Am I the only one who is sick of politicians minding everyone else’s business? If you don’t like the smoke filled bar, drink elsewhere. And no, I’m not a smoker - I’m an ex-smoker who doesn’t feel that my intolerance should rule the affairs of private businesses.

I was in a bar in Chicago last winter and it was amazing to be smoke free. If it works in IL there is no reason it can’t work here. I am deeply disapointed in Mayor Slay and Exec. Dooley that they have not shown leadership in this area and hope we can have better succes statewide.

Back in 2005, when we beat Odenwald’s smoking ban, we didn’t know about possibilities of air filtration in bars. Now we know that air filtration can make the air of a venue that allows smoking cleaner than the air outdoors. Air filtration is the real answer to this issue.

http://keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com/2008/11/air-cleaning-mailer-get-your-own-at.html

Matt

Its not working in Illinois. Just because they jumped off the bridge doesn’t mean that we should as well. The Casinos were off on average 17% last year compared to the year before. That average was boosted by the loss limits in Missouri. Ask anyone from Chicago - many bars still allow smoking making them criminals.

Here is what a smoke-free law will bring to Missouri.

It will make a legal product illegal to use. If you own a bar or a business - then you will have to make a choice. Either you allow smoking illegaly or you go out of business. It doesn’t make sense when the economy is good and it certainly doesn’t make sense now.

The question is why we need a law to begin with. First, most restaurants don’t allow smoking in their dining areas. Second, its still a choice you have to make. If you don’t like smoke, don’t go.

We have done it here in KC and it is working just fine. Both the city and most of the suburbs have smoking bans now. If it can work in Missouri’s largest city, then it can work in St. Louis too.

Can someone tell me how passing laws proven to decrease business is a good thing? I lived in Springfield Illinois when it passed the ban before the statewide order. Friends of mine reported an immediate loss of business. One closed an entire bowling center. And joh in KC - please go down to The Quaff on Broadway, and ask owner Joe Bonino how he likes the law? Tell ‘em I sent you.

Hey Beth,
How about picking up my leaves in front of my house? They’ve been there for two weeks. Perhaps you should consider taking care of our city before you start wasting time on interfering in areas where you don’t belong.

I notice C.C. has no problem with accepting the sales tax on cigs.

I hav a friend who is a liquor wholesaler in Illinois. His income dropped by 40% after the ban. You are going to see many restaurants and bars go under anyway in this economy. This would only increase the number.

I see that Smoke-Free St Louis now has a billboard on 44 and Kingshighway. How is it that they can pay for fulltime employees, pay for a billboard, pay for surveys, pay doctors and pay for public relations. They are well funded and that money comes indirectly from the Pharmacuetical Industry. Big Pharma pushes smoking bans to increase their market for nicotine replacement products.

They are trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. There are hundreds of restaurants and bars in St Louis that do not allow smoking. If you want to smoke or it doesn’t bother you - you have a choice. If you don’t like smoke - you have a choice.

If you’re a non-smoker, you have choices about where to go to eat. If we impose a smoking ban, there will be nowhere for smokers to go to eat/drink. It stands to reason that many smokers will cut down the number of times they go out to drink and smoke. I don’t smoke and hate smelling like smoke but I make the choice to go to the restaurant/bar. Non-smokers seem to think they should be the only ones with rights.

The smoking ban seems to be working fine in Columbia, MO. I think it has an effect on the students and I see less and less young people smoking in Columbia, I think it is a positive. It is such a difference between Columbia and St. Louis, its nice to not have to come home reeking of smoke.

The smoking ban is working fine in Columbia if you don’t count the several local restaurants and bars that shut down after the ban. Supporters of the ban like to say they were poorly run businesses on the fringe of survival, but they were getting by just fine before the ban was passed by the city council.

I do not smoke and I do not like the odor of cigarettes, however the stench that comes from politicians who want to be our nanny and micromanage our lives is more than my stomach can take.

