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Maine: Bill closes loophole in smoking law
kennebeck journal ^ | 4-5-05 | CHRIS CHURCHILL

Posted on 04/05/2005 4:05:33 PM PDT by SheLion

State health officials and several lawmakers are pushing to close loopholes that allow smoking in clubs and workplaces.

The proposed legislation pleases many bar owners, who say they've lost customers to private clubs since Maine took the smoke out of taverns in 2004.

It also suits groups such as the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society, who claim many Mainers are exposed to secondhand smoke at work despite groundbreaking legislation passed by the Legislature 20 years ago.

"Even here in Maine, workplace smoking remains an issue," said Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Bureau of Health. "Our surveys indicate that nearly 50,000 adults in Maine are employed in workplaces where smoking is allowed."

Maine passed a law in 1985 prohibiting smoking in private workplaces. But the Workplace Smoking Act also contained a loophole that survives today: A workplace can opt out of the rule if employees unanimously agree.

Indoor smoking also can still occur in private clubs such as the Elks Club and the American Legion, if their employees OK it. All these exemptions came, in part, from lawmakers' reluctance to regulate what happens in private establishments.

But bar owners say minimal entrance requirements at some private clubs make them the equivalent of public taverns. Sen. Peter Mills, R-Skowhegan, agrees. He supports the legislation authored by Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland, that would close the loophole.

"The commercial bars are dying," Mills said. "It's dreadfully unfair."

The bill -- "An Act to Promote Parity in the Laws Governing Smoking in the Workplace" -- would prohibit smoking at any business or club with paid employees.

Clubs that rely on volunteer labor would not be affected.

Opponents said the legislation would be an unwise -- and perhaps unconstitutional -- infringement on private personal choice. Others said the legislation would drain private clubs of members, affecting even the charity work they conduct.

"What you're discussing would hurt us more than we've ever been hurt before," said Donald Simeone, legislative chairman for the American Legion.

Supporters of the legislation believe many workers are told to accept smoking or find another job. While the law prevents such coercion, they say it's hard for workers to oppose a boss or foreman who smokes.

"We are a state that has a lot of businesses," said Ed Miller, president of the American Lung Association of Maine. "And in a small business, being a problem can mean being unemployed."

Maine has been aggressive toward smoking. The 1985 law was among the first of its kind, as was 1993 legislation that banned smoking in public places, including restaurants. Despite the 1993 law, many restaurants continued to allow smoking by operating under a tavern license.

The state closed that loophole on Jan. 1, 2004, when legislation went into effect prohibiting smoking in bars. Maine was the fifth state to ban tavern smoking, after California, Delaware, New York and Connecticut.

Proponents of that law say it's been beneficial for the health of bar and restaurant employees. But bar owners told the committee the ban has put them at a competitive disadvantage.

"I can barely pay my bills now, which never happened before," said Paul Lambert, a Portland bar owner who said he's lost customers to a nearby private club.

A public hearing on the proposed legislation was held Monday by the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee.

Chris Churchill -- 623-3811, Ext. 431

cchurchill@centralmaine.com


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: antismokers; bans; butts; cigarettes; fda; individualliberty; lawmakers; maine; niconazis; professional; prohibitionists; pufflist; regulation; rinos; senate; smoking; taxes; tobacco
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To: SheLion

Incrementally, smokers become outcasts. They need a makeover and become as polite as cigar smokers.


41 posted on 04/05/2005 5:56:29 PM PDT by Raycpa
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To: SheLion
Dug in huh? Sorry SheLion, although I do understand. I want out of this socialist stench hole too, (there is a stench much worse than cigg smoke!) But I am not ready to be that far from my son, and the better half isn't ready to retire, or leave his folks.

So for now, I am pretty stuck too.
42 posted on 04/05/2005 5:57:05 PM PDT by gidget7 (Get GLSEN out of our schools!!!!!!)
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To: SheLion
"This really has nothing to do with smoking. It has everything to do with agendas and that is to enslave the American people."


It's like the second prohibition, only they fine you left and right, in the form of taxes, and treat you like the scum of the earth for smoking, while elevating degenerative behavior.
43 posted on 04/05/2005 6:04:55 PM PDT by gidget7 (Get GLSEN out of our schools!!!!!!)
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To: SheLion; Madame Dufarge; Gabz

I would love to see every SMOKER in the USA start a movement to ban smoking and make it illegal.

Wouldn't it be great to see the lawmakers' and politicians' faces?

We could all gather at some smoke-easies and make the new Al Capones rich. Actually,it sounds like fun,doesn't it?


44 posted on 04/05/2005 6:07:35 PM PDT by Mears ("The Killer Queen,caviar and cigarettes")
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To: SheLion
Gee... think they could have been LYING???

I don't think it - I KNOW IT

45 posted on 04/05/2005 6:08:01 PM PDT by Gabz (John Paul II, pray for us.)
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To: Mears

Actually it does!!


