[SheLion]

California Smokers Use Prohibition Tactics to Get Around Ban

While cops try to sniff out the worst offenders, in many cases they're butting up against organized opposition. Bartender phone trees warn each other of impending busts, powerful fans blow away tell-tale scents of "smokin' in the boys room" and tin cans double as ashtrays in case of an unexpected visit by police.

click here

[SheLion]

Go to Smoker Friendly Bakersfield, California!!! Spend your money in Bakersfield!!

[Echo Talon]

"It's screwed. If you drink, you're going to smoke," said 71-year-old Ned Webb as he puffed on a generic cigarette at Stella's.

LOL!

[trubluolyguy]

You probably won't get eighty-sixed for smoking cigarettes at Stella's Sand Trap. But you might be asked to leave if you ask too many nosy questions about smoking at the east Bakersfield tavern

---

I am not even a smoker (quit last year) but I love bars like this. You are supposed to smoke in bars. You don't like it, don't work there or go elsewhere. I am glad that a bar in my town/state is doing the same thing. They simply figured out that they can afford the fine because all the smokers go to their establishment. The other bars are going under in a hurry and the waitresses and bartenders the anti-smoking Nazi's were worried about are losing their jobs.

[L98Fiero]

Where there is prohibition, there will be speak-easys.

[duckman]

Jeez, it seem so simple. If you don't like the smoke in a private establishment, go somewhere else.

[MineralMan]

I'm guessing that if you're the one to complain about one of these bars, you won't be welcome there in the future.

I think what's needed is full-on SWAT team raids on these bars. Pull up the war wagon. Yell, POLICE! WARRANT! Then have all the guys in the body armor swarm into the place, M-16's at the ready. Arrest everyone with tobacco on their breath and use plenty of those nylon tie handcuff to make sure they don't resist.

Yeah...that's the ticket....

[Mr. Blonde]

Oklahoma's law against smoking in restaurants went into effect March 1st. The exception to the law is if more than 60% of your revenue comes from the sale of alcohol. I don't know how this will affect places like (the supposedly world famous) Eskimo Joes which is a restaurant during the day and a bar after 9 p.m. Hopefully, they can't smoke there even when it is a bar so people will start going to a bar I don't absolutely despise. Thursty Thursdays be damned.

[E Rocc]

Summit County, Ohio recently passed a smoking ban in restaurants and bars. I was in a not-to-be-named restaurant at 12:30am last week and they were flouting it. The "old" smoking section was nearly filled and they'd bring out the ashtrays by request. There was only one table in use in the non-smoking section.

-Eric

[Publius6961]

When you leave these smokey bars, the smell comes with you, saturating your hair and clothes and leaving a tightness in the chest.

How much IQ is required to figure out the solution?
Stay the hell out of those establishments!

When did it become a "right" to be able to go into any business you want, regardless of how many others you inconvenience?

[Zon]

Similar to many of the EPA's environmental laws government forced smoking bans are illegal takings. Prohibit a person from building on a wet piece of his private property is an illegal taking. In Oregon some people are winning in court and are being compensated for the taking.

When a bar is prohibited from smoking not only is the taking not compensated, the bar owner is not compensated for policing the patrons that smoke.

[dljordan]

"The maximum fine for the first violation is $100, and $200 for the second. But county and city officials said they are no longer going into taverns looking for violators -- unless they first receive complaints."

Worried that someone might smack them in the beak?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Hi, Ladies! Guess what just happened? I got a phonecall from "Smoke Free Fitchburg" a few minutes ago. They're canvasing to see if people in the area want the entire city to go smoke-free.

They're coming over the hill! Fitchburg is one of the towns booming due to the Madison Smoking Ban.

Of course, I educated the little Smoke Gnatzi at the other end of the line about personal property rights; I'm sure she hung on my every word. Not. *Rolleyes*

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Local news in Green Bay is doing undercover stings of Appleton bars defying the smoking bans. The news station is http://www.wgba.com.