After many years when it seemed like it would never happen, the anti-smoking forces have finally managed a victory in Richmond:
RICHMOND, Feb. 19 — The Virginia General Assembly gave its final approval Thursday to legislation that bans smoking in most of the state’s bars and restaurants, representing a critical victory for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and a significant political and cultural shift for a state whose history has been intertwined with tobacco for centuries.
Just hours after the Virginia Senate approved the measure Thursday morning, the House voted it through 60 to 39 without debate.
Virginia has repeatedly resisted efforts to curtail smoking in public places, even as health concerns over secondhand smoke prompted 23 other states and the District to start enacting prohibitions.
The Republican-controlled House has been a choke point for years because of the strong influence of rural lawmakers who consider tobacco a critical ingredient in the state’s economy, and because of their resistance to imposing limits on personal freedom. In Virginia, where one in every five adults is a smoker, government restrictions on smoking in private establishments have been limited to day-care centers, certain large retail stores, doctors’ offices and hospitals.
Currently, individual bars and restaurants impose their own smoking rules. This bill for the first time puts the government into that mix and covers almost all dining rooms and bars in the commonwealth.
(…)
Their ban covers most restaurants and bars, but permits smoking in private clubs and in establishments that construct separately ventilated enclosed smoking rooms for patrons. Neither the anti-smoking movement nor the tobacco industry was thrilled with the compromise plan.
The ban will go in effect Dec. 1.
Not as bad as what exists in places like Washington, D.C., but I’m betting it’s only the beginning.
The Old Dominion is now The Nanny State.
February 20th, 2009 at 4:05 am
It’s remarkable that there are still people who believe that they have the right not only to poison themselves with their stupid, filthy habit (a right I certainly don’t dispute) by smoking, but also have the right to poison everyone else who comes into contact with that smoke. The adverse health effects of second-hand smoke are well-documented to the point of being beyond reasonable dispute.
Before I made this reply, I clicked one of your other links and saw this dubious statement: “I know that smoking is politically incorrect, but if the governor said red meat is bad for you and ordered that steak and hamburger be taken off the menu, everybody would be up in arms about it.”
People are entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. Dismissing smoking as being merely politically incorrect overlooks the fact– yes, fact (see World Health Organization)– that it’s the single biggest cause of preventable death in the world. More people died during WWII from cigarettes than died from bullets. About as many Americans die from second-hand smoke every year (50,000ish)as died from combat duty during the ENTIRE Vietnam war. And that red-meat analogy simply doesn’t hold because people who order a steak aren’t forcing everyone else around them to eat steak, but smokers force everyone else around them to breathe their noxious fumes.
It’s a simple concept that all but the most obtuse understand: people simply don’t have the right to poison others.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am
People also do not have the right to shove down their own personal views on others.
If you don’t like that a bar or restaurant has smoking, then do not go there. Vote with your feet. If enough people agree with you, then those people (who cater to those with filthy, stupid habits) will have to shut down or significantly change their businesses. Government involvement is not needed. Seems too simple…
WAIT!!! It is too simple. Personal responsibility be damned – GIVE ME THE NANNY STATE!!! I cannot decide for myself that I do not wish to enter a business that caters to those evil smokers, I need the government to decide for me. I need the government to pay for the mortgage on the house I cannot afford, I need them to give me an extra 8$ a week as a “stimulus,” I need them to pay for my transition to a digital television signal…
This is stupidity. Soon, the government will try to tax and ban the CO2 being expelled from our lungs because it contributes to global warming. Damn, I just gave the idiots in our legislatures and idea. Carbon credits for breathing…
February 20th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Doug,
Anyway you can get the roll call for this vote so we can see who voted which way?
February 20th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Steve,
I’ll get a post up with the roll call later today.
February 20th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
[...] requested in this comment, here’s the final roll call on the smoking ban the Virginia legislature approved [...]
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Hey SSSSSS. You can go to another bar or restaurant, it’s not hard at all. Elect to give your business to a smoke free environment, why do you feel you must tell people how to run their individual businesses? I can’t even begin to understand how they come with the numbers of second smoke death’s. I mean the traffic you sit in everyday is probably worse and contributes to problems. I like how everyone is picking on the smokers because they don’t like their vice.
