Indiana

Where There Is Smoke

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

I’m taking a semi-vacation this week, which means I sleep until 7 a.m.  However I still try to keep up to speed on what my friends in other media outlets are chatting about.  My friends over at the Indianapolis Star Tuesday opined about the need for a statewide smoking ban and how the tobacco lobby is the reason a comprehensive ban can’t pass in this state.

Of course I disagree with the good people over on North Pennsylvania Street.  And full disclosure, I do enjoy a good cigar on occasion.  I have no problem banning smoking in places where no one has a choice to be there; a school, government building, etc.  However, in a place where the consumer, the worker and the patron all have choices,  the free market should be able to take care of this problem.   I have yet to meet one person in a cigar bar who chained to a chair and singing old Negro spirituals about freedom.

But I digress.  The Star Editorial misses two major points.  First, it is not the tobacco lobby that has derailed a more comprehensive smoking ban at either the city or state level, it has been the anti-smoking crowd who have been their own worst enemies.   Whenever reasonable compromises were offered, such a job boards to identify smoking vs. non-smoking establishments for employees, the creation of tobacco cessation programs, exemptions for cigar bars and private clubs, the anti-smoking people said “no”.  They could have a ban tomorrow if they were willing to compromise.

Secondly, and most importantly, if the anti-smoking crowd was really serious they would pass a measure that banned smoking in cars where children are present, apartments and homes where children are present as well.   Remember, their big argument has always been about secondhand smoke exposure and the 600,000 people who “die” annually because of second hand smoke.  Well, riddle me this.  Who is more likely to be exposed to second hand smoke, the person who walks into a bar, can’t deal with the smoke who leaves, or the 8-year old whose mom or dad is lighting up in the car with the windows closed or the fumes from the apartment next door?

A smoking ban will not stop the people who need to be protected from secondhand smoke from being exposed.  By going after smoking in a bar or place where everyone has a choice, the anti-smoking folks are ignoring places where individuals have no choice, homes and cars.  If they were serious, that’s where they would focus their attention, instead of my Davidoffs and Arturo Fuentes.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on December 29, 2010 (boomark / email).