Thread: My Stupid Fucking State Just Passed A Smoking Ban

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021901986.html

So now the owners of restaurants and bars in Virginia are no longer allowed to decide whether to allow guests on their private property to smoke if they want to. The state has decided for them. Prior to this bill, it used to be that some bars and restaurants chose to allow smoking, and were patronized by smokers (and non-smokers who didn't mind smoke); while other bars and restaurants chose not to allow smoking, and were patronized by people who didn't like smoke. The system worked pretty well; it allowed private property owners to decide what they would allow their guests to do, and it allowed smokers and non-smokers alike to find places where their preferences were catered to. It's not like there was some shortage of places that didn't allow smoking; most restaurants, and a fair number of bars, banned smoking on their premises without any need for the government to step in and tell them to. Now, as of Dec. 1, restaurant and bar owners in Virginia will no longer have the right to make that decision about their own private property and the behaviors they allow from their guests on that property. Unless they are willing to become a private club (i.e., have a membership list and admit only people on that list) or spend potentially tens of thousands of dollars on renovations that would divide their establishment into two separate sections with independent ventilation systems--a perfectly reasonable demand to make on small business owners who may already be struggling with the economy as shitty as it is, right?

I think it's bullshit. For the record, I don't smoke (nor do I own a restaurant or bar); I oppose this thing on principle. I know second-hand smoke is terrible for you, but no-one was ever forced to go into a bar/restaurant that allows smoking and breathe the stuff in. They can always go to one of the numerous establishments where the owner chooses not to allow smoking. Anti-smoking activists like to bitch about how people have the right to poison themselves but not those around them; but second-hand smoke in bars and restaurants doesn't poison anyone who didn't choose to be poisoned by patronizing an establishment where they know the owner allows smoking. It's not like people are being exposed without their knowledge or against their will. Any other thoughts on this? I know a lot of CD posters live in places where such bans are already in affect.