SMOKING BAN IN NOLA

[Arverni]

Ya'll don't get it. I don't smoke ... I don't really care.

What I care about is this creeching government that is squeezing itself into every aspect of our lives. If they can do this to smokers ... they can do it to everyone. Look at New York, they started with the smoking bans - then moved on to other things.

I'm a libertarian, a guy who owns a business (or gal) - ought to be able to say whether or not they allow smoking or not. If the business owner doesn't want smoke - nobody smokes. If he does - then find. Government has no place in this any more than they have a place in trying to outlaw transactional consensual sex.

If you don't like smoking in an establishment - then walk the fuck out of it and vote with your feet. Don't try to have the government enforce YOUR WILL on others.

Especially since the City Council didn't even TRY to make this law "land soft". They banned smoking everywhere ... you can't even smoke in your car at a drive up ATM. What kind of hubris is this to try to tell people they can't smoke in front of a robot? Also - the E-Cig ... I don't know if they are dangerous or not - but they are over 1,000 times safer than that real cig and they haven't been able to link it to any second-hand effects whatsoever. So there was one option they could have used to ease the blow.

By my reckoning - this will hang a huge "No Smoking" sign around huge chunks of Mardi Gras activities and parades too.

[Arverni]

Originally Posted by gimme_that

E_cig studys says that the chemical has been known to cause health issues. Google it and you will find facts.

Google how prostitution destroys society - and how guys like you are simply sexual deviants who hate women.

You'll find plenty of "facts" on that too.

LOL - the "Oracle of Google".

[giantbourbon]

I don't smoke, but I grew up in a cloud of second-hand smoke- both of my parents were heavy smokers and my mother died ten years younger than her sisters of lung cancer. So you would think I'd be a crusading anti-smoking Nazi. But I'm not- it's not that anyone who chooses to smoke is ignorant of its health effects, and if they are really motivated enough, there are ways of mitigating the pain while ending the addiction.

I spent a good part of my life providing entertainment in smoky bars, and I don't miss having to take my clothes off in a different room at night so I don't have to smell the smoke. A few weeks ago, I had breakfast in a Waffle House in west Texas (a health risk in it's own right, lol) and accidentally sat in the smoking section. I endured it because I didn't want to go to the hassle of changing my seat after I had placed my order. But I was reminded of how much I like 100% non-smoking restaurants- unless the ventilation is perfect, cigarette smoke drifts outside the smoking section and can't read the signs.

So, IMHO, banning smoking in restaurants makes sense, but not so much in bars or outdoor areas. I think the new law is far to broad and overreaching.

[Guest082815]

Originally Posted by gimme_that

E_cig studys says that the chemical has been known to cause health issues. Google it and you will find facts.

Kudos to this new law.

I can google too! THe study was performed with false methodology. You can get a study to say whatever you want these days, so it doesn't really matter.

[trekker]

Originally Posted by gimme_that

E_cig studys says that the chemical has been known to cause health issues. Google it and you will find facts.

Kudos to this new law.

I don't think e-cigs have ever been marketed as being safe to the smoker, just a compromise to coexist with non smokers. Their inclusion in the ban is an example of how a mile is taken for every inch given. We should never give in when someone wants to take a freedom away. I can't begin to fathom the Coloradans who increased regulations on tobacco while legalizing that other substance.

I'm not even a regular smoker. I just think it's a bad law, just on the basis of what things should and should not be enforceable by law. Laws lead to confrontations, confrontations get people hurt and possibly killed. Things that are not worth that kind of risk are not good laws. I would like to see a few years of repealing two laws for every new one.

[Guest123018]

Originally Posted by haya1300

so I told her next time she has a cigarette in her car, leave the windows rolled up....

For a chronic smoker that's nothing. I've seen smokers who have the windows up and smoking. So gross!!!!

[Nicolet]

The NWO is at hand. Never gave it much credence before, but now... It's getting scary.

[runkle]

Originally Posted by Arverni

Ya'll don't get it. I don't smoke ... I don't really care.

What I care about is this creeching government that is squeezing itself into every aspect of our lives. If they can do this to smokers ... they can do it to everyone. Look at New York, they started with the smoking bans - then moved on to other things.

