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Yep. It's bad stuff. Already been said a hundred times. No argument here. Moving on...

...is it right that the government tells a business owner that he cannot allow his customers to use a legally purchased product inside a business he built and paid for with his own labor, time, and money?

Is it right that one's property rights are violated to some fictional "right to dine out"?

Do you have the right to choose establishments that are already smoke free, by the choice of the owner? If demand rises, don't you think there would be more smoke free restaurants?

Why would you patronize an establishment that, without a law being made, would, according to you, try to kill you?

And, what about peanuts? Some are allergic to them, and can actually die in a short period of time if exposed to them; should we outlaw them in restaurants too? (I've never heard of anyone getting cancer and dying in the space of a few minutes).

Ever hear of take out or drive thru? How about frequenting smoke free establishments and encouraging others to do the same? Couldn't you petition restaurants to ask them to become smoke free? Could this be perhaps a better solution than you wanting to use government to bend all restaurants in an entire state to your whim?

In other words, who is forcing you to go to these places? Why can't supply and demand take care of this, without getting government involved to trample our rights? Don't you realize that every time government is given more power, the bar is raised and a precedent is set? All so you can sit down once a week for a lousy hamburger?

You're really willing to sell out your rights and the rights of others for this?

The public health laws exist to - guess what - protect the public health. There is no "property right" issue on public health. Owning a restaurant does not give anyone the "right" to inflict harm on their customers or to allow them to be harmed. (That ficticious "right" sounds very Democratic to me. We Republicans are all supposed to know that any inherent rights we claim reach an end when they harm others, as tobacco smoke definitely does.)

Protecting the public health includes protecting the public from health hazards. Cigarette smoke is a certfied health hazard. Restaurants are already subject to public health laws. The logic here is simple, and legal. Don't go claiming any fictious "right" here to damage the health of others; there isn't one.

As a biologist, knowing how damaging tobacco is to humans and animals, I would outlaw it totally tomorrow morning if I had the power to do so. Marijuana is illegal - and it should be - but tobacco is a drug that is both more addictive and more damaging to the user and others than marijuana is, so it should be illegal as well.

And it certainly should never be allowed in public places where its use always damages others. Tobacco smoking is simply totally wrong for so many reasons (addictive, carcinogenic, toxic, etc.), and in public it's a public health hazard.

Don't smoke in public. Don't let others smoke in public. It harms other people.

And save your own life: quit smoking now, for your own good.