Opponents Vow to Re-Light Debate on Smoking Ban

By Kevin McDermott
Lee News Service

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. -- Illinois' statewide smoking ban is barely a month old, and opponents already are trying to re-light the debate.

With the General Assembly scheduled to return to Springfield this week, various Illinois interests _ casinos, bars, veterans' organizations _ are preparing to push state lawmakers to carve out exceptions for various types of facilities from the sweeping ban that went into effect this year in all indoor public places.

''I'm a dedicated non-smoker, but the hair on the back of my neck stands up'' at some of freedom-of-choice issues created by the ban, said state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, who filed one of the exemption bills. He and others argue the ban is an enforcement nightmare for businesses, and is merely angering many of the patrons and employees it was meant to protect. ''I still don't think we've seen all the fallout from this.''

But legislative proponents of the ban _ which passed the General Assembly by a comfortable margin last year _ say they aren't about to re-think it already.

''It's Feb. 8. It went into effect Jan. 1. Give it a chance,'' said a clearly frustrated Sen. Terry Link, D-Lake Bluff, one of the creators of the smoking ban. ''We've only gone 30-some days. I'm not willing to talk about any exemptions until we give it a chance.''

The casino industry claims the ban already has caused a 17-percent statewide drop in gaming business this year _ prompting, they claim, 30 layoffs at Harrah's Metropolis riverboat casino last week. The industry wants a casino exemption to the ban, to last as long as Missouri and other neighboring states allow smoking in their casinos.

''We're going to push for that'' in the Legislature this year, said Tom Swoik of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association. ''They (lawmakers) will be able to see that we weren't just crying 'wolf''' with earlier predictions about lost gaming business.

Meanwhile, bar owners from throughout Southern Illinois will meet in a downstate bar later this month to discuss strategy for getting the ban altered or overturned, on the argument that their industry has suffered as smokers have stayed home from their traditional haunts.

''We're lucky if we have 10 or 15 people a day. Used to have 40 or 50. They just aren't showing up,'' said Barb Pennypacker, recorder for the Salem Moose Lodge in southeastern Illinois. She is organizing the gathering of bar owners and other ban opponents from all over the region.

''We've got to do something,'' she added. ''(The ban) is hurting so many people.''

Link, the Lake Bluff Democrat who helped usher in the ban, argued that it's too early to tell whether drops in business at bars and casinos were caused by the ban or by issues like bad weather in January. ''Some of the restaurants that used to have just moderate business are busy as heck now,'' said Link. ''Are those people coming out because they now they feel like they won't have to put up with smoke anymore?''

Black, the Danville Republican, already has filed legislation in Springfield to exempt from the ban quasi-private clubs like those run by the American Legion and VFW.

''World War II veterans are upset that they can no longer go to their local VFW posts and have a beer and a cigar with their ever-diminishing band of brothers and talk about old times,'' said Black.

Health lobbyists succeeded last year in making Illinois the 22nd state to pass a major statewide smoking ban, with the argument that employees and patrons in all public places have a fundamental right to breathe clean air. They say they are ready to fight to keep that ban fully intact.

''As time goes on, people will get used to it. We just need an adjustment period,'' said Kathy Drea of the American Lung Association of Illinois. ''It's a comprehensive, very fair law for everyone. If we start having exemptions, it will be not fair.''

The meeting of bar owners organized by Pennypacker will take place at 7 p.m. Feb 18, at Fat's Rendezvous bar in Sandoval, Ill.

State lawmakers will return to Springfield Wednesday for the first time since early January.

http://pantagraph.com/articles/2008/02/10/news/doc47afa9d9d036f582804735.txt

(there r a lot of comments on the host link. feel free to chime in)

Read comments until I came to this:
"we (the JWO crowd) will continue to enjoy free drinks and meals on the bar owners pocket books. It is real simple, don't you get it? What is wrong with you? "

JWO=just walk out

These clueless morons do not know that servers have to cover walkouts. They stiffed their waiter,not the owner!!

I tried to post to this effect;but, it would not accept the post.

The dumb crap-heads!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: gkayser30,

My post got thru. Also...JWO is being shown to be a liar.

quote:

''As time goes on, people will get used to it. We just need an adjustment period,'' said Kathy Drea of the American Lung Association of Illinois. ''It's a comprehensive, very fair law for everyone. If we start having exemptions, it will be not fair.''

How comforting.

See that? Give it a little time, and you'll just "get used to it."

I'm sorry, but don't you usually hear that line being said to the new inmate near the beginning of a prison movie? Or is that something Kathy Bates said to James Caan in "Misery"?

You see, taverns and restaurants used to be places people went to, get this, have a good time. Now they're places that we can go and "get used to" things after an "adjustment period".

Ms. Drea appears to have some unique ideas regarding "fairness" as well. You see, in her world(mind you, definitely not your world, but hers.You? You don't get a world. You can't handle it.) "fairness" means "all or none" and collectivism. One can't start making "exceptions" for the minions of public health who are, in reality, private people on private property (probably a concept unknown to Ms. Drea) who probably paid many hundreds of thousands of dollars that they earned with their labor. Allowing these people to make their own decision would allow choices, and, as every well-trained bureaucrat knows, people can't handle choices.

The things these anti-smoking people say in these news articles sometimes just blows my mind. (My favorite though is still the "clear message". For example, when an 85 year old in a wheelchair with an ostomy bag has to go out to the sidewalk to smoke, anti-smokers call that "a clear message". You know? Like a public execution--everyone gets the message.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: WinstonSmith,

"period of adjustment" seems to be a medical term.

Take the prescribed dose of medicine for a period long enough that you no longer remember what your original symptoms were and the cure is worse than the disease.

I posted there, but the replys are the same extremist drivel that such open comment sections usually invite, and by what appears to be just a handful of Anti-smokers with an awful lot of time on their hands.