When Maine "forced" the restaurants to go smoke free, no, we never went back. We ordered take-out. Listen, I am sorry that the business has to suffer. I am sorry they have to lay off the wait staff, and I am sorry that the wait staff are no longer getting our tips.
However, most places of business are smoke free. I can understand this. However, when it's for my recreation and my money, no, I will not go spend my money where I cannot be accepted as I have been for so many years.
And also, the business's think it won't happen to them. Then, they are stuck sitting on their thumbs when the ban goes through. The restaurant owners didn't think it would happen to them. Many of them today are now closed. They do not stand up and fight.
There are plenty of places I have to go in this life where I can't smoke and that is fine. And yes! I CAN go an hour with out a cigarette. But why would I put myself through that? Coffee and cigarettes are me!
Do you refuse to go to the home of a friend who doesn't allow smoking inside?
In the area where I live, most of my friends smoke. And those that do not smoke could care less if someone smokes or not. It's pretty laid back. But, if I go to a home of a non-smoker, I do not smoke. However, it's much easier to hang with friends who do smoke. I am more comfortable with my friends who smoke.
Smoking SHOULD be the choice of the business owner. That is what we are all trying to get through everyone's heads. This should not be left up to the state and the lawmakers. Smoking and tobacco are a hot bed of politics. If the states and the lawmakers are so powerful to take away this right, what and whose right will they be going after next? Think about it.
The Tobacco Settlement Money going into each state is being paid for BY the smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes. Not Big Tobacco and NOT the Government. The SMOKERS. Smokers pay more then their fare share of everything. Including health care.
My favorite neice does not allow smoking or beer in her house. I have never set foot inside and never will, even though she has begged me to come.
That's exactly what I am saying, particularly in the cases of restaurants that did nothing or supported it being imposed on everyone.
I still go to places that voluntarily went no-smoking on their own.
The antis, in pushing for these bans claimed that non-smokers who didn't go out in the past would make up for the loss of smokers' business. The antis lied to elected officials, they lied to the business owners, they lied to the employees, and they lied to public.
The non-smokers are not making up the loss of business so they are the ones that have created the problem - not the smokers who prefer to go where they are not treated as second-class citizens.
It is not a point of going without a cigarette for an hour, the point is why should I spend my money where I am not comfortable, when I can go elsewhere and be comfortable. after the ban in Delaware, when I still lived there, I just drove and extra 10 minutes over the state line into Maryland.