Florida: Complaints over restaurants not complying with smoking ban

First Coast News ^

[SheLion]

DUVAL COUNTY, FL -- Florida's smoking ban was officially put into place on July 1st but not everyone is abiding. The state has had close to 800 complaints on restaurants that are not complying with the rules.

In Duval County, there have been 19 complaints with the majority coming from customers of RP McMurphy's located in Jacksonville Beach. The restaurant has received a warning and has 30 days to comply.

[SheLion]

800 complaints? Citizens against CITIZENS??!! How terrific is THIS?  not

[SheLion]

 PUFF

[SheLion]

Pictures speak a thousand words:

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I have a good friend who owns a mom and pop video store in Brooklyn, NY. The Smoke Nazis (i.e., city inspectors) paid him a visit last week. He was cited for not having a "No Smoking" sign prominently displayed (everyone in NY knows there is no smoking in retail stores), for not having issued a policy statement to his employees that "smoking is bad for you, blah , blah, blah," and, my favorite, for "Possession of an Ash Tray." That's right folks, in NYC, you are not allowed to have an ash tray in a retail store because, by golly, that could encourage smoking. The ash tray is there, he explained, in case somebody (perhaps from the wilds of Indiana) came into the store with a lit cigarette, and needed a place to extinguish it when told of the rules. The fines and penalties run into the hundreds of dollars. Welcome to the Nanny State. ashtray link

[Chancellor Palpatine]

The whole nazi thing is cute, but it isn't really getting anywhere, and damages the credibility of your position.

I'd love for an easy way to get this smoking monkey completely off my back, and am doing it by fits and starts. The things that I can say for certain are that cigarettes ruin car interiors, gunk up the walls of houses, stink to those who don't smoke, stain my teeth, make my breath stink, sap my lung power, make me cough, and cause ashey messes and a fire hazard. And all that is BEFORE we get to the idea that it is not good for asthmatics to be in a smoking environment, or the notion that second hand smoke does or doesn't cause measurable problems.

Simply stated, the human body isn't at its optimal condition when addicted to the nicotine in smoke, and calling people who expect us nicotine addicts to take our unpleasant addiction out of their faces Nazis is wrong.

[whereasandsoforth]

The position is not about smoking. It is about the government entity in the USA acting in the same manor as did the Nazi government. These people own their restaurant and stores. They can allow people to smoke the legal products on their premises if they want to. Get it? Legal products! It smacks of Nazi-like behavior wherever these bans are allowed to exist.

[SheLion]

The fines and penalties run into the hundreds of dollars. Welcome to the Nanny State.

Exactly! Now the "nannies" are going after THIRD HAND SMOKE. They just won't give up! As if a person who never bathes and smells to high heaven isn't a health hazard. But oh no! It's the THIRD HAND SMOKE!

Third Hand Smoke

[Wolfie]

Legal products!

Quasi-legal, at this point.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

If you walk into a premises licensed to serve beer but not hard liquor, and break out your bottle of whiskey - a legal product - and start drinking it, the premises has always stood to lose its beer license. If you walk into a strip club in a community where beer and spirits cannot be sold in an adult entertainment establishment and break out your own can of beer, then the establishment is subject to losing its license. In each instance, the product was legally possessed - and this has long been the state of affairs all over the country in terms of how the violations were dealt with.

It isn't a Nazi problem.

[SheLion]

The whole nazi thing is cute, but it isn't really getting anywhere, and damages the credibility of your position.

heh! Excuse me? This whole Anti Smoker's Teeth Sunk Into the Smokers is exactly the way the Nazi's went.  You don't remember your history?

 The things that I can say for certain are that cigarettes ruin car interiors, gunk up the walls of houses, stink to those who don't smoke, stain my teeth, make my breath stink, sap my lung power, make me cough, and cause ashey messes and a fire hazard.

So what!  It's a LEGAL PRODUCT.  Those of us that enjoy smoking do not look at it the same as you.

 And all that is BEFORE we get to the idea that it is not good for asthmatics to be in a smoking environment, or the notion that second hand smoke does or doesn't cause measurable problems.

Ahhhhh your still under the asumption that smoking causes asthma, are you? Not true, and when I find the link I will post it here.

Damages MY Credibility?  Well, check out my page:

Forces Maine  Lots of links THERE!

