North Carolina Approves Ban on Smoking

[daniel green]

North Carolina, the nation’s largest grower of tobacco, will soon prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars. The ban, signed into law on Tuesday by Gov. Bev Perdue, is another defeat for the ailing tobacco industry on home turf in the South. Starting in January, North Carolina will impose a fine of up to $50 for smoking in bars or restaurants and $200 for owners who repeatedly allow it. The state joins 28 others with similar bans, but it was a landmark victory in a state where tobacco and politics are historically linked and where the likes of R. J. Reynolds and James B. Duke became titans. “This is a historic day for North Carolina,” said Governor Perdue, a Democrat. “By banning smoking in our restaurants and bars, we will greatly reduce the dangers of secondhand smoke and lower health care costs for families.” Since March, smoking has been banned in most bars and restaurants in Virginia, where tobacco has been grown for 400 years. North Carolina’s ban reveals the declining influence of tobacco in an increasingly metropolitan state, said Ferrel Guillory, an expert in the politics of tobacco at the University of North Carolina.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/us/20tobacco.html?ref=us

[Details]

Whoo hoo! It's expanding more and more. I lived in San Diego when we were pretty nearly the first in the nation to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. The end of the world was forecast, as people would stop eating out, stop patronizing bars, if they couldn't smoke or have their smoking buddies right there, and totally destroy our economy.

But - whaddya know - some decades later - no damage was done, and more people who previously couldn't go out due to allergies and reactions to the smoke now can. Waitresses no longer need to decide between risking lung cancer and not being able to feed their families. And smokers go outside for their cigarettes, or just wait through dinner before having one.

Cool seeing it's expanded to a major tobacco growing state.

[Lady_Jean_La]

It is strange thinking people still smoke in public places. jmo :confused:

[Ladybug]

Shouldn't this be in the "Off Topic" forum ? just wondrin.

[Carol25]

Doesn't it make sense to have restaurants and bars choose to be smoking or non smoking?

[History Buff]

Carol, I agree with you but that idea doesn't go along with the left's agenda of controlling the private sector. I'm not a smoker and never will be and I don't like it but the goverment has no right to tell private business owners what they can and can't do.

[Carol25]

I am a smoker. I have found in the three years that we have had a ban on smoking in restuarants, bars and free standing eateries that not only does life go on without "eating out" but can save a lot of money without that expense. So if smokers can not be accommidated in restuarants in the land of the free and the home of the brave, the lost in taxes and business is my gain.
I seldom go out to eat any longer as well. If I can't have my cigarette afterwards, it is not comfortable. I'll be a nonsmoker soon. I will still feel the same way for others to have a choice.

[Carol25]

Good luck. I am afraid that smoking is going with me to the grave. I have no other vices though. Do not drink Alcohol, illegal drugs and pay taxes on my vices. We use to eat out a couple of times a week. I don't go to California cause of their restrictive smoking laws and suspect others don't either. Wonder how the California Restaurants and bars are doin? I know business is way down here and lots are closing.
Never even thought I'd try! But I need an oral surgery they say they won't perform until I'm smoke free. Plus breathing is a problem now. But I hate when anyone's choices are taken away, to consumers or businesses and feel that the people are just wrong to think this has been the right way to go. It has been a disappointment.

If businesses chose to go either way, then consumers would still have their choices as well. To me, that is only fair.

[LisaM22]

It is strange thinking people still smoke in public places. jmo :confused:

why smoke when you can vape?

[LisaM22]

Doesn't it make sense to have restaurants and bars choose to be smoking or non smoking?

I would agree.... that seems logical, and then consumers would decide where to go....