| |
|
|
Share/Bookmark this Topic:
|
| Message |
Author |
by linkup
on Sun Jun 10, 2007 7:04 pm |
|
http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_6104980
New law bans smoking in businesses
By Diana M. Alba Sun-News reporter
Article Launched: 06/10/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
LAS CRUCES — A scene at Q-Time Billiards last week had a stereotypical bar sort of feel. Several people shot pool, some patrons lounged at tables — chatting or sipping drinks — and more than a few smoked cigarettes.
Soon that atmosphere will be lacking one of its most familiar aspects: smoke.
A statewide ban on indoor smoking at most businesses — including bars — is set to go into effect June 15, according to the state Legislature Web site. The law, House Bill 283, also prohibits smoking near entrances, windows and ventilation systems.
The change is bound to upset Las Cruces smokers, many of whom opposed a city attempt a few years ago to eliminate smoking in bars.
Valerie Valencia, 32, of Las Cruces, an occasional smoker, said she doesn't like the ban.
"There will probably be a lot of people not coming to the bar," she said, as she sat at a Q-Time table Saturday with a cigarette. "I'll still come because I'm not a chain smoker."
A person violating the statute will face a $100 fine on the first offense, a $200 fine for a second offense within a year and a $500 fine for a third offense and each subsequent offense within a year of a previous violation.
But for other smokers, the new law won't be an inconvenience.
"It doesn't bother me," said Ryan Steinmetz, 29, of Las Cruces, who calls himself an occasional smoker. "If I smoke, it's outside anyway. It think it's better to be fair for everyone if it's not inside."
For some Las Crucens, including Joseph Padilla, 26, and Renee Bustillos, 32, the ban will be a welcome change. The two said they work in the radiology department of a hospital, where they regularly encounter lung cancer patients.
"It's safer," Bustillos said. "It's cleaner."
Padilla said he visits El Paso nightclubs, which are smoke-free.
"I like that it's not smoky because all of the cigarette smokers stay outside," he said.
A 1995 Las Cruces ordinance banned smoking in most businesses and public venues, but provided exceptions for bars, private clubs and public parks. A 2002 attempt by the city council to remove those exemptions prompted a petition drive that eventually led to a reversal of the decision. The town of Mesilla had similar exemptions for smoking in bars until it toughened its ordinance last December.
New Mexico State University student Natalie Day, 24, a non-smoker, said she comes from Vancouver, Canada, where smoking in bars is prohibited so she's accustomed to such bans.
"I don't think it will be a huge change, but it's something I'm used to," she said. "I do have friends that smoke, and it will be a pain for them."
Wait and see
Some local bar owners said time will tell whether the new law impacts business.
"We're going to have to wait to see how it plays out," said Van Wamel, owner of the Hurricane Alley bar on Missouri Avenue. "Most of the people who drink — most of them smoke ..., but I don't think it's going to hurt us."
Phillip Kinzer Jr., general manager of The New Sun Lanes, which operates two bars at its site on Amador Avenue, said business might drop off for a few weeks, but people will return because they don't want to stay at home.
"People are going to come out," he said. "They're not hermits.
The statute calls on businesses to conspicuously post "no smoking" signs at entrances. They also must establish smoke-free zones that extend "a reasonable distance" from doors, windows and ventilation systems.
Wamel said he wasn't sure whether bar owners could be fined under the new law if an individual is caught smoking, but businesses shouldn't be liable for that.
According to the law's text, business owners won't be fined if they've posted signs, implemented a smoking policy and warned a person that smoking isn't allowed. Local fire, police and codes enforcement officials are charged with enforcing the measure.
Kinzer said he's had trouble getting a straight answer from the police department about when the law goes into effect. Until he gets an answer in writing, he said he plans to continue allowing smoking.
"We'll proceed as normal until there's a date," he said.
Snuff it out
The Legislature Web site indicates the law becomes effective June 15, though Las Cruces Police Department spokesman Dan Trujillo indicated the city's legal department has said the date is July 1.
Trujillo said the codes personnel, part of the police department, will enforce the law in Las Cruces.
"Codes enforcement does a great job of enforcing the laws we have on the books now, so I don't see that it will be much problem to continue working this law," he said.