Don’t you have anything better to do…you Creve Coeur pile of pomposity?

I am proud to be a card-carrying Libertarian, and our goal is to make government get the hell out of our lives, and follow the U.S. Constitutioon to the letter.

I made Keep St. Louis Free’s case against a St. Louis smoking ban in a five minute interview on KMOX this morning. We touched on some of the issues posted here so far. I managed to get an mp3 file of the interview posted on
on the Keep St. Louis Free blog:

http://keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com/2008/11/kmox-interview_26.html

I would consider accepting Hannegan’s viewpoint on this at face value and buying his argument against dumb government intervention in the form of smoking bans if it all wasn’t profoundly hypocritical in light of his extreme anti-choice views expressed ad nauseum on this blog on a regular basis. I’m sure that smoking is responsible for more deaths of more people than the safe, medically supervised last resort of early term abortion. If you were truly the libertarian you fancy yourself to be, Bill, you would be content to leave each woman’s moral, medical and parental/familial decision-making exclusively up to her. Paging Dr. Freud!

Penelope, abortion kills twice as many Americans each year than active smoking reputedly kills.

I believe government should allow adults to freely take on life risk in exchange for fun or money. Let adults ride motorcycles without helmets, box professionally, climb mountains, surf 40 ft. waves, drive without seatbelts, smoke or tend bar in venues that allow smoking. It really should be up to them! Hey, they are adults and it’s their own lives they are risking. But kids who have no choice are a different matter.

The smoking ban compromise I proposed last year for St. Louis reflects this philosophy.

http://keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-louis-public-smoking-compromise.html

How about some big picture thinking by our politicians? Let’s impose a ban on all individual life choices that are found to be offensive by anyone. For starters, I propose prohibiting anyone with a Body Mass Index in excess of 25 from running for public office. Beyond that, such people should be refused service in any dining facilities that are open to the general public. I’m very offended by having to pay outrageous health care costs to subsidize those who do not have the self-discipline to eat and exercise responsibly. Others should feel free to add their own pet peeves to this list with the objective of coming up with “Omnibus Offensive Behavior Prohibition” legislation. Following enactment only one thing would remain – we would just need to be certain that the last person to leave the state remembers to turn out the lights.

Penelope (queen of obfuscation),

What does one have to do with the other?

I don’t like the smell of curry; so I stay out of Indian restaurants.

If the Indian restaurant had a great bar, but I didn’t like coming home with the smell of curry on my clothing, should I push to ban curry from restaurants?

What if I worked hard for many years so that I could open a cigar bar? Do you think my “private bar” should be considred a public venue, because I’m willing to let you in?

I have no problem with prohibiting smoking inside public venues. However, I do have a problem with the state/city making something, that is legal on the street, illegal in MY bar.

I have the right to refuse service to anyone who doesn’t like the smell of smoke, or is worried about the implications of tobacco smoke on their health. TO ALL OF YOU >>> STAY OUT.

If you want a restaurant or bar that operates the way YOU want it to operate; open your own restaurant or bar. You’re welcome to open a “smoke free” operation. I promise not to push for an ordinance that would permit me to smoke in YOUR bar.

Any smoking ban in Missouri would have to be statewide. Currently, although 9 small Missouri cities and Kansas City MO have smoking bans, these will be overturned shortly by the courts (numerous challenges are underway in KC). KCMO even stopped enforcing their smoking ban, and numerous KCMO bars and restaurants allow smoking despite the ban. This is because MO state law (191.769 RSMO) permits a whole bunch of types of places, including bars and restaurants seating less than 50 people, bowling alleys, billiard parlors, and tobacco shops, to allow as much smoking as they see fit. MO state law doesn’t allow cities to prohibit what state law permits, and so true comprehensive smoking bans cannot be passed by cities in MO. This is also how it is in Michigan, and how it was in NJ, WA, and NH before those states’ statewide smoking bans.

For now, though, tough luck nanny state folks… municipal smoking bans are illegal in MO.