46 posted on 04/05/2005 6:09:07 PM PDT by gidget7 (Get GLSEN out of our schools!!!!!!)
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To: SheLion
I'm with you. Karen and I lived in upstate NY for 15 years and we were really annoyed at Chucky Schumer and the Bride of Sinkman as our Senator. I did not mean to single out just Maine (my sister has a summer home in Maine), but there must be something in the water with ME, VT, NH, CT that makes people too dopey and liberal. I think that's why Karen and I left NY and headed for NC before we caught the liberal-leprocy. LOL.
47 posted on 04/05/2005 6:10:07 PM PDT by Cobra64 (Babes should wear Bullet Bras - www.BulletBras.net)
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To: gidget7

LOL! I'll get there early and make the coffee!


48 posted on 04/05/2005 6:10:38 PM PDT by Mears ("The Killer Queen,caviar and cigarettes")
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To: Madame Dufarge
This place has become a Kafka-esque nightmare

Amen. Never mind the fact that socialism doesn't work, these idiots just keep trying.

49 posted on 04/05/2005 6:11:33 PM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghanistan Honor Roll students.)
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To: SheLion
But... Public Safety, Public Safety, Public Safety, Public Safety, Public Safety, Public Safety, Public Safety, Public Safety!!!

It's for the CHILDREN, It's for the CHILDREN, It's for the CHILDREN, It's for the CHILDREN, It's for the CHILDREN!

Employees are more important than employers, Employees are more important than employers, Employees are more important than employers, Employees are more important than employers (who cares about viability or profit?!).

Sigh.

50 posted on 04/05/2005 6:12:53 PM PDT by zoyd (I'm with the government. We're going to make you like your neighbor.)
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To: Cobra64

You can definately add MA to that list!!


51 posted on 04/05/2005 6:14:52 PM PDT by gidget7 (Get GLSEN out of our schools!!!!!!)
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To: Mears

ahhhhhh my only other vice :)


52 posted on 04/05/2005 6:15:27 PM PDT by gidget7 (Get GLSEN out of our schools!!!!!!)
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To: Madame Dufarge; SheLion
Is there anyone left in this state that doesn't work for the state?

You might very well be talking about Delaware - that place is REALLY, and I mean REALLY scary anymore. The Governor there almost makes yours look reasonable.

Delaware has a huge surplus and they are talking tax cuts and big state employee raises - yet the Governor wants to double the cigarette tax again.............and has a lot of support for it in the House, which is controlled by Republicans.......Republicans from the northern half of Delaware make Democrats in the southern half look like rightwingnuts.

53 posted on 04/05/2005 6:17:02 PM PDT by Gabz (John Paul II, pray for us.)
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To: Mears; SheLion; Madame Dufarge

Just make the sale of tobacco illegal...........We can all grow our own.

Of course the sale of it commercially will never become illegal because the anti-smokers do not want to pivk up the tax burden paid by those who use tobacco.

(expletive deleted)antis..........


54 posted on 04/05/2005 6:22:07 PM PDT by Gabz (John Paul II, pray for us.)
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To: gidget7
It would serve them all right, all the states doing this, if we all quit, (even if it's "pseudo" quit) and let them go insane when the money just disappears!! Hey, maybe they'll go after some REAL health threats!! Instead on encouraging and endorsing them.

I'm just really sick and tired of them using the Tobacco Settlement money against us like this.  That money is paid for 100% by the smokers when we pay taxes on cigarettes.

The money was supposed to be used for education and smoking cessation for those that wanted to quit and needed help.

Then, the Boards of Health spawned these Partnerships for a Tobacco Free Everything Coalitions and are using that tax money to control, restrict and abuse those that choose to use a legal commodity.  And I'm sick of it.

When they force a total smoking ban on a state, then I believe that cigarette tax money should stop feeding them.  It's gotten way out of hand and they think we are all sheeple out here and have no idea what is going on.  Well, they have another thought coming.


55 posted on 04/05/2005 6:29:25 PM PDT by SheLion (Trying to make a life in the BLUE state of Maine!)
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To: Mears
I would love to see every SMOKER in the USA start a movement to ban smoking and make it illegal.

Wouldn't it be great to see the lawmakers' and politicians' faces?

We could all gather at some smoke-easies and make the new Al Capones rich. Actually,it sounds like fun,doesn't it?


56 posted on 04/05/2005 6:30:45 PM PDT by SheLion (Trying to make a life in the BLUE state of Maine!)
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To: gidget7
It would serve them all right, all the states doing this, if we all quit, (even if it's "pseudo" quit) and let them go insane when the money just disappears!! Hey, maybe they'll go after some REAL health threats!! Instead on encouraging and endorsing them.

That's why I have been rolling my own for the past 4 years.  I don't have to pay all those taxes into the state coffers any longer. 


57 posted on 04/05/2005 6:32:29 PM PDT by SheLion (Trying to make a life in the BLUE state of Maine!)
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To: SheLion

Next, your home.


58 posted on 04/05/2005 6:34:21 PM PDT by sweetliberty (Never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.)
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To: SheLion
I hear that taverns and resteraunts over the border in New Brunswick are having a great year.

Sort of like the boom experienced by Bahamian mariners when the tax against big boats went into effect.

59 posted on 04/05/2005 6:36:17 PM PDT by Semper Paratus (-)
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To: SheLion

I know, and the trouble is, if all other smokers did the same thing, they would start transferring the taxes to supplies for making your own.


60 posted on 04/05/2005 6:38:07 PM PDT by gidget7 (Get GLSEN out of our schools!!!!!!)
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