Up in Smoke
December 22, 2006
25% of the population smokes… and they sure are pissed off about the new Smoke Free Ohio legislation. As a result they are throwing around all kinds of arguments trying to convince us that the smoking ban will ruin our lives and our wonderful state.
I’m not buying it.
The common argument is that the smoking ban will devastate local businesses. Sports bars and bowling alleys will have to board up their windows and move to Pennsylvania where smoking is still allowed. The way they spin it makes it sound like smokers are the only people in the whole state who go out and eat/drink/bowl. Keep in mind that 75% of us don’t smoke, and more than 50% of us don’t want to inhale it. Is it not possible that non-smokers will be more willing to visit these places now that they are smoke free? I know I will certainly be more likely to eat at a Buffalo Wild Wings or Dennys now that these places have clean air. Smokers aren’t the only people who these places do business with.
Additionally, overwhelming empirical evidence supports the fact that smoking bans do not hurt businesses. In Toledo, the citywide smoking ban showed no negative impact on bars and restaurants, and business in surrounding suburbs like Sylvania and Perrysburg, where smoking was allowed, did not change. A University of Florida report shows that since the smoking ban in Florida too effect restaurant sales are up 7%. A study done on the one-year anniversary of the smoking ban in New York City found that restaurant sales were up 8.7% compared to the previous year and employment in bars and restaurants increased by the largest proportion in a decade. In California, Paul McIntyre, former PR rep for the California Restaurant Association, was adamantly convinced that a state wide smoking ban would doom the restaurant business in California. Later, he made the following statement:
“My concerns about the success of the smoke-free law, however, quickly vanished soon after it was enacted. While there was an adjustment period— for restaurants it was four to six weeks, and for bars a little longer, the public still accepted it. California was in the depths of the greatest recession since World War II, but restaurant sales did not slump as the tobacco industry threatened they would. Rather, they continued to climb at rates of four to eleven percent annually. No jobs were lost. Tourists continued to come to California from all over the world. Even when the bar portion kicked in in 1998, liquor sales continued growing in restaurants and bars without interruption.”
Smokers also want you to believe that the smoking ban will lead to a slippery slope where the government will take away all of our civil liberties. I admit, this is a tough issue, but I think the smokers are wrong for a few reasons. First, it is important to remember that Smoke Free Ohio is not straight up government regulation; voters decided the outcome of this issue. Second, the right to smoke is not a clear/cut, black and white issue. When I am sitting in the “non-smoking” section at Dennys, I should have the right NOT to inhale your second hand smoke. But that’s not something that I have control over. Compare this to, say, the right to chew gum in a restaurant. Your gum chewing has no impact on me, whether or not I think gum chewing is good or bad. Finally, remember that Smoke Free Ohio does not make cigarettes illegal. Smoking outside, on the street is still allowed. Regardless of which way the issue goes, someone will always claim their rights are being taken away.
Most (if not all) smokers know that cigarettes are bad for your health; and for the most part, they simply don’t care. It sucks that your right to smoke indoors infringes on my right to eat dinner and not have to come home smelling like an ashtray. Don’t buy the hype - Smoke Free Ohio will be beneficial to our state in the long term.
Edited: November 23, 2006 | 2:50 PM
I’m not buying it.
The common argument is that the smoking ban will devastate local businesses. Sports bars and bowling alleys will have to board up their windows and move to Pennsylvania where smoking is still allowed. The way they spin it makes it sound like smokers are the only people in the whole state who go out and eat/drink/bowl. Keep in mind that 75% of us don’t smoke, and more than 50% of us don’t want to inhale it. Is it not possible that non-smokers will be more willing to visit these places now that they are smoke free? I know I will certainly be more likely to eat at a Buffalo Wild Wings or Dennys now that these places have clean air. Smokers aren’t the only people who these places do business with.
Additionally, overwhelming empirical evidence supports the fact that smoking bans do not hurt businesses. In Toledo, the citywide smoking ban showed no negative impact on bars and restaurants, and business in surrounding suburbs like Sylvania and Perrysburg, where smoking was allowed, did not change. A University of Florida report shows that since the smoking ban in Florida too effect restaurant sales are up 7%. A study done on the one-year anniversary of the smoking ban in New York City found that restaurant sales were up 8.7% compared to the previous year and employment in bars and restaurants increased by the largest proportion in a decade. In California, Paul McIntyre, former PR rep for the California Restaurant Association, was adamantly convinced that a state wide smoking ban would doom the restaurant business in California. Later, he made the following statement:
“My concerns about the success of the smoke-free law, however, quickly vanished soon after it was enacted. While there was an adjustment period— for restaurants it was four to six weeks, and for bars a little longer, the public still accepted it. California was in the depths of the greatest recession since World War II, but restaurant sales did not slump as the tobacco industry threatened they would. Rather, they continued to climb at rates of four to eleven percent annually. No jobs were lost. Tourists continued to come to California from all over the world. Even when the bar portion kicked in in 1998, liquor sales continued growing in restaurants and bars without interruption.”
Smokers also want you to believe that the smoking ban will lead to a slippery slope where the government will take away all of our civil liberties. I admit, this is a tough issue, but I think the smokers are wrong for a few reasons. First, it is important to remember that Smoke Free Ohio is not straight up government regulation; voters decided the outcome of this issue. Second, the right to smoke is not a clear/cut, black and white issue. When I am sitting in the “non-smoking” section at Dennys, I should have the right NOT to inhale your second hand smoke. But that’s not something that I have control over. Compare this to, say, the right to chew gum in a restaurant. Your gum chewing has no impact on me, whether or not I think gum chewing is good or bad. Finally, remember that Smoke Free Ohio does not make cigarettes illegal. Smoking outside, on the street is still allowed. Regardless of which way the issue goes, someone will always claim their rights are being taken away.
Most (if not all) smokers know that cigarettes are bad for your health; and for the most part, they simply don’t care. It sucks that your right to smoke indoors infringes on my right to eat dinner and not have to come home smelling like an ashtray. Don’t buy the hype - Smoke Free Ohio will be beneficial to our state in the long term.
Edited: November 23, 2006 | 2:50 PM
Anyone who smokes and didn’t vote has no room to complain about government intrusion, they only have themselves to blame.
That is ridiculous. Read what you just wrote and think about it. Just because something is said often does not make it true, and, in the case of this piece of conventional wisdom, its oft-repeated-ness is its only support.
People who did not vote on a measure and are negatively affected by it have every right to complain. It is those that vote and “lose” who forfeit their right to complain. That is because by participating in the democratic process they are recognizing its legitimacy and stating that they agree to comply with the outcome. If not, they are hypocrites. Those who refuse to accept that matters of personal choice can be decided by a popular vote and then complain about it are acting honestly and rightly.
One more vote against the measure would have done nothing - so why does that futile act on the part of a smoker(or sympathizer) add any legitimacy to their grievances? Especially when they have just seemingly accepted the democratic process?
Hopefully you understand the complete inanity of that little talking point. I suggest you edit that part out of your post.
Austin, I agree with you enough to change what I originally wrote, as it has no impact on my overall argument. In essence that phrase is a political sound bite and unnecessary to advance my point.
However, I think you bring up another interesting topic: the idea that one more vote would have done nothing. Although true is the sense that the measure passed by more than one vote, this mentality is part of the reason civic participation is embarrassingly low in this country. Moving away from this idea that "my vote won't make a difference" is a great way to make democratic participation a success. Although I'm sure your intention when posting that was not what I just described, I think it is an example of how much that idea has become the norm in our society.