Comments on: Health District Sues Local Tavern Over Smoking Ban Violations

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:49:19 +0000

My wife and I visited Smoke Free Nevada last summer and loved it! We spent more money at restaurants and several bars than we normally would and we now plan to return to Smoke Free Nevada soon! Also, since then, my State of Illinois went Smoke Free including Gambling River Boats and it is great!! The retsaurants, bars, worker’s offices, factories and even the Gambling Boats are doing wonderfully. They are all finally smoke free. The Smoke Free Law is the best thing that ever happened to Illinois and also for Nevada!

By: Gina

Gina — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:24:09 +0000

All I know is that my daddy would still be alive today if he had never started smoking or had been able to quit. My sons no longer have a grandpa. I feel that if there were fewer places where people could smoke publicly that there perhaps would be less smokers or at least people smoking less. I know that since high school students are no longer allowed to smoke at school that the # of teen aged smokers has dropped dramatically. I begged my daddy to quit smoking in 1990. He did not. He’s been dead for two years now and my heart has a big hole in it. I miss my daddy so much.

By: Terri

Terri — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:59:06 +0000

I have smoked for 30 yrs.. I have always been curtious to others that dont smoke.. I cant beleive some of the comments about what it does to the air… get out on the freeway and drive into las vegas sometime.. the only thing that you can visually see is the needle at the top of the stratosphere…this smoking thing is a joke as is the rest of the bans going on.. I will continue to say one nation UNDER GOD while saluting the flag, I will continue to say MERRY CHRISTMAS not seasons greetings..I will paddle my childrens behind only hard enough they get the message..
and I will continue to smoke regardless of these morons who think they all have to have it all changed to make them feel importnant..
Go into a casino in vegas sometime .. the nonsmoking area is dead.. but you have all the non smokers playing the machines where everyone is smoking!!! and they still complain!!

By: Melanie

Melanie — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:40:05 +0000

I think it’s a conspiracy between the gaming commission, the big casino’s and the health district. Where else can you drink, smoke, AND eat? THE BIG CASINO’S…that’s where. Pretty clear to me. Forces the little guy to have to gamble if they want to drink, or pay 11.00 for a two dollar drink. This is a gambling, smoking, partying town…keep the little kids out of the casino’s and let business continue. I am a native Las Vegan, AND a smoker, and this smoking ban is nothing more than a way to put small business out of business and residents into the casino’s with all those people who are gonna go back home and talk shit about our town anyways. Another bit of proof is all the “free standing” night clubs that are not in casino’s are being bought up by the big hotels…so again, the locals have to go into the casino’s to drink and dance a little. Out of towners save all year to come here once or twice a year…we live here and pay the taxes and can’t enjoy our city for less than a weeks wages for a night out…don’t get me started…

By: Rick H

Rick H — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:59:13 +0000

I am a smoker. I have attempted to quit on several occasions without much luck. I believe, as I think most intelligent individuals, smokers or not, that smoking is a disgusting, unhealthy, and stinky habit. The costs involved with health care related issues caused by smoking are monumental. We all share in these costs whether we smoke or not. The answer to the smoking problem is not to pass a law which isolates the small Bar or tavern owner, protecting the large deep pocketed Mega Casinos. The answer is as clear as the nose on Jimmy Durante’s face: Outlaw cigarettes ! I am completely opposed to Government infringing on an individuals rights, but what purpose do cigarette’s serve, other than to cause mass health problems ? However, the Government, local, state, and/or federal only have the spine to take on these smaller business owners. The politicians that would need to take any type of action to outlaw cigarettes are put in office, and kept there, with the help of large campaign contributions from the tobacco industry. If anyone, non-smoker, or smoker, can tell me what positive contribution cigarettes make to society, I will apologize and retract my opinion. The only way we as every day citizens can really do something to make a positive difference is to write, or call our representatives, and tell them to do away with the cigarette industry completely. I smoke because so far, I have been to weak to quit. If cigarettes were not available, maybe I’d stand a better chance, and maybe, just maybe, everyone that is a smoker would live a longer, healthier life.

