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]

I can't wait until the lawmakers go after something else for awhile and finally leave the smokers alone. Doesn't look like they want to ban it, does it! Once they bleed the smoker dry or else the smokers all wake up, then they will have to start taxing something our anti smoking lovers love. Guns......heh! Yea, put a big tax on every gun sold. I think this would be great.

I think the lawmakers are already trying to figure out how to increase taxes on fatty foods and junk food. Maybe make all obese people pay so much tax for every pound they are over weight. I bet they would drop that weight in a hurry. ~whew

Put the Fat Police on the streets. Everytime they see an overweight person, slap them with a court date. Then, when the obese person goes to court, the Judge weighs them. And for every pound they are found to be overweight, then that is how much fine they have to pay to the state. What do you think? Sound like a plan? They are given one year to lose the weight. Every year they do not, they pay the state again until they do. Sounds good to me!

[CSM]

The government still gets more than their fair share in sin taxes from the alcohol companies. They still control the sale through state run distribution or state run stores. The liquor industry has been as regulated as the smoking industry (maybe deservingly to a point) and one of the top lobbying groups in the country won't be happy until it is effectively banned in public too. Don't be to fooled about it, it just hasn't been as publicized or hit people as personally as tobacco.

I would love to expose a smoke gnatzie to a second hand beer!

[jpsb]

Everyone that works at my bar smokes. I don't hire non-smokers. In fact I don't want non-smokers in my bar. I am pretty much a typical Texas bar owner. If you visit Texas better keep your mouth shut.

[Mears]

Massachusetts has so taxed cigarettes that it has made "lawbreakers' of everyone I know that smokes.

We avoid the tax by buying in N.H. or from the Native Americans.I even had the ex-husband( a tolerant ex-smoker) check out the price of cigs for me at a commissary at Hanscom and they were much cheaper there.My militant non-smoking daughter said she would ship me some from Colorado where they are 1/2 the price of the ones in Mass.

Massachusetts has become an awful place but I've lived here all my life so it's too late for me to change now.

I'm seriously thinking of rolling my own,as SheLion suggests. I figure if I could learn the internet three years ago I can learn to use a gadget to make cigs.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

[CSM]

The funny thing is that your plans (presented with sarcasm) are already being proposed. The lawsuits have started, the legislation has started, etc. It will happen, just a matter of time. Soylent green seems to the only approved food in the year 2012!

[CSM]

"Massachusetts has so taxed cigarettes that it has made "lawbreakers' of everyone I know that smokes."

That is the point, make criminals out of everyone and they are easier to control! The more laws you have, the easier it is to enforce the laws through the force of a barrell of a gun. Once that force is unquestioned, the masses become easy to manipulate into any behaviour the elite chooses!

[jpsb]

Also improves the govt revenue stream. More tickets, more fines.

[CSM]

Yep, more revenue to enact more legislation, therfore outlawing more activities and creating more criminals.

And the circle continues!

[metesky]

Do you refuse to go to the home of a friend who doesn't allow smoking inside?

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.

[metesky]

Outside of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, which was repealed, this is the only amendment to any state or federal constitution which restricts rights rather than expands them.

Food for thought.

[metesky]

Pat died two years ago.

[Max McGarrity]

Of course I agree with you. In fact, I will make a choice to not go to a non smoking state or city.

Indeed. Every two years, my (very) extended, (very) large family has a reunion that brings people from all over the country and the world together in one place for a week or so. Last year our plan was to do Epcott. We changed those plans when Amendment 6 passed because it made nearly half of us feel unwelcome. I'm sure Florida didn't suffer because we didn't rent their hotel rooms, use their travel agencies and car rental businesses, didn't patronize their restaurants and Mouse World, but by going where we were ALL welcomed, WE enjoyed it more and the several thousand dollars we would have spent there went to those who appreciated our business.

[SheLion]

I would love to expose a smoke gnatzie to a second hand beer!

P-U

LOL!

[SheLion]

In fact I don't want non-smokers in my bar. I am pretty much a typical Texas bar owner

MY kind of GUY!!!!!!

[SheLion]

I'm seriously thinking of rolling my own,as SheLion suggests. I figure if I could learn the internet three years ago I can learn to use a gadget to make cigs.

You won't be sorry. I buy the machine from the Net.

Then, from downtown local Smoke Shop, I buy filtered tubes at $1.99 for 200. And one bag of menthol tobacco (menthol for me), at $5.75. It's wonderful. There is a small surcharge, but you can't beat the price. And I am not lining the state coffers anymore. That alone is worth the "price of admission." :)

[SheLion]

Well, I sure didn't mean to offend anyone. But my plan is just as rediculous as the rest. Maybe I SHOULD run for office. HaHaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! not!

[Spok]

Ah, the hazards involved in the never ending search for the ultimate frozen yogurt.

[SheLion]

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.

It's really sad, metesky. But I feel the same way. In order to respect their wishes, I do not go. I have lived my life long enough to feel quite comfortable at home. Saves money, too. :) Sorry about your neice. They never learn until it's too late.

[SheLion]

Pat died two years ago.

Pat who, hon?

[Gabz]

Are you all saying that if restaurants are all forced to ban smoking you will never go back to a restaurant because of that?

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.