smoking bans

[lunger]

I live in St Louis. The county here is making a serious attempt to ban smoking in all public places. Beside my own personal love of cigars, I am insulted by what I regard as an assault on personal freedom. This a tyranny of the majority on a relatively small (and politically incorrect) minority. If it passes there will be precious few bars or other places we can go to enjoy our smokes. The way the law is written right now (but not passed yet) there will be 4 places grandfathered in, but no more will be allowed.

Is there any organized resistance to this? Is anybody else as incensed as I am about this?

 

[Amy]

personaly i dont think its wrong to ban smoking in all public places. i do think it should be left up to the owner of the place whether or not it is a smoking establishment. it is an offensive smell to others and some it poses a serious health risk if they have asthma. if i walked into a restaurant spraying perfume all over the place people would get mad. its about the same thing, i enjoy the smell, others dont. they shouldnt be forced to smell it if they dont want to. now its one thing to ban smoking in a bar, thats just ridiculous. if you go to a bar you should expect that it will be smokey inside, if you dont want to breath smoke go to the liquor store. the fact is cigars have a very strong smell that lingers for a while, and can even leave a bad smell on things for a long time. we have to accept the fact that dennys doesnt want their dining room to smell like smoke. thats not an injustice or predjudice to smokers.

 

[bildo792]

i agree it needs to be left to the owner to make the decision. A bar owner can have their business seriously hurt by a smoking ban. Think about a cigar bar where the theme revolves around smoking, thats just not fair. Let the owner decide what customers he wants to cater to.
In columbus ohio they passed this ban and when i went to visit i found out my friends will only go to one bar now... one bar that disregards this law and lets people smoke. while we were there i noticed the place was PACKED and the bar next door was empty. If that doesn't say something i don't know what would.

 

[Macallan]

St. Louis is being consumed by people ready to fork over their rights. When the state passed the concelled carry law last year the city of st. louis decided they did not like it so they were not going to issue any permits. Must be nice to get to pick which state laws the city wants to follow. What a bunch of crap. Not only that when the mandated that all city of st. louis police officers must reside in the city limits many officers lost their jobs becuase they did not want to move downtown. With a lack in applicants, people were being hired onto the police force that would not have typically passed a standard backround check to buy a firearm let alone carry one and enforce the law. Why dont we let the criminals just police the good guys, that makes sense. :x :evil:

ANYWAY END RANT HERE!!

I grew up there and heck I will be home this weekend. I love Growlers pub for anyone who is ever in the st. louis county area. Cigar friendly and over 130 beers on the menu. Not to mention the waitresses are fine.

Lunger where abouts are you from and the one question every st. louisan is asked: where did you go to high school? Other forum people please dont comment on that question. If you live/ lived in st. louis you understand.

 

[Zigarreraucher]

The CATO Institute has a few publications but are not well known. They were featured on penn & teller:BS


http://www.cato.org/legalissues/tobacco.html
http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/topics.do?topic=shs

 

[Bulz]

Is there any organized resistance to this? Is anybody else as incensed as I am about this?

The answer is YES.

Even better news is that Cigar.com is a big part in that.

The Cigar Association of America actively fights in our corner. They challenge legislation that is meant for cigarettes and lumps in premium cigars. They also challenge the enormous tax attacks nationwide that threaten the cigar industry.

Give your business to those that inform/lobby and fight on our behalf.

Here is a list of the companies that care enough and deserve our support:

CAA Members:
Agio Cigars
Alec Bradley Cigar Company
Altadis USA
ASP Enterprises, Inc
Arango Cigar Co.
Ashton Distributors, Inc.
Brick-Hanauer Inc.
CAO International, Inc
Caribe Imported Cigars
Central America Tobacco Corp
Cia. De Tabacos Quisqueya C. por A.
Cigar.Com Inc
Cigar Factory Outlet
Cigar King
Cigars By Santa Clara, N.A.
Cigars International
Davidoff of Geneva
Domestic Tobacco Company
Domitab, S.A
Famous Smoke Shop- PA, Inc
Finck Cigar Company
General Cigar Company, Inc.
Hail & Cotton, Inc
Harkema, Inc
Holts Cigar Co
House of Oxford Distributors/Mom's Cigars
Imperial Processing Corp
Inter-Continental Cigar Corp
Intertrade Inc. of VA
J.R. Cigar
La Aurora Cigar Factory
Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co. of PA
Lane Limited
Lignum-2, Inc
Manufacture de Tabacos S.A.
Jose Mendez & Co
Miami Cigar & Company
Mike's Cigars Distributors, Inc
John Middleton, Inc
Natermann & Hurm GmbH & Co.
National Cigar Corp
J.C. Newman Cigar Company
NuPak Printing
NuWay Tobacco Company
Oliva Tobacco Company
Payless Cigars
Phillips & King International
Plasencia Group
Quality Fresh Cigars, Inc.
Retail Tobacco Dealers of America
Rex Corp
SAG Imports
San Andreas Tobacco Supply Co.
Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc
R.A. Serafini, Inc
Shamrock Corp
Nat Sherman International
Sluis Cigar Machinery B.V.
Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.
Standard Commercial Tobacco Company, Inc
Swisher International, Inc
Tabacalera Perdomo S.A.
Thompson & Co. of Tampa, Inc
Tobacco Rag Processors, Inc
Two Guys Smoke Shop
Vetab International, Inc
Windsor Shade Tobacco Company

Cigar Association of America, Inc.
1707 H Street, NW (Suite 800)
Washington, DC 20006
(202)223-8204
Fax (202)833-0379

 

[montnoir]

Well, just last year they banned smoking in ALL public areas - including pool halls, bars, and nightclubs - in Toronto.

I used to hang around this fancy pool hall a lot and smoking was something to expect when going to any kind of pool hall.. but the night when they enforced the ban, i went to the hall and there was hardly anyone there.

I agree that it should be up to the owners to decide if smoking should be allowed or not. Some establishments have seriously suffered from the smoking ban and it really is unfortunate.

I can understand if the gov. banned smoking in family restaurants but when they begin to ban smoking in bars, pool halls, and places where smoking is generally expected and the crowd is old enough to smoke, then I think it's a violation of our freedoms.

 

[Bulz]

If you have a local cigar lounge with members you like...you do tend to see them more often if its the only place to smoke... :wink:

But it would be nice to sit at a bar with stogie and chill.