No Smoking in Santa Fe
Friday June 2, 2006
Another one bites the dust. On June 1, 2006, the Free New Mexican reported that the Santa Fe City Council unanimously passed a smoking ban that will take effect on July 1, 2006, just in time for Independence Day. The ban includes outdoor dining areas, but cigar bars are fortunately exempt from the ban.
I expect more cities to pass more restrictive smoking bans as time goes on. This is now a fashionable trend amongst local officials, who are only too eager to jump on the politically correct bandwagon. They cannot make tobacco illegal, but they can certainly restrict its use to the point where it will only be legal if you don't get caught. Enjoy your freedom while you still can.
I expect more cities to pass more restrictive smoking bans as time goes on. This is now a fashionable trend amongst local officials, who are only too eager to jump on the politically correct bandwagon. They cannot make tobacco illegal, but they can certainly restrict its use to the point where it will only be legal if you don't get caught. Enjoy your freedom while you still can.
Comments
Oh yeah, the bastards insist in restricting smoking to make it safer for all… yet with current smokeating tech, risks are minimal at best. And frankly, I love the smell of cigar smoke in my clothing from time to time. Next thing ya know, if you sit next to a nonsmoker and you smell a bit like tobacco, they will drag you to jail. Where there will be no smoking.
… and the same crowd try to make marihuana legal?
You can smoke your cigars all you want, but when that smoke enters my nose’s airspace in a public accommodation, then it’s trespassing.
I don’t think smokers would like to sit next to someone passing gas or stinking of BO… yet they forget that their smoke may be just as unpleasant to those who don’t indulge.
I’m all in favor of cigar bars or enclosed smoking areas in restaurants where smokers can light up without being hassled by people like me.
Are passing gas or having BO illegal though. It should be the property owners choice.
To Mimi, and all you freedom-stomping zealots: the basis of the smoking ban crowd’s arguments hinge on the most disgusting anti-American trend- that owners of a “public place” somehow MUST cater to THEIR personal whims. BS! If a bar owner wants to have a place that caters to smokers it is his RIGHT. Free-enterprise and personal liberty demands this. It is your right to not go into a smoking establishment. The foo-foo cry babies who get weak in the knees when they detect a puff of smoke need to be proactive and open their own non-smoking bars, and stop trampling the rights of small business owners (and smokers)! Makes me sick. Personally I am not crazy about the smell of smoke, so if I walk into a very smoky bar, and don’t feel like being subjected to it, I will turn around and find somewhere else to go. I would never DREAM of trying to force that bar owner to not run his business the way he want. What kind of a selfish, self-righteous person could think this way?