In this commonwealth, and other sensible locations, telling businesses how to run their businesses is similarly frowned upon. It just plain isn’t logical to ban smoking precisely because there’s a market for it; I personally know dozens of people who love to smoke immediately after finishing a meal. In Virginia, which will probably be the one of the last to ban smoking in bars or restaurants, there are a number of establishments that voluntarily ban smoking without the state having to legislate it. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a restaurant, that isn’t also a bar, that allows smoking, at least in this area. This shows the power of the free market, supply-demand, and all that other lovely stuff and saves the government money and time; legislating something that the free market will work out on its own just doesn’t make sense.
And there you have refuted your own argument.
Smoking is addictive enough that users will seek ways around any complete ban.
By the way - smoking itself is still “socially acceptable” - what has declined dramatically is acceptance of clouds of smoke in public places. And speaking of that, the New York Times has a story today about the failure of a new ventilation system that restaurants and other gathering places are using in the false belief that smoke toxins can be kept out of the nonsmoking areas. It seems that while it reduces toxins, hazards remain, especially for workers and people with health problems.
Which is why it’s important that voters in two U.S. states (Ohio and (I think) Arizona) vote down two phony state amendment proposals bankrolled by the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company and some restaurant and bar owners. These amendments would prohibit voters from banning smoking in public places on the local level, (and overturn regulations already in place), substituting partial limitations for some businesses, including allowing smoking in restaurants with this kind of ineffective “ventilating” system.
Smoking…!.health ,we all know this
House fires and sometimes death ,by careless smokers
Holes in furniture
Holes in auto seats and dash boards
Car crashes by peolple lighting or dropping a ciggarette by driving
Burn scars on desks and pool tables
Reeking drapes,clothes and furniture
Running out in a snow storm or peeling into a gas station when you run out
Cost of the damn things