So, it's the first business day of our new statewide smoking ban. At work, they chased the smokers out into the office parking lot, and all the restaurants, bars, and basically every public place (with a few excepted) are now non-smoking.
I'm conflicted. Of course, as a non-smoker, I love it in fact (never liked smoking anything, even the the college experiments with various smoking "herbs"). I also recognize the police power, we accept liquor licensing and restrictions on various things that are otherwise legal in public places.
There is that libertarian streak in me that would prefer the government not do this, and the market would not (no sports bar would voluntarily go N/S)
SO--I will just enjoy being conflicted....?
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2 comments:
I share your conflict.
As a guy who's spent 20+ years playing in smoky bars, part of me is glad to be done with it.
But as a guy who owns a small business, I wonder what other things the gummint might choose to regulate for me (on top of what they already do).
The argument I always made to the anti-smoking fanatics (and I choose that word carefully) is: why didn't more bars and restaurants just go smoke-free before this law? If this was truly what the majority wanted, wouldn't people have flocked to those smoke-free places given the choice?
That fact that most places didn't voluntarily convert is because they would have gotten killed for doing so, which tells me that this is not what the majority of barhoppers wanted, but what a very loud minority wanted and got.
The only grounds I can support this law on personally is from a worker's safety point of view. Hard to argue against that aspect, at least.
So should we force the coal mines to go coal free since coal dust causes disease?
I'm not a smoker and never have been but this just seems like the wrong solution. Too Gov. heavy handed. What about the guy who wants to open a hooka lounge?
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