Smoke-free Ontario!

Well, that cancels my trip to Ontario this summer lol

I suppose the view varies depending on whether you are a smoker or not. The entire Dallas County has been smoke free for a couple years now. When I go down for visits me and my friends always go to places outside the county where we can smoke. So essentially the restaurant/bar owners in Dallas county have pretty much all lost our business.

Well it's not really all that silly Flavah. For the record, I don't even smoke inside my own place and have spent nearly the last ten winters smoking outside when I'm home in freezing weather. So no I'm not opposed to stepping outside for a smoke. But if I'm going to a bar or a restaurant, I'm going mostly to relax, and that includes sitting at the bar having a smoke with my beer. Besides, where I go outside of Dallas county where I can smoke is just as convenient to get to as going the same distance into Dallas county where I can't smoke. Since I smoke the choice is obvious and because of the no smoking law, it's the Dallas bar/restaurant owners that lose out on my money. I'm not inconvenienced at all.

For the record I understand the point of non-smokers and don't argue against their right to a smoke free environment if they want it. A much more practical application of the law would be to allow restaurant owners the choice of being smoke-free or not. Non-smokers could chose to go to smoke free restaurants, and smokers would not have to give up their right/choice to smoke.

Or, if a restaurant should choose to have both, then the smoking area could simply be enclosed and well-ventilated. This also would satisfy smokers and non-smokers alike.

To demand that an entire county/city/state be smoke free truly violates the rights of smokers, but more importantly causes a loss of revenue for business owners. I know of bars where people would come into in Dallas and people would sit and smoke and drink for hours. Now those bars are virtualy empty. There are probably some who would say that's a good thing, but what if it was your bar or restaurant and you were the one losing the revenue? Would you then be inclined to think that demanding a smoke free environment was such a good thing?

Which is specifically the point I'm trying to make.

I think rather than banning smoking in pubs and other public places they should have brought in a strict licence which basically would mean that unless a public place has got a VERY good ventilation system in place that makes the smoke less of a problem then the public place will not be allowed to entertain smokers.

There has been a few members of my family that have failed to take much joy from this ban that came into place here on March 19th, however i can't say i have any problems with it. I mean, you could always argue that non-smokers have had to go into places that have been smelling of smoke because they had no choice. It may not bother smokers all that much, but when you are a non-smoker and you walk into a pub that stinks of smoke then your clothes end up smelling alot worse, not to mention the effects of passive smoking.