For those of you who didn’t pick up Friday’s Daily Reveille, you may be unaware of the impending state Senate vote on whether to ban smoking everywhere except bars, casinos, hotels and tobacco stores. Well, there you go. Fair warning.
A similar measure came up for a vote one year ago, and was defeated, because, I’d imagine, it included a provision banning smoking in casinos. Now that the gambling – sorry, gaming – lobby has been appeased, it’s out with the smoke.
In fairness, this bill has not yet gone to the full Legislature, so perhaps the full Senate or the House, in their wisdom, will block this legislation. Will they? You never know in a state where a bill to ban cock fighting fails and abortions are closer to being completely banned (in a purely symbolic gesture).
I’ve written enough columns about smoking that even the blind probably know my opinion on the issue. I almost decided not to write about the issue for that reason. But, well, just as I’ll put 10 to 25 cigarettes between my lips, I can’t resist one more shot at the issue this semester.
I already have to leave the parish to get my “breakfast of champions” – coffee and cigarettes, with the occasional greasy hash browns and ham and onions. While only a 10 mile round trip, I still find it taxing and unnerving, to drive over the bridge and head to West Baton Rouge Parish.
If this measure passes, aside from the issues of personal liberty, small restaurants will suffer. If you’re a heavy smoker, as I am, you’re less likely to go somewhere where you can’t smoke.
I’ll bet that there will be an amendment, somewhere down the line, that allows smoking in restaurants that serve alcohol, or in sealed off designated smoking lounges. Because I prefer diners – they’re cheap and the people are often more interesting than those at higher-end places – I remain at a loss.
Whenever I write one of these columns, the letters section and my e-mail box fill up with non-smokers who are convinced I am a selfish ogre. Well, I am a son of a b–tch and have been for years, but I can understand people not wanting to breathe in my smoke, although I think that second-hand smoke sounds more like a lick marketing campaign than a real disease. I suggest we allow the market to decide.
If roughly 25 percent of Louisiana smokes, I can imagine there is a market for non-smoking restaurants. I’m sure individuals would flock to them. I understand, according to comments in The Advocate, there are restaurant owners who are afraid to go non-smoking because others won’t. They want the government to step in. If that isn’t a crock of s-t, I don’t know what is.
What ever happened to that old American idea of being bold and imaginative? Are we so pathetic that we rely on legislature to determine business practices?
As a libertarian, even if I didn’t smoke, I couldn’t condone a ban. I feel the same way about alcohol and illegal drugs. As long as you are obeying the law while putting something in your body, I can’t see why you should be punished for it. It isn’t the government’s business.
Nor do I have a problem with the militant anti-smoking forces. They’re standing up for what they believe is right, just as I do so in opposing them. Unlike them, however, I don’t demand that the state force private companies to allow me to smoke on their premises.
I can accept that I’ll never smoke on an airplane – unless I happened to be flying in a private one – because of airline policy. I want all sides of this debate to simply sit back and allow the market to decide for itself.
Smoking is a vice, and I consider it, besides being lazy, my only one. A greater one, however, is bullying smokers and those who wish to allow them to smoke on their premises.
 
Ryan is a history senior. Contact him
at [email protected]