking, or not!
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