Replies

Now that you have posted a semi-reasoned response I will respond in kind.

#1. What gives you the idea that all smokers are, and I quote, "drug dependent individual's getting high"?

Are you saying that anyone that smokes is addicted?

But when you are in public

Are you saying that a privately owned business is publicly owned?

There is no constitutional right to smoke in public

You are correct, there is no constitutional right to smoke ANYWHERE.
It's called a liberty for the person smoking.
I think there could be a case made for the constitutional right of a property owner to allow smoking. I just don't think any property owner has had the cajones too take it that far yet.

I will patronize no smoking establishments and I have made my business a no smoking office staffed with 100% non smokers

I wouldn't try to strip you of that liberty but remember, if the govt can proclaim that businesses MUST ban smoking they can also proclaim that businesses MUST allow smoking. Is that what you want?
Wouldn't it be better if the business OWNER can make the choice?

Joe most if not all day to day smokers are addicted to nicotine.
I am also saying that while in a building occupied and open to the public, having the presence of harmful by products of tobacco combustion is both irritating and potentially harmful to the health of others exposed to it, and it sure is unfair to the health of children forced to be exposed to it by circumstance. If a building is open to the public and the public has unfettered access to it, then it should be non smoking, especially restaurants.

Joe I am not sure how long you have smoked, my mother smoked for a little over 50 years before she died about 10 years ago from lung cancer. I was there with her when she died, I cleaned up all the fluid from her gown after she drowned in it. I sat there for nearly a day listening to that death gurgle grow louder and louder, for the last few minutes or so I kept getting clean towels to soak up the fluid from her lung as it spilled out of her mouth and nose. I went through 4 or 5 towels in last few minutes of her wonderful life, Yes Joe she exercised her liberty and smoked and enjoyed it a lot as I am sure you do. That is until the last month or so of her life as she began to die from that "wonderful liberty". She missed seeing her 11 year old grandson grow into a man and will miss his college graduation next month. She barely knew her other grandson and never met the other 2 who came along after her passing. In the end I know she knew it was not worth it. She just realized it too late.
It is not too late for you Joe. Have a seat Joe, Gabz and the other tobacco lovers and fire up a smoke and savor that "liberty". But, if you should have the misfortune later in life of coming down with lung cancer as thousands of tobacco users do daily, be sure to keep plenty of towels handy for your caretakers. They will need them in your last horrific minutes of your life as you drown and the fluids spill out of mouth and nose, that is unless you like to make a mess.
My life's experience has made me an aggressive anti-smoker. About a year after she died, I was in a restaurant with my wife and children, the smoking\no smoking layout was done poorly so our "no smoking table" was adjacent to a smoking one. The smoking couple had just finished their meal and right away had to fire up, they were blowing their smoke over towards us and my children. I asked them to stop, the male nico-nazi took offense to my polite request for them to refrain. Words were exchanged and we went outside to discuss it. He had a bad attitude and when it was all over he was missing a yellowed tooth and left on the ground bleeding after I rammed his face into the brick wall of the building 3 times and then kicked him in the gut. Thank God that public smoking and smokers are slowly but surely going the way of the dinosaurs. Regards dallasgop PS. If you are ever in Houston or Dallas and an attractive athletic 40ish blond haired, blue eyed couple politely ask you not to smoke around their preteen kids, you might consider obeying their request and not developing an attitude about it.:-)