 

[SheLion]

It smacks of Nazi-like behavior wherever these bans are allowed to exist.

THANK you!

[whereasandsoforth]

...and those stupid liquor restrictions are just as Nazi-like as the smoking ban. The only difference is liquor alters mental states (person responsibility) and tobacco does not.

[Steely Glint]

"Simply stated, the human body isn't at its optimal condition when addicted to the nicotine in smoke, and calling people who expect us nicotine addicts to take our unpleasant addiction out of their faces Nazis is wrong."

Well put! Sadly, you have to deal with a bunch of angry addicts who see their perceived "right" to inflict misery and suffering on others in places open to the public being taken away from them and who are very grumpy about it. Their natural reaction is to hurl insults, because in their world it's all about them - and only them - and they think it's somehow okay for them to be able to pollute the air and injure the health of others anywhere they want to go.

Although allegedely conservative, they never learned the basic conservative adage: all of your rights end at another person's nose.

[SheLion]

Although allegedely conservative, they never learned the basic conservative adage: all of your rights end at another person's nose.

Excuse me, Newbie.......but if your going to be on our Threads in Free Republic you had better learn that we are for the rights of the Business Owners. This should be up to the business owner and NOT the Government.

Just why ARE you a VET?!

[laotzu]

"Simply stated, the human body isn't at its optimal condition..."

A basis for public policy?

[Clemenza]

I'm still trying to find anyone who has died from "secondhand smoke" in restaurants, bars, etc.

This aint just a Florida problem. Healthfascists deserve a taste of their own medicine. I recommend sending Bloomburg and Pataki a life sentence in a French cafe for passing a law that is killing business in my neighborhood. Here in New York, we still have "corner bars" where people gather to smoke and shoot the sh-t. Thanks to the liberals/RINOs in question, neighborhood institutions that have lasted for decades have closed or are on the verge of closing.

Shouldn't nanny-statists like you be on DU?

[Clemenza]

Although allegedely conservative, they never learned the basic conservative adage: all of your rights end at another person's nose.

Exactly, so don't stick your nose where you are not wanted! Bars and restaurants are PRIVATE BUSINESSES that you have the right to patronize or refuse to patronize.

The fact that their are nanny-staters like yourself on this site siding with the likes of Henry Waxman and Michael Bloomberg makes me sicker than any second hand smoke and yes, I am a nonsmoker.

[SheLion]

Shouldn't nanny-statists like you be on DU?

That's what "I" was thinking! The DU Forum would be better fitting for him.

[Steely Glint]

"Ahhhhh your still under the asumption that smoking causes asthma, are you? Not true, and when I find the link I will post it here."

Smoking doesn't "cause" asthma, but any asthma researcher not on a tobacco company payroll will tell you that it aggravates existing asthma. Exposure to smoke is related to both asthma severity and incidence.

Smoking does cause many, many health problems. Secondhand smoke can indeed aggravate a long list of medical conditions.

Smokers try to imply that there is some kind of argument or controversy over the health effects of secondhand smoke in the sceintific community. This is not true. There is virtually no debate over the negative health effects caused by smoking - or even of secondhand smoke - in the scientific community. Every health agency which examines the issue draws the same conclusions. Those few people who challenge the consenus almost always turn out to be on the tobacco inductry payroll - and these are the people that the smokers keep citing to "prove" their argument against reality.

The following unhealthy itmes are found in cigarette smoke:

Acetone
Acetic Acid
Aluminum
Ammonia
Arsenic
Benzene
Benzo(a)pyrene
Butane
Cadmium
Copper
Carbon Monoxide
DDT
Dieldrin
Formaldehyde
Hexamine
Hydrogen Cyanide
Lead
Magnesium
Methane
Methanol
Napthalene
Nicotine
Nitrobenzene
Nitrous Oxide Phenols
Polonium-210
Silicon
Silver
Stearic Acid
Titanium
Toluene
Vinyl Chloride
Zinc

Read it and weep. Are you smokers dumb enough to keep inhaling this vileness? Worse than that, are you smokers mean enough to inflict the misery this vileness causes on others, especially asthmatics?

[SheLion]

The fact that their are nanny-staters like yourself on this site siding with the likes of Henry Waxman and Michael Bloomberg makes me sicker than any second hand smoke and yes, I am a nonsmoker.

I think they put their tail between their legs and took off. heh!