Take That, Anti-Smoking Nazis...

[Lost Cause]

Thank the godz for a little common sense, and resistance to the new neo-nazi health police! Whether you smoke or not, the right to choose what you want to do should be an "off-limits" subject by the new controllers of unacceptable behavior. Don't give me that second hand smoke bullshit, it doesn't stand to unbias scrutiny, it's a fabrication of stats, and test environments! The Europeans conducted a 15 year study which found NO appreciable effects from second-hand smoke, so give it up, mind your own fucking business, and stay out of other people's lifestyles.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Local health boards in Ohio have no authority to ban smoking in all public places, including bars and restaurants, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In a 6-1 ruling, the court called the goals of anti-smoking activists well intentioned but said state law does not allow them to overrule the Legislature, which exempted bars and restaurants.

``We refuse to extend by mere implication the authority of local boards of health beyond clearly stated and well-defined limits,'' said Justice Andy Douglas, writing for the majority.

The court's decision went against a ban approved in June 2001 by the Toledo-Lucas County Board of Health.

The ban was challenged by Arnie's Eating and Drinking Saloon, a popular sports bar.

``We've thought all along an unelected board shouldn't be able to enforce such stringent rules,'' Arnie Elzey, the owner of the Toledo bar, said Wednesday after hearing the news. ``It was not just about smoking.''

Louis Tosi, a lawyer for the bar and 26 other businesses, had argued that the power to regulate smoking rested with lawmakers, not unelected health boards. And he said lawmakers had already dealt with smoking bans in most public places in numerous other portions of state law.

``People in the General Assembly get elected, people in an agency don't,'' Tosi said Wednesday. ``This reaffirms that on major issues of public policy there has to be responsibility to the electorate.''

An attorney for the county board cited state law that allows local health boards to enact regulations ``for the public health.''

 

[Never]

Right, second hand smoke doesn't harm anyone. i believe you.

 

[QuickDuck]

Right, second hand smoke doesn't harm anyone. i believe you.

the Australian High Court does not believe it either... having just awarded a former bar worker who never smoked a day in her life but now has severe health problems caused by inhaling the smoke (and has about 2 years to live).

She has just been awarded damages of $400,000 AUD.

 

[Never]

Excellent.

Someday they’ll make all bars non-smoking and I’ll be able to go out.

 

[Tyrael]

Hmm, another one.

I think the issue in th article was less about second hand smoke as it was enforcing the law that said bars and restaurants are exempt from a smoking ban.

 

[Marxist]

Unfiltered smoke (second-hand smoke) makes you have strong and healthy babies and bronchioles.

It's the tar (6X that of normal inhaled smoke) that makes it so healthy.

Anybody notice how Lost C starts threads and then walks away?

 

[Lasher]

Someday they’ll make all bars non-smoking and I’ll be able to go out.

And not long after they'll take the booze out of bars too and we can all just stand around sober and chewing gum and then no one will ever get laid.

 

[Sillyman]

I have noticed that trend.

 

[QuickDuck]

Anybody notice how Lost C starts threads and then walks away?

yup i have actually

Never: all restuarants in Australia are now non-smoking and there is a MAJOR push to at least have to regulated in pubs and clubs to the extent of having a different section.

The government are not silly enough (god thats a rare thing to say about our government), to think they can (or should) stop it totally.

Some pubs have done it off their own bat.

 

[Sandia]

And not long after they'll take the booze out of bars too and we can all just stand around sober and chewing gum and then no one will ever get laid.

I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Never]

Lasher,
No, there are several no smoking bars in SoCal and they still serve liquor. The mere act of drinking near someone doesn't make them swallow alcohol.

 

[Lasher]

I'm looking forward to it.

Not getting laid?

 

[unclej]

anti smoking laws have precious little to do with second hand or even first hand smoke. it has everything to do with the government wanting to control every aspect of your life. i'm not a conspiracy freak or a vigilante or anything of the sort. i vote every chance i can and i'm a vet who willingly served during the viet nam war. but local, state and the federal governments have gone way beyond their useful purposes.

if you're willing to give up your personal freedoms to avoid second hand smoke then you deserve loosing what they take away from you next.

 

[Lasher]

The mere act of drinking near someone doesn't make them swallow alcohol.

Hmmmm... Things sure were a lot different when I was in college.

 

[seXieleXie]

you can't smoke in bars or restaurants or airports in california. or within 10 feet (i'm not sure that number is accurate) of a public building.

 

[Sandia]

Not getting laid?

I've already got that part down pat.

It's the standing around part and chewing gum I'm looking forward to.

 

[Purple Haze]

I don't buy all that "second-hand smoke kills" bullshit either.

I'm a polite smoker, I always go outside of restaurants to feed my habit.

This whole anti-smoke gestapo has gotten out of hand, it's even banned outdoors someplaces. Fucking ridiculous.

Smokers should have to wear arm-bands so they can be identified even when they aren't killing other people.

Nazis.

 

[Never]

I didn’t think people have a ‘personal freedom’ to smoke in places where the people gather. A new twist on an old adage: Your right to smoke ends at my lungs.

 

[Sandia]

Lasher,
No, there are several no smoking bars in SoCal and they still serve liquor. The mere act of drinking near someone doesn't make them swallow alcohol.

I was in California a while back. They didn't allow smoking anywhere there. They wouldn't even give you an ashtray. You just had to like, use the floor and shit.

 

[Never]

Animals!

 

[Sandia]

I didn’t think people have a ‘personal freedom’ to smoke in places where the people gather. A new twist on an old adage: Your right to smoke ends at my lungs.

Erm. Ain't no law that says a bar owner has to allow smokers, that I know of.

 

[Freya]

In Ontario, city by city, they are passing bylaws preventing smoking in bars and restaurants. I totally agree with restaurants, but I do think bars are another story. Since they passed the law in my city, business in bars has dropped by 50% at least. They justify it saying that 70% of patrons are non-smokers, and yet the bars are empty on a Friday night - so where are that 70%?

Fact is, some people that don't smoke will, at times, smoke while drinking. I think as long as they enforce proper ventilation, they should allow smoking in bars. People smoke while they drink, it's a fact of life....you go to a bar, you need to learn to live with it.

 

[scylis]

all smokers shall henceforth have a gold-coroured cigarette-shapped patch sewn on to the left sleeve of all their shirts and jackets just below the shoulder. smokers must be branded and identified as the filth needing to be exterminated from the face of the planet that they truly are.

 

[mischeviousmisti]

if second hand smoke has no bad effects, then why does it literally make me physically ill when i'm aruonda particularly rude smoker, or ltos of smoke? what else wuold my body be telling me, except that its bad for me and the unborn child inside me? the right to smoke is a personal freedom that shouldnt' be taken away. people should be more respectful about it to the poeple that are ultra senstive to it and dont 'like it. its the assholes that are ruining it for eveyrone else.

 

[sufisaint]

Although I am all for personal freedom but i apply the fart rule to smoking....I do not want to breath anybody elses...and if i\you have the right to make me smell your smoke than i have the rightto fart in your face.....