Petitioning for the Repeal of the Smoking Ban (work, health)

[STLCardsBlues1989]

KFVS12 said that some cities in Southern Illinois are working up a petition to get smoking allowed in their bars again. Some are threatening to not vote for any future politician who is for the ban. Has anybody heard of this? Do you agree that the ban should be appealed?

[Avengerfire]

It should not be repealed. Just ammended. There needs to be non-smoking bars and smoking bars. Let people have a choice and freedom.

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

It should not be repealed. Just ammended. There needs to be non-smoking bars and smoking bars. Let people have a choice and freedom.

Well, that would be right back where we started. If you're going to do a ban, the only way it can possibly be effective and fair is if it affects everyone.

[desertsun41]

Total ban, everywhere including your home. Abolish smoking period. As in do not make it and do not sell it. Do not grow it. Soon the helplessly addicted will be weened off and no one will ever complain ever again.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

Total ban, everywhere including your home. Abolish smoking period. As in do not make it and do not sell it. Do not grow it. Soon the helplessly addicted will be weened off and no one will ever complain ever again.

And why are you in the Illinois Forum?

[Drover]

I'm all for lifting the ban in bars, at the very least bars that do not serve food. Same with other "vice" locations such as casinos and OTB facilities. I'd also like to see it lifted in private clubs. It's a stretch to claim it's for the benefit of public health to ban it in places where most of the public is not even allowed to go. Though I get the motivation behind banning it in private clubs (it was done so that erstwhile places of public accommodation don't get around the ban by simply calling themselves private clubs and charging a nominal 25-cent "membership fee" at the door), certainly a workaround for that concern is possible.

[Chicago60614]

I stay stick with it. You're not going to please all the people all the time, and a vast majority of people are cool with this law.

[aragx6]

I think it should have been done by a vote. It would probably pass, but I feel that if it was voted on people would accept it more readily because it wouldn't just be something lawmakers are shoving down our throats.

I also doubt the "vast" majority of people are OK with it. Illinois is just over 20% smokers. If you add in the many people who aren't smokers but who still think the law is a travesty against private business owners I think you'd get the number up well over 30%.

[RikardW]

Amend the law to allow bar and tavern owners to decide which patrons they would like to serve.

[runninfiend]

Originally Posted by aragx6

I also doubt the "vast" majority of people are OK with it. Illinois is just over 20% smokers. If you add in the many people who aren't smokers but who still think the law is a travesty against private business owners I think you'd get the number up well over 30%.

70%-30% could probably be construed as a vast majority.

If Illinois is only 20% smokers, then how much is the law really hurting business owners anyway?

I hear this argument a lot, but it makes no sense. I seriously doubt all of the 20% will stop going to establishments because they can no longer smoke there.

And even assuming they do, you're probably picking up another 20% of new customers who will come because they can finally breathe.

My inclination is to be opposed to this out-and-out ban on freedom of choice grounds, but as a former smoker who is now allergic, I don't particularly care and have no objection to it.