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Updated: 10:52 PM Jul 15, 2008
Two Weeks Later: What Bars Are Saying About the Smoking Ban
One says business is down. One says business is booming. It's a tale of two bars... in two cities. Posted: 11:00 PM Jul 14, 2008Reporter: Mary Rinzel Email Address: mary.rinzel@weau.com |
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12 Comments WEAU.com most popular
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Its good to see that people are starting to understand what is really going on here. The pharmaceutical industry is pushing its profit motivated agenda by taking away rights. I have no problem with companies trying to make money, but to do so by harming small business and taking away private property rights is wrong. They have tried to do this in St Louis and so far have been denied. They have a lot of money and will be back.
The smoking bans (paid for by grants by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a foundation formed by J&J who owns at 250-260 pharmaceutical companies, to the American Cancer Society) were designed to close businesses that serve alcohol. They bring a lot of profits back to the foundation (pharmaceuticals that make the no-smoke products). A main GOAL is to shut down those alcohol serving businesses in prep for their already announced 2009 Alcohol Ban. They are a 'Temperance Org' and paid for the start up of MADD for $84 Million, among other groups as they have done with the no smoke groups and years of negative research. The obese ban: They make Splenda. They are also behind the national health insurance push for ….. MONEY! Follow the money including the BONUS checks! You now are an official nanny state.
It is clear that separation of smokers from non-smokers combined with air exchange technology is a complete solution to this largely artificial problem. All it takes is regulating authorities setting the standards for indoor air quality on passive smoke, and the technology does the rest. Such air quality standards are common in industrial and environmental contexts. But, to date, no country in the world has set them for smoking areas. It seems clear that the reasons are not scientific, nor are they economic or technical: they are political. The anti smoking agencies do not want safe standards that would still allow people to smoke...they simply want a ban that will push smokers outdoors like outcasts. A sign on the door,'this is a smoking venue or this is a non-smoking venue.: That gives owners and the public choices.
Prohibition never works. And even if you really, really want prohibition to work, it still doesn't work. We can't even keep illegal drugs out of prisons, yet these yahoo lawmakers think a smoking ban will keep smoking out of bars? What kind of a dreamworld do they live in?
i quit smoking the first of the year and i think the ban on not smoking in bars should not be there it is taking away rights of a person. i think this is the u.s.a. that means i have the right to smoke in a bar. next people are going to tell me i can not smpoke in my house. bull s---.
We live in a capitalistic market. If more people wanted bars smoke free, the bar owners would have made the bars smoke free because that would mean more money. Obviously that has not happened. Let's stop catering to the minority of bargoers and listen to what the people that actually frequent the bars want!
DE: precisely the point....the individual establishments decided, as it should be
Logical. You have a "level playing field" then create a problem where none exists, then expand the problem later to make another "level playing field" Since it's not their money, the zealots see no problem in creating problems.
If just one single business is harmed as a result of the ban, then the ban is a failure and government has gone too far by inflicting UNNECESSARY harm on small business.
This isn't about jumping across the street or county to smoke. Those who drink, smoke. A statewide ban puts people at HOME, not out spending money. That's what the numbers in Ohio show. All these hoards of new customers? NON EXISTENT! They lied to you, folks, just like they lied to Ohio, Hawaii & all the other states stupid enough to take money from the Robert Wood Johnson foundation to create smoking bans. They own millions of shares of stock in their parent company, Johnson & Johnson and guess who sells the patches & drugs? http://www.rwjf.org/search/gsa/search.jsp?q=Wisconsin&src=sw check out the pages and pages of "grants" the RWJF has thrown at Wisconsin and see how much your freedom was sold for.
If larger cities like Madison can handle a smoking ban, I am pretty sure Eau Claire can too. As someone with asthma, I was very limited in which places I could go to because of the smoke. Thankfully there were restaurants/bars like Stella Blues and Dooleys that were smart and made their own decisions about not allowing smoking when they first opened. And...they are busy any night of the week.
Thats the city of Eau Claire board, they do not care much about small businesses.
The Illinois ban is going on 9 months now. Quite a few small, local bars gave up waiting and allow smoking again. Any fines imposed are considered just another cost of doing business. If they are forced to close, it won't be without a fight.