It's official - Washington State is going Smoke Free on Dec 8th

[pheasant tail (no 18)]

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it isnt about being annoyed only.

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I disagree. Though I think the case for health hazards of 2nd hand smoke is exagerated, this new law was based on a reforendum (sp?) and virtually all people interviewed who voted for the measure have cited reasons of annoyance. I can assure you that very few people in Wa. State care about anything beyond themselves and their causes. Service workers have very little standing in most Wa. residents minds. All bartenders that I have seen interviewed and talked to voted against the measure.

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also what about the workers they dont have a choice. if you say they dont have to work there that is true. but then what about the factory polluting the air. if you dont like that move to another city. what about health hazards in the workplace. the workers can go elsewhere.


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The worker analogy does have some merit, but the polluting factory one doesn't.

But let me ask you. How far are we willing to allow people to infringe on our choices?

Doesn't this have a smack of puritanism that bothers anyone?

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it isnt about being annoyed only.

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I disagree.

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Then you're wrong.

Yeah, it helped that cigarettes are also nasty-smelling to most of us. I can assure you that the measure's major supporters didn't do so simply because smoke smell is icky.

You even contradict yourself below.

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I can assure you that very few people in Wa. State care about anything beyond themselves and their causes. Service workers have very little standing in most Wa. residents minds. All bartenders that I have seen interviewed and talked to voted against the measure.

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We at 2+2 would call that "small sample size." Bartenders in other states worried too, before they found out that smoking bans didn't stop people from going to bars (a fact which you'd think would be categorized under "D" for "Duh," but for some reason continues to be disputed).

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The worker analogy does have some merit

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How quickly you zoom past this. Of course, it's the bartenders' choice to take a job that could kill them, right?

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But let me ask you. How far are we willing to allow people to infringe on our choices?

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Again, you may believe that smokers have a right to suicide, but I believe they should not have a right to kill themselves in a public place, and certainly not in a way that could take others with them.

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Doesn't this have a smack of puritanism that bothers anyone?

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As someone whose father's quality of life has suffered greatly for over 20 years now, directly and provably due to tobacco...

No.

[bernie]

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Not being a smoker, I have no idea if this is true. Will people really drive farther just to be able to smoke?

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Aren't people driving all the way to Tulalip to avoid the smoke? Same thing, isn't it?

b

IIRC Tulalip is a non-smoking room - this may actually hurt them if non-smokers start patronizing the formerly smoke-filled rooms instead.