As for a smoking ban killing off business it sure didnt where I live. A couple years ago the Workers Compensation Board in BC managed to get a smoking ban into place in all public buildings. At first the restaurants and bars were all crying gloom and doom. Finally after much lobbying they got the ban lifted and designated smoking areas were allowed. I know of 4 restaurants in town here that werent happy when the smoking ban came into place but found that their business actually inproved. When the smoking in designated areas law came back in their business declined. They, on their own choice, changed back to be totally non smoking and their business picked up again. I know for sure that the owners of 3 of these 4 restaurants are smokers. They just did what was best for their business. One of these is a Pizza Hut, one is a small mom and pop type place and the other 2 are fairly big hotels.

In our shop we banned smoking when 2 of the dealer principals got diagnosed with cancer. They both smoked. They figured that they had better stop smoking and if they did they didnt want their employees to smoke either. It's sure nice not crawling around on cigarette butts under vehicles when you're working on them. And we can actually see the TV in our coffee room now...no more haze in the room

Another thing I see where I work is how much less productive the smokers are. They are always sneaking out for smoke breaks. We get paid by what we charge out so it costs them to buy the cigarettes in the first place and then they dont get as much work done in a day which equals less pay.

But hey, everyone has to die of something....if you want to smoke yourself to death that's your option.

 

About a year ago, a semi-national restaurant I go to went totally smoke free. Now they have the smoking section back. Smokers might be a minority, but they still have dollars.

I haven't smoked inside in years. I got tired of how the house smelled and what a bear it was to repaint.

I've lost a few relatives to smoking. I don't blame smoking. I've lost a few more to war. I don't blame war. Then there's car wrecks, red meat, food additives and a bunch of other things- old age can be a hard way to go for some, too. I don't think I want to start hating everything that kills and turn bitter- that's a killer, too.

I did hospice care for my gramma about 15 years ago. She died of cancer related stuff. Lasted about 1 1/2 years. A long time ago the Doc told her to stop smoking those unfiltered camels and switch to filtered. She did and it probably added a year to her life.

I worked for a guy about 9 years ago. He was always the one to start on about how taxes were too high. Then he found the state lottery. Crushed him, his family, and 5 other families that I know of. It was government supported and legal. It's life.

If we made it illegal to collect sin taxes, we could outlaw smoking and all the MADD mothers could go home for lack of things to do. Untill then, it'll continue to be an interesting debate.

 

I'm an ex-smoker, my wife is still smoking so we deal with this all the time.

Many places kick smokers out and go under. Non smokers are whinners, most of them are ex-smokers that claim to have an alergy. If non-smoking sections are full, they will lose the alergy for the evening.

Bathrooms allow you to EVERYTHING except smoke. I find that funny. I would like a no-screaming brat section in a resturaunt.

Locally we have people killed in the downtown section almost every night. The city wants to ban smoking from the entire city, and they can't even unarm people that have no carry permit and a stolen gun. Rubes, all of them. They figure it would be much safer without smokers around them. Their lungs will be perfect when they are killed by punks.

 

Ranger,

Man, I agree about the no-screaming brat section. I love kids, none of my own yet, but the ones without manners need to be put in a corral.

How about a non-breast feeding in public section. The other day, I was at a chain restaurant, and this lady decided it was time to feed her infant(2-3month). She just promtly lifted shirt, pulled it out, and fed the kid right at the table, no feeding blanket or nothing. I lost my appetite.

 

I'd hate to hijack the thread, but brats at home are brats in public.

Tell the parents to quit trying to pretend they don't act that way all the time, and get them outside.

I was in a nice Seafood Resteraunt, the lady in my line of sight was breast feeding a kid (and what a breast it was!) and the jerks behind me were drowning out my conversation with shiiiitttteeeee, and ****'s loud enough for the whole section to hear.

 

Maybe that was her husband, the circus Midgett, just having a little after dinner snack , or maybe he accidentially dropped his Zippo down the front of her El Grande Boobatista's cause he was about to have a nicotine FIT.....fd

 

Thus, like the average intelligence, our health, and the places that a smoker can go to light up,


WE DIGRESS!!!

Sorry about the turn on the thread.

Back to smoking ban.

 

Hate to bring this back to the top but I just watched Candid Camera tonight and they had a segment on Smoking and Non-Smoking parking spots.

It was amazing how many (all shown) of the "non-smokers" had no problem with parking in the polluted air of the "smoker's" area as long as it was convenient for them. It was even stressed upon them about how smoky it was there and this parking rule was for their own health and benefit. None of them wanted to hear that. They didn't care about any of that, they wanted a parking space.

I just found this to be ironically funny!!!!!!