Then let’s be fair about this…Let’s say on Friday I go to a bar that has smoking. I expect it at this particular bar and don’t mind. It didn’t kill me and I go home just fine. Now let’s look at the crowd in the bar, please tell me what they are doing. What are they doing? DRINKING!!! Then what are they going to do after they leave the bar? DRIVE!!!! What is most likely to kill me that night…a few hours of second hand smoke or a drunk driver? No one would dare challenge the bar’s right to hand out alcohol but you care if there is some second hand smoke in a bar that you CHOSE to go to. Hypocrite. How can you say one vice is bad and others are fine? I’m not making a point against alcohol, but if this is your argument then you need to ban this as well.
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Sorry, meant that for RRRRRRRR
February 24th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I do not smoke. I do not drink and drive. I am considerate of others and none of my decisions affect anyone’s life but my own.
I worked in New York around the time they were passing a smoking ban. The same comments I am reading now from smokers and others were made about that ban too. Examples: People will stop smoking. They didn’t. Businesses will lose money. They didn’t. I did run into many smokers walking down the street. But they did find other places to smoke.
According to some smokers and others smokers should be allowed to go anywhere they want and I should only be allowed to go to places that don’t allow smoking. That hardly seems fair. As I stated smokers can find another place to smoke (usually right outside). I only have 2 ways to breathe. And I should be able to go anywhere I want to go.
People should be able to smoke if they want to smoke. I should be allowed not to smoke. I should also have the right to not have others affect my health with second hand smoke. I already have to deal with it on my daily commute when people ignore the metro smoking rules or smoke right next to the door I have to walk through.
February 25th, 2009 at 12:14 am
After reading the bill ( http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+ful+SB1105S2 )
If restaurant owners still want to allow smoking just make an extremely small room attached to the entrance that is separated by drywall. Even if it were as small as a closet, it could qualify for the nonsmoking room. The structure is separate according to the bill and the doorway is the separate ventilation system. Done lol.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Do I need gov kaine’s permission to cross the street? How could I have ever lived my life so long without having a nanny state. Given alcohol is bad fo ryou, why not ban it? More people get killed from drinking and driving than from second hand smoke. Soo boo hoo, you stupid liberals don’t like smelling like smoke. Why not go to nonsmoking bars? Gonna cry you whining liberals and the morons in republican party that went along with this nanny state nonsense? Stupid libs ban everything they don’t like. Whiner. Grow up and get a life.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Lib cry babies: Given that cars produce way more products, and breathing the air outside is WORSE than second hand smoking, why not ban cars? That’s right, crybaby whiney libs just ban things they don’t like. Grow up losers.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I’m a whiney liberal and I don’t want my clothes to smell like smoke.
February 26th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
To be fair, I honestly can understand the restaurant ban with kids, people wanting to enjoy a meal with out smoke all over them, etc.
However…. Ban smoking in bars? 68% of them ALREADY HAD REGULATIONS in place. It sounds appropriately balanced compared to the number of adults that smoke and those who don’t. Given that, I find it totally in appropriate for the need to ban it in bars.
I am disappointed that votes swayed so fast after the first bill was amended. Especially not holding their ground on the “smoking permitted when minors are not allowed to enter.” ~20 vote change in 2 days for the same original bill, How does that happen?
Wow thanks how about I do dip and spit it all over the floor so everyone can step in it? Better yet I’ll organize a group of ex-smokers who would rather dip to irritate everyone.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
To all of those who believe that the smoking ban is taking away people’s “freedoms” or “rights”, wake up! People in civilized cultures and times haveThis ’s number one purpose as much as possible, most governments try to ensure that everyone has the MOST IMPORTANT RIGHT, which is to have a life free from being endangered by actions of other people. I like to drive fast, but some people feel that if I do, I will be endangering the health and lives of others, so they have laws in place that prohibit me from doing that. Fortunately, they don’t stop me from going to a race track and going as fast as I want. The smoking ban is the exact same thing…, however it costs smokers absolutely nothing to step outside and smoke their hearts content.
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:31 pm
“About as many Americans die from second-hand smoke every year (50,000ish)as died from combat duty during the ENTIRE Vietnam war.”
I’m sorry but I could not let this one slide. The correct statistic is 3,000 Americans die/year from passive smoke, not 50,000. And, this number is grossly watered down by deaths of life-long partners of smokers, a result of living in a smoke filled house every day for multiple decades.