You obviously can not smell what you are putting off. Non-smokers are able to smell the smoke you are leaving behind. You leave it at the entrance to stores when you are taking that last drag and tossing your butts. By the way, they continue to burn. You who light up at concerts do smell and I smell the smoke wafting. You who stop at red lights and have your windows rolled down. Why I dont know since you should roll them up and really enjoy your smoke! Inhale Deep. No, these areas won’t be affected by this law. It’s an example of how your personal freedoms are still puffing on. Mine are being buried beneath carcinogenic clouds of your making.

Southfan,the 3 examples you gave aren’t even close to valid.I know of no stores at this time you can smoke in.I know of no concert arenas at this time you can smoke in.And the sitting behind me at a redlight will not be affected by a ban,I can promise you.Really the only places left are restuarants and bars,and they can choose,and you can choose.

Diesel, u try that in any of the bars I go to u would probably come away with a few missing parts. We all agree smoking is bad, second hand smoke is bad, the point is big brother imposing bans on private establishments. It should be up to the owners, not the government. bikertodds pst are right on.

Inconvenience?  When you kill or injure someone with your drinking, you are incarcerated. No one gets charged with causing damage from their second hand smoke. Get over your addiction being a personal freedom to injure others. Why should ONE person be affected by your addiction. ONE is too many and apparently 40,000 are not enough!

Diesel, good point. I wonder if smokers put two and two together.  Smokers, take your best white hanky, spray 409 on ONE of your living room walls, wait five minutes and wipe. You have the freedom to have that in your lungs. I do not get a choice when I walk into a store, stand beside you at a concert or am stopped behind you at a stop light.

If the state wants to ban cigarettes in all public places they should not charge state taxes on cigarettes.

Alcohol bothers me. Alcohol kills more non-users than cigarettes do. I do not see a ban on alcohol in public places.
Oh.. I wonder why. Maybe because the State has their hand in the sale of liquor? We cannot allow the ABC board to lose sales now can we?  We will just stick with cigarettes for now because it will only cause inconvience to the smokers. And who cares about what they think. Hey, smokers might just spend more time drinking if they cant smoke. Mow Money..Moo Money.

lol

OK smokers, here are some things to think about:

all those cigarrette butts you flick onto the ground are not bio-degradable - so if you do that you are contributing to destroying the environment.

the by-product of your “freedom of choice” causes terminal illnesses in nearly as many non-smokers as it does to the people stupid enough intentionally inhale toxins

I like to have an adult beverage once and again.  The by-product from my alcohol consumption is urine.  How would you somkers like it if I stood on a chair and urinated all over your clothes and hair.  You wouldn’t (minus a few freaks).  But at least you could go home and shower and wash your clothes and be done with it.  Non-smokers are not always afforded that luxury.  Sometimes we contract terminal illnesses from your “freedom of choice”.

I understand that,but the ban is the problem.There are a lot of things in this society I don’t like.I do not see the need to get a law passed to ban them.You already have the malls smokefree,hospitals,government buildings,and quite a few private business.WHY DO WE NEED A BAN?Because these people aren’t happy until they get their own personal agenda taken care of.Do I really think these people are worried about my well being?Hell no.They are all avid anti-smokers,who hate smoke.Period.And when they get done with this,they will move on to the next cause that bothers them.We need to use a little common sense,and stop trying to pass a law(ban)everytime something bothers us.I don’t like certain types of music.Guess what,I don’t go places that play it.DUH!And I go back to my original statement:If they are so bad,then ban them completely,and stop using my tax dollars.If I felt that strongly that something was that dangerous,I would get it banned.Problem solved.

Todd, I do agree with you on the restaurant thing. Restaurants should be able to cater to smokers, declare themselves smoke friendly and go on with their business.  Restaurants are private, so let the smoke stay there. The problem I have is when I have no choice but to walk into a cloud.

You can go on about the health risks,and all of the deaths,and all of the other “facts”.Do we as a nation not have enough common sense to handle this ourselves.If the government wants to ban smoking in their government buildings,that is their right.If the mall wants to ban smoking in their place of business,that is their right.But if a place of business does not want to ban it,that should be their right.If you and your allergies don’t want to be around smoking,you stay out of a smoking establishment.If they lose enough business,they will go to non-smoking.What is so hard to understand about that.No one needed a law,and supply and demand and economics will determine the outcome.If all you anti-smokers think it is so bad you have to ban it in public,WHY DON’T YOU JUST BAN TOBACCO ALL TOGETHER.If it is that dangerous,mayube we should do away with it.Our forfathers fought for our freedoms,but now anytime someone is offended by something,or doesn’t like something,pass a law against it.