Poll: Most Texans want statewide smoking ban (Austin, Atlanta: taxes, club)

[ClarenceBodiker]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

That is pretty much how Midland's ordinance was set up, except it applies to all public places, not just bars. It may have changed since I left, but this was the new ordinance that was set up around 3 years ago.

It's a good balance.

Business owners have 3 choices:

1. Allow smoking anywhere in the establishment; there are no non-smoking areas.

2. Allow smoking only in designated areas. BUT.....the non-smoking and the smoking areas have to have completely separate ventilation systems, with no possible way for smoke to get into the non-smoking areas. This is a very expensive option, so very few businesses took this one.

3. Allow no smoking at all anywhere in the establishment.

MOST businesses and restaurants (except the bars) chose option 3. But the point is.....they had a CHOICE.

FWIW: I am an ex-smoker going on 32 years.

Yeah, that seems fair. I would accept that kind of a compromise.

[Annie53]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

they are not anti smoking. They are just anti dying of cancer and spiting up tar and having bloody lungs.

So what? Not all smokers have health problems from smoking. It is their body, let them decide what to do with it. Why do you care what they do amongst themselves?

Are you saying it should be up to you to decide whether or not they smoke?

What if I am anti-fat and dying of diabetes and heart disease? Does that make it OK for me to tell you how much and what to eat?

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Annie53

This is America. {well, it used to be}

If a bar or restaurant owner wants to allow smoking in his establishment, he should be allowed to.

If the owner is OK with smoking, the employees are OK with smoking and the patrons are OK with smoking.......why should it be anyone else's business? You don't have to work there and you don't have to eat or drink there.

Please tell me why anti-smoker's have a problem with this.

I wonder that, myself.

Only answer I can come up with is that it has nothing to do with the effects of smoking on them, personally, and everything to do with thinking that anyone who makes choices other than the ones they would make must need a nanny.

And, yes, I agree with you about the "it used to be". That we're even having this discussion makes that abundantly clear.

[ClarenceBodiker]

Originally Posted by Annie53

So what? Not all smokers have health problems from smoking. It is their body, let them decide what to do with it. Why do you care what they do amongst themselves?

Are you saying it should be up to you to decide whether or not they smoke?

What if I am anti-fat and dying of diabetes and heart disease? Does that make it OK for me to tell you how much and what to eat?

Again, for the umpteenth time, nobody cares what somebody chooses to do to their own body and health. Smoke all you want in your own privacy. I don't want tobacco outlawed. We (and by we, the majority of society) don't want that stuff in our lungs killing us when we choose not to smoke. We don't want our kids breathing in your toxins.

[Annie53]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

I wonder that, myself.

Only answer I can come up with is that it has nothing to do with the effects of smoking on them, personally, and everything to do with thinking that anyone who makes choices other than the ones they would make must need a nanny.

And, yes, I agree with you about the "it used to be". That we're even having this discussion makes that abundantly clear.

It is very sad that so many Americans jump at the chance of taking away choice instead of providing options.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Annie53

So what? Not all smokers have health problems from smoking. It is their body, let them decide what to do with it. Why do you care what they do amongst themselves?

Are you saying it should be up to you to decide whether or not they smoke?

What if I am anti-fat and dying of diabetes and heart disease? Does that make it OK for me to tell you how much and what to eat?

who said anything about themselves? Everyone is talking about in public

Originally Posted by ClarenceBodiker

Again, for the umpteenth time, nobody cares what somebody chooses to do to their own body and health. Smoke all you want in your own privacy. I don't want tobacco outlawed. We (and by we, the majority of society) don't want that stuff in our lungs killing us when we choose not to smoke. We don't want our kids breathing in your toxins.

lol, she must have missed the previous pages. LOl I dunno why she would think we cared if people wanted to kill themselves smoking

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Annie53

It is very sad that so many Americans jump at the chance of taking away choice instead of providing options.

Agreed. And they don't even see themselves for what they are. Because they're "right".

[buzzpost]

We (as smokers) don't have the right to impose our bad habits on others, and second-hand smoke does that. I'm all for smoker's rights and the rights of businesses to operate a smoking establishment, but I will never blow my smoke around in a non-smokers face. They shouldn't have to put up with that at all.

[ClarenceBodiker]

Look, some of my posts were hastily made, and I'm really not as anti-smoking as some of them may sound. I don't like the habit at all, but I've known plenty of smokers in my life, and I'm not trying to shove them permanetly into a closet.


I think the best compromise and solution in this entire thread, in my opinion, is the Midland solution from the last page. Seems like a way where there are options, everyone can win, and you can vote with your dollars. This is probably my last post in this debate.

[TexasHorseLady]

I agree, that's the best option, and that's what Austin had, pretty much (with the addition of permit fees and requirements for smoking establishments). But a small group of citizens made enough noise because they just couldn't stand smokers having options and got it changed.

If we could have THAT across the state, I wouldn't be frothing at the mouth. Because that's an example of the best kind of solution, one that is representative of what our country stands for.