restaurant smoking ban

“Maybe mouth would have been better.”

“I wish cigarettes were made illegal!

said somewhat tounge in cheek, but...

I've tried numerous times to quit and I find that if I'm around people that smoke for more than a couple of days (like on a bp trip or something) then I'll eventually give in and have a smoke, and then its a very slippery slope for me.

When I lived in FL, they passed a law against smoking in any public place, including bars if food was served. I actually liked this law, but i do see the problem with laws like that - the government probably shouldn't try to legislate good health or good judgement, or ethics, along with many other things.

However, if cigarettes were made illegal, and treated equally with the multitude of other addictive drugs (yes nicotine is a very addictive and dangerous drug - its just not 'mind-altering'), it'd be a lot easier for me and many others to quit.”

“well at the moment blame smoking seems to be the in fad”

“in the fad? yea, people just started saying it 10 minutes ago”

“It should be illegal, Roam. I used to smoke. It's the only drug I ever truly got addicted to. And don't tell me it isn't a drug, just because the government doesn't want to declare it so.”

“so speaketh the firefly ;-)”

“It's already well established that the government has the right to regulate unsafe working conditions. Why is this any different? People who need jobs don't always have the luxury of not accepting a job because the conditions are unsafe. Under California law, you can have a smoking establishment as long as there are no employees (other than family members) and the hazards are clearly posted for the public to see.”

“that was part of the reasoning used in FL. The waiters and others employed in the public places have a right to a smoke free workplace (as a health issue).”

“I'm with Roam & Tree. I quit twice before, cold turkey, and did it for years straight. Something always brought it back. I am, of course responsible. But so is the fact that this drug is everywhere.

Come last September, I quit. Mostly. Sort of. I was a bartendar at the time. I swear to God that was near impossible to not smoke at. I would have 2-4 at work only. I was working 3-4 shifts/week. That was a hell of a lot better than 1-1.5 packs/day.

I threw out my last pack the day I got out of the Hospital diagnosed with HL. There is no link between HL & smoking. But I sure as hell don't want to take a chance nor do I want to increase my risks of another Cancer.

Let me be obvious/redundant Man: Cancer sucks.

I pray to God I never get a smoke related Cancer. HL woke me up.

I don't crave them, miss them, think about them.

HL cured my addiction.

How's that for a possible silver lining? ;)”

“I still don't get this "the government is telling me what to do" argument. The government of Washington has nothing to do with the smoking ban. The people brought it to vote via petition and the majority of the people of WA voted for the ban. Now the government will enforce it, but it was the people that made it a law.”

“Paranoid people, pixie”

“The tyranny of the majority is well covered in John Stuart Mill's Essay On Liberty.

"Like other tyrannies, the tyranny of the majority was at first, and is still vulgarly, held in dread, chiefly as operating through the acts of the public authorities. But reflecting persons perceived that when society is itself the tyrant -- society collectively over the separate individuals who compose it -- its means of tyrannizing are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries. Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development and, if possible, prevent the formation of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own. There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence; and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs as protection against political despotism."”

“Workplace safety”

“you can't make it illegal. Look what happened when they tried to make alcohol illegal. Maybe limiting the places they are sold might help.”

“Perhaps, Y2.

But alcohol is way more fun.”

“It works very well in Maine, thanks. Eating in restaurants was a pleasant experience, although I never did remember not to ask for the non-smoking section during the week I was there. There is an ordinance that has been pending in Philly for several years now.”

“At the present time DDX, the tyranny is a tyranny of the minority. Do a little more research and tell me where the minority gets off putting people's health at risk.”

“Tyranny of the majority - hah!

It's the smokers forcing all of us around them to breathe their drug who are the tyrannists.

Be gone, I say.”

“We have a complete ban on smoking in Rhode Island,all public buildings, doesn't matter if it's a church, town hall, school, bar, workplace, state building, it's all the same,, the only exeption is in the state run gambling facilities,, I think they're afraid of chasing off the victims to foxwoods or mohegan sun.”

“the ban in n.y. has been great. why should I be exposed to smoke unwillingly.”