smoking ban

[drewsifer]

Chicago just started a smoking ban in most resterants and bars, do you think this is fair? what are your thoughts?

[mikegee]

i think the ban makes sense... to be honest, since they are deadly, i dont even understand why cigarettes are legal. i mean, a lot less dangerous drugs are illegal...

[dolivas]

yeap i think its more than fair. We can't go to gigs anymore without going back home smelling like an ashtray and having our eyes watering like crazy because of the ungodly amount of smokes smokers would light up all the time. I don't think it would be fair for us to leave a whole audience in an auditorium smelling like Chanel #5 or Stetson for Men when they left home or having their noses be all runny from our allergy inducing perfumes/colognes same thing for smokers.

Where I come from in El Paso we've had that ban going on for a while and its always a treat to go to bars or clubs and be able to have confidence that you won't have to put up with a human fog machine in there.

[Professor Riffs]

I really don't care whether it's fair or not. I just know I'm all for it.

[Bellringer]

Originally Posted by mikegee

i think the ban makes sense... to be honest, since they are deadly, i dont even understand why cigarettes are legal. i mean, a lot less dangerous drugs are illegal...

I think you're looking at law backward. Just because there are less harmful things illegal doesn't mean those things should be illegal either! There are so many laws created to protect us from non violent crimes that the legal system is kept jammed to the point where serious criminals are not properly handled. The whole concept of being free is to be trusted to use good judgement and to not hurt each other. If you choose to drink or smoke, they normally just tax you heavy for it.
Bottom line to me is: if you choose to run an establishment and you want to allow people to experience freedom, it should be your right.
Smoking, right or wrong, has always been a choice and it's Rock and Roll! Even if it is bad for you. I don't see heart attack police monitoring people who clog their hearts with fatty foods.
So if you want to be free, sometimes you have to deal with things you don't like. That's a part of Freedom of Choice!!!!

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by Bellringer

I think you're looking at law backward. Just because there are less harmful things illegal doesn't mean those things should be illegal either! There are so many laws created to protect us from non violent crimes that the legal system is kept jammed to the point where serious criminals are not properly handled. The whole concept of being free is to be trusted to use good judgement and to not hurt each other. If you choose to drink or smoke, they normally just tax you heavy for it.
Bottom line to me is: if you choose to run an establishment and you want to allow people to experience freedom, it should be your right.
Smoking, right or wrong, has always been a choice and it's Rock and Roll! Even if it is bad for you. I don't see heart attack police monitoring people who clog their hearts with fatty foods.
So if you want to be free, sometimes you have to deal with things you don't like. That's a part of Freedom of Choice!!!!

i hear ya, on your 1st point... i kinda worded it like that purposefully to invoke outrageous responses

[mikegee]

The whole concept of being free is to be trusted to use good judgement and to not hurt each other.

BUT: smoking in front of other people can hurt them...

i dont agree with all ya said though, cuz like, since 2nd hand smoke kills, i think people have the right to walk around in public, or go to eat somewhere without toxic smoke being blown in their face. most laws passed are also based on majority rule, so if they really took a vote on it, since smokers are a minority, you can imagine the results of that vote... but then again you can say the same thing for car and bus exhaust, and other pollutants... its a polut-y world

[dagosto]

Originally Posted by Bellringer

I think you're looking at law backward. Just because there are less harmful things illegal doesn't mean those things should be illegal either! There are so many laws created to protect us from non violent crimes that the legal system is kept jammed to the point where serious criminals are not properly handled. The whole concept of being free is to be trusted to use good judgement and to not hurt each other. If you choose to drink or smoke, they normally just tax you heavy for it.
Bottom line to me is: if you choose to run an establishment and you want to allow people to experience freedom, it should be your right.
Smoking, right or wrong, has always been a choice and it's Rock and Roll! Even if it is bad for you. I don't see heart attack police monitoring people who clog their hearts with fatty foods.
So if you want to be free, sometimes you have to deal with things you don't like. That's a part of Freedom of Choice!!!!

The whole idea behind the ban is to protect employees of the restaurants and bars from second-hand smoke. People have the right to work in a safe environment and it is not a matter of "if you don't like smoke don't work in a bar or restaurant" because people need jobs and sometimes they don't have the luxury of choice. I understand that this pisses people off but this is an irrationally misplaced anger spurred on by a chemical addiction. A healthy anger would be focused at oneself for not being able to kick the habit or at the cigarette companies for making their product so damn tasty.

The ban is based on humanistic principles more than most other laws you see go into effect these days are.

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by dagosto

The whole idea behind the ban is to protect employees of the restaurants and bars from second-hand smoke. People have the right to work in a safe environment and it is not a matter of "if you don't like smoke don't work in a bar or restaurant" because people need jobs and sometimes they don't have the luxury of choice. I understand that this pisses people off but this is an irrationally misplaced anger spurred on by a chemical addiction. A healthy anger would be focused at oneself for not being able to kick the habit or at the cigarette companies for making their product so damn tasty.

The ban is based on humanistic principles more than most other laws you see go into effect these days are.

yea, i agree... technically, smoking indoors would violate oshea safe workplace standards, they would have gotten the ban from the supreme court eventuallly anyways... open and shut case.

[Bellringer]

Originally Posted by dagosto

The whole idea behind the ban is to protect employees of the restaurants and bars from second-hand smoke. People have the right to work in a safe environment and it is not a matter of "if you don't like smoke don't work in a bar or restaurant" because people need jobs and sometimes they don't have the luxury of choice. I understand that this pisses people off but this is an irrationally misplaced anger spurred on by a chemical addiction. A healthy anger would be focused at oneself for not being able to kick the habit or at the cigarette companies for making their product so damn tasty.

The ban is based on humanistic principles more than most other laws you see go into effect these days are.

I do agree that people shouldn't have to work under unhealthy conditions. And just because something has stayed legal forever because they have politicians in their pockets doesn't make it right. My major point is living in a society that claims to be free, while making laws to protect us from possibilities. It is possible to die of 2nd hand smoke. It is possible to die from monoxide from cars, trucks, and buses or even get run over by a drunk fool on the way home from a gig! Funny this is about cigarettes and my point is not to chastise any musicians for forgetting roots and rebellion of hell raising rockers (you can still rock sipping tea and chewing a mint toothpick, though it don't look as cool on stage)...<Just playing>...
I know we all need to grow up and be healthy so we can live to rock another day! I would just prefer our lawmaking system scale back on the non-freedoms they write for us every day.
So in the words of rock god Paul Stanley "HELLO CHICAGO!!!!!! YOU WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT AND PARTY EVERYDAY!!!!! (crowd of Kiss fans roar) "Well I got one thing to say! If your gonna drink, don't drive, and if your gonna drive don't drink! Cause we want YOU!!!! TO BE HERE! TO ROCK WITH US NEXT TIME!" (Crowd roars. I laugh at the Budwiser banners all around the stage) It's all Rock and Roll!