Well, when Big Tobacco fell to their knees in front of the Attorney Generals and passed the Tobacco Settlement, all these Partnerships for a Smoke Free Everything were born from the boards of health.
They scream they want smoke free everything, yet you know darn well they don't. How many people would lose their jobs? Nothing would make me happier to see them back out looking for a job.
The non-smokers do not realize the money that smokers contribute to the state economy! And if everyone stopped smoking, that money would have to be made up from someplace else.
As I have stated, I was a smoker - I realize how hard it is to beat the addiction. I was forced to 'duto' my health. (This allergy that brought on serious illness was not my supposing it was cigarette smoke - I had no clue it was. It was the medical tests that brought it out, loud and clear.)
But there is another side to the economy equation of smoking.
I served in an admin. capacity, many years ago - before any anti-smoking laws were a blip on the radar - with the Berkshire County Lung Association in Mass. - (then they were "TB") and in later years, as a director of the Maine State Lung Association. Another side of the money equation is the health costs that add a great deal to our medical/insurance costs.
AS an aside, I do find it comical that many of the folk who scream about the cost of gas, think nothing of paying five bucks for a cup of la-tee or $7.00 for a pack of cigarettes...