Businesses exempted from the smoking ban include casinos, bingo halls, private clubs, cigar bars, private residences, tobacco stores and manufacturers, limousines for private hire, enclosed areas in bars or restaurants used for private functions and sole-proprietor businesses with fewer than two employees.
HB 823 is called the Dee Johnson Indoor Air Act in honor of the late Dee Johnson, a former first lady who pushed for smoking to be eliminated from the Capitol. A law against smoking in most areas of the building went into effect in 1999.
Diana M. Alba can be reached at dalba@lcsun-news.com |
|
|
linkup
Smoking Lobby Sponsor
Joined: Oct 01, 2005
Posts: 1201
Location: Anywhere but here
|
| |
Back to top |
|
|
| |
|
by Jay
on Sun Jun 10, 2007 7:37 pm |
|
The air outside is anything but safe and clean as long as vehicles are allowed in NM. And then the NM antis will complain about smokers iittering sidewalks with butts, let alone botch about smelling smoke near doorways of those businesses.
I don't give a sheet if you smoke 5 cigs per day. A smoker going to a smoke-free tavern is his/her way of supporting the smoking ban. If smokers keep their wallets shut and don't go, bans would be more of a failure than a success.
I hear nonsmokers go to those businesses once the ban goes into effect. But they don't botha going back to the bars when the media coverage is over. |
|
|
Jay
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Jun 10, 2003
Posts: 496
Location: Chicago
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by Darkseid
on Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:22 pm |
|
But for other smokers, the new law won't be an inconvenience.
"It doesn't bother me," said Ryan Steinmetz, 29, of Las Cruces, who calls himself an occasional smoker. "If I smoke, it's outside anyway. It think it's better to be fair for everyone if it's not inside."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FILTHY MEDIA C*&^% S*&^*&s ALWAYS MANAGE TO FIND THEM, DON'T THEY?? |
|
|
Darkseid
Smoking Lobby Sponsor
Joined: Jun 13, 2006
Posts: 1390
Location: Peoples Republik of oHEILo
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by JohnC
on Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:26 am |
|
Dark,
"THE FILTHY MEDIA C*&^% S*&^*&s ALWAYS MANAGE TO FIND THEM, DON'T THEY??"
"It doesn't bother me," said Ryan Steinmetz, 29, of Las Cruces"
Rekon if there is a Ryan or did she just make him up?
-J.C.- |
|
|
JohnC
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Dec 23, 2004
Posts: 282
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by dumpstermcnuggets
on Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:47 pm |
|
linkup wrote: For some Las Crucens, including Joseph Padilla, 26, and Renee Bustillos, 32, the ban will be a welcome change. The two said they work in the radiology department of a hospital, where they regularly encounter lung cancer patients.
"It's safer," Bustillos said. "It's cleaner."
Padilla said he visits El Paso nightclubs, which are smoke-free.
"I like that it's not smoky because all of the cigarette smokers stay outside," he said.
I can tell right now that Joseph Padilla and Renee Bustillos are (probably safe to assume so) just 2 non-smokers, who have no idea how badly the El Paso ban has harmed businesses there, since its inception in 2002. Even weirder for me to think I visited El Paso, 2 years before their ban started..... (and of course, WAY BEFORE I became an active campaigner against smoking bans)
Hope that those two, and all other antis in New Mexico, are happy that their soon-to-start ban is about to definately cause economic harm, that the media and antis have brainwashed the masses into thinking doesn't occur b/c of bans(+ always falsely alleging that smoking bans cause no economic impact, when almost always, they have).
Just don't go complaining to everyone after Friday how much you hate the extra cigarette litter, and having to walk through smoky entrances to buildings, where people have been forced outside against their will to smoke. And though I know this'll probably never happen, it'd be nice if someday, at least a few antis began to wake up and realize how much smoking bans are harming communities, businesses, and employees, against their will.... (it'd be even better, if many states, cities, countries, etc. begin to overturn their smoking bans, a la the Prohibition laws of the early 20th century later being overturned) |
|
|
dumpstermcnuggets
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Nov 06, 2006
Posts: 249
Location: Health Fascism Capital of the Midwest, Illinois
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
|
|