I'm a libertarian, a guy who owns a business (or gal) - ought to be able to say whether or not they allow smoking or not. If the business owner doesn't want smoke - nobody smokes. If he does - then find. Government has no place in this any more than they have a place in trying to outlaw transactional consensual sex.

If you don't like smoking in an establishment - then walk the fuck out of it and vote with your feet. Don't try to have the government enforce YOUR WILL on others.

Especially since the City Council didn't even TRY to make this law "land soft". They banned smoking everywhere ... you can't even smoke in your car at a drive up ATM. What kind of hubris is this to try to tell people they can't smoke in front of a robot? Also - the E-Cig ... I don't know if they are dangerous or not - but they are over 1,000 times safer than that real cig and they haven't been able to link it to any second-hand effects whatsoever. So there was one option they could have used to ease the blow.

By my reckoning - this will hang a huge "No Smoking" sign around huge chunks of Mardi Gras activities and parades too.

+1 On this we agree.....and I also am a non-smoker, but its the ever encroachment of telling other people how they should live their lives because we know better than you...

[GlobeSpotter]

Fuckin' government.

Can't smoke in front of an ATM.

But a mother can legally murder her baby in the womb.

Some trivia (for lack of a better word): The leading cause of death in America would be abortion.....if the government would acknowledge the baby was ever alive.

Logic: One can't die if one was never born.

[pornodave69]

Originally Posted by runkle

+1 On this we agree.....and I also am a non-smoker, but its the ever encroachment of telling other people how they should live their lives because we know better than you...

It's not so much "telling people how they should live their lives" as it is telling them they can't ruin the lives and lungs of those around them.

If they decide to ban smoking in your house (if you live alone) or in your car (driving alone) then I'd agree, but as long as your actions affect the health of others then tough shit.

Smokers poison the air around them and it affects all those who have to suffer through it.

It was probably 15 years ago when I went out in San Diego with a friend who lived there. When I walked out I realized I didn't reek of smoke. Then it hit me, nobody was smoking. It wasn't allowed. It was so nice to be able to breathe and not have the smoke in my clothes and hair.

I've had nose bleeds while in bars that were so full of smoke it was ridiculous.

Lots of people say "let the free market decide." If there are no non-smoking options then there is no decision to be made.

Louisiana has roughly a 20% smoking population, 80% non-smoking. Majority rules. Allow the 80% who want to breath clean air to breath clean air. The 20% can kill their lungs in private.

[Arverni]

Dave - you're right ... smoker's don't have a right to pollute your air.

(BTW - many use a lot of those same arguments and make a case for keeping prostitution illegal - i.e. "you don't have a right to destroy my society.")

However ... a smoker who's smoking OUTSIDE isn't polluting YOUR air any more than you are polluting HIS air with YOUR automobile.

Second ... I have a home (there's no smoking in my home - but say there was) ... you have two choices - visit me and deal with the smoke, or don't visit. In either case, the choice is yours because ... IT IS MY HOME and I decide what happens there.

Same for a bar. It has an owner ... and the owner should decide if he's going to allow people to eat in the bar, if he's going to allow people in with tank tops, or bare feet, or ... if he's going to allow them to smoke.

There is a VERY good argument that the natural CAPITALISTIC system was about to correct this situation anyway - without fucking' government's involvement. Many of the bars in the FQ and other places were ALREADY non-smoking. The bar I primarily work at was going non-smoking but the owner was going to transition it over a period of months to get the customers acclimated to the idea. He was also going to allow e-cigs as an alternative since ... the studies we DO have indicate they are thousands of times safer to the user than regular cigarettes and we're still trying to determine what, if any risk they are to those around them.

But the city council stepped in and confiscated his right as an owner to do that. They took away HIS RIGHT to determine what happens on HIS property. Property that he pays taxes on - with a business sitting on it that he OWNS and that he also pays taxes on.

But the government now thinks it can take his taxes ... and turn around and run his fucking business for him.

Government is not the solution.

[Arverni]

Also ... I have spent more time working in bars than most anyone else.

What I find in bars are A LOT of people who ONLY smoke in bars ... while they're drinking. They don't even touch smokes outside the bar. Plus - add to them the folks who smoke all the time - in or out of the bar.

What you then have is one helluva a lot of drinking "smokers" who are going to be going in and out of the bar to have their smoke.

I'm really not sure that trading a smoky bar for a crowded street full of smokers is really that much of a win.

Top it off ... as a bouncer - I REFUSE TO POLICE THE STREET. You go out there for a smoke and some drunk guy who's also out there for a smoke clocks you - you are on your own buddy. I may make a cell phone video of you getting your ass kicked for the police for when they finally show up - then I'll post it to YouTube!

Girls who smoke, feel a lot safer smoking in the bar than outside it with the other drunks who are drinking - AND THE IDIOTS I HAVE KICKED OUT OF THE BAR BUT ARE STILL HANGING AROUND ON THE STREET.

You don't even have to be a smoker to experience this hazard. You can simply be walking in or out of the bar for any reason - coming or going (whatever) - and you will still have to deal with this. Single chicks - I'll cover them. I walk them to their cars now anyway. But dudes? Or chicks with dudes? Nope - if you're a dude you better have kept yourself in shape to protect yourself and any woman that's with you - you're on your own out there. INSIDE the bar I'll GLADLY take on any dude that picks on you - but not outside it.

[David-Louisiana]

Originally Posted by Arverni

Also ... I have spent more time working in bars than most anyone else.

What I find in bars are A LOT of people who ONLY smoke in bars ... while they're drinking. They don't even touch smokes outside the bar. Plus - add to them the folks who smoke all the time - in or out of the bar.

What you then have is one helluva a lot of drinking "smokers" who are going to be going in and out of the bar to have their smoke.

I'm really not sure that trading a smoky bar for a crowded street full of smokers is really that much of a win.

Top it off ... as a bouncer - I REFUSE TO POLICE THE STREET. You go out there for a smoke and some drunk guy who's also out there for a smoke clocks you - you are on your own buddy. I may make a cell phone video of you getting your ass kicked for the police for when they finally show up - then I'll post it to YouTube!

Girls who smoke, feel a lot safer smoking in the bar than outside it with the other drunks who are drinking - AND THE IDIOTS I HAVE KICKED OUT OF THE BAR BUT ARE STILL HANGING AROUND ON THE STREET.

You don't even have to be a smoker to experience this hazard. You can simply be walking in or out of the bar for any reason - coming or going (whatever) - and you will still have to deal with this. Single chicks - I'll cover them. I walk them to their cars now anyway. But dudes? Or chicks with dudes? Nope - if you're a dude you better have kept yourself in shape to protect yourself and any woman that's with you - you're on your own out there. INSIDE the bar I'll GLADLY take on any dude that picks on you - but not outside it.

Isn't the sidewalk/street considered a public place with this law?

[David-Louisiana]

Originally Posted by pornodave69

It's not so much "telling people how they should live their lives" as it is telling them they can't ruin the lives and lungs of those around them.

If they decide to ban smoking in your house (if you live alone) or in your car (driving alone) then I'd agree, but as long as your actions affect the health of others then tough shit.

Smokers poison the air around them and it affects all those who have to suffer through it.

It was probably 15 years ago when I went out in San Diego with a friend who lived there. When I walked out I realized I didn't reek of smoke. Then it hit me, nobody was smoking. It wasn't allowed. It was so nice to be able to breathe and not have the smoke in my clothes and hair.

I've had nose bleeds while in bars that were so full of smoke it was ridiculous.

Lots of people say "let the free market decide." If there are no non-smoking options then there is no decision to be made.

Louisiana has roughly a 20% smoking population, 80% non-smoking. Majority rules. Allow the 80% who want to breath clean air to breath clean air. The 20% can kill their lungs in private.

The reason that smoking was linked with lung cancer was statistics. In homes where there was a smoker and a nonsmoker, only the smoker developed lung cancer.

[Nicolet]

On the news, just before the city council voted, there was a spitfire woman who spoke against it. I tried to find a video of the lady who spoke, but I couldn't find it. She brought up a good point. By passing this, smokers are required to step outside and in some cases several feet away, to have a cigarette. With all the brazen violence in the streets of the Quarter, Bourbon Street in particular, smokers will become easy targets.
I agree with Arverni that the rights of the TAX PAYING business owners are being taken away. The business owner should make their own decision, not have it made for them.