By: Ken Lanier

Ken Lanier — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:04:47 +0000

I am curious if any tavern owners who would like to have smoking in the places have ever looked into actually registering as a private bar, I dont know if legally this would make an establishment exempt from the current law but I have seen bars in dry towns ie Richardson, TX use this avenue to allow patrons to drink. They simply have a little membership (free) form buiit into there POS system. My understanding the law applies to public buildings serving food. This would give smokers a chance to have places to go, and for nonsmokers just continue to go to the public non-smoking establishments. It should all be about a choice of where you want to go. Not forced. There should be freedoms on both side of the fences. -Thanks, Ken Lanier

By: don wikinson

don wikinson — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:50:54 +0000

what kind of retard would invest his or her own money into bars and resturants when you have a local casino around every corner. way too much competition in this town for that. dr good says it all, period!

By: bob

bob — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:34:42 +0000

Dr Good would have a much different opinion if he invested his own money into bars and restaurants. Furthermore, political policy from the resort lobby never has had the publics best interest in mind when it affects gaming revenue. Whether you choose to believe the real figures in a business Dr Good knows nothing about,taverns are down 40 percent in gaming and hotels are on the increase. The tavern group was offered a buyout of this bill 4 years ago for half a million dollars to “make this issue go away”. They refused,put up question 4 which was horrible and lost the vote to non smokers who dont gamble. All this for a poorly written question 5 with no criminal liability. It has always been an economic issue, not a clean air issue. We all can agree that smoking is stupid ,as you say, but it should then be stupid for everyone? Your resort association says no and they have all the clout to clobber anyone in their path. The gaming taverns were first in line.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:45:44 +0000

I have read some of these posts. Dr. Good says it like it is… and even has real statistics to back himself/herself up with.

I am a smoker, but am not proud of it any longer.

I started smoking when I was 16 because my friends made it look cool. And I thought it made me look cool, too.

When I smoke, I go outside so that my kids don’t inhale the smoke. I haven’t smoked in my car since my kids were born. (Also, because we bought a new car around the same time my first son was born and I wanted to keep it smoke-free… but the main reason was my kids’ health.)

Let’s face it: It is just not socially acceptable to smoke anymore. Not to mention what it is really doing to our health.

The majority of people are up on the fact that it can kill and are sick of us pushing our “rights” to smoke onto them and their right to breath.

I have to agree with the non-smoking population and just smoked my last cigarette about 1/2 hour ago.

I’m sick of what cigarettes have done to me and the control they have over me.

Not anymore! It’s mind over matter now.

By: Dr. Good

Dr. Good — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:45:18 +0000

These laws are about protecting everyone from secondhand smoke, not just kids. Smoking laws are going into effect all over the country and all over the world because the devastation and destruction of human lives caused by smoking have been proved beyond any doubt. For those bloggers who think there are more important things to worry about, consider this: of all the deaths caused by alcohol, AIDS, illegal drugs, homicide, accidental deaths by firearms, and all motor vehicle accidents…COMBINED, they are only a fraction (less than 34%) of the deaths caused to smokers each year by their smoking. In addition, the Surgeon General estimates that more than 50,000 non-smokers are killed each year by someone else’s tobacco smoke. When you consider that approx. 83% of smokers want to stop, and all of these deaths are 100% preventable, what could be more important?

I don’t think this is as much of a casino thing as it is a “we the people” thing. It was about deciding which battles are winnable vs. the power and money of Big Tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and the corporate/casino industries. The next fight will be to eradicate smoking in the remaining business establishments. These include the casinos with unrestricted gaming licenses, brothels, strip clubs, and bars that don’t serve food. It appears that lives are less valuable in these places, but it was the trade-off that had to be made in order to reduce the size of the opposing army in a strategic effort to win this battle. It’s asinine to say if you can’t protect everyone from secondhand smoke, you shouldn’t protect anyone. It will be ironic that the groups that tried to deceive the public by creating the “Smoke Free Coalition” and question #4 on the last ballot, might now actually be fighting to help ban smoking in the remainder of these unhealthy public venues.

I agree with the bar owners who say the ban should have been across the board to all businesses. However, sometimes life doesn’t seem fair and sometimes it actually isn’t. The good news is that their day is coming, and “doing the right thing” and abiding by the law has much greater long-term benefits. Marketing strategies and business plans may have to be altered to accommodate these new laws. Some businesses will adapt well and some will even thrive, some will not. Nothing is forever.

I visit smoking establishments with little or no customers in them all the time and I also see non-smoking places that are packed. There are also many non-smoking places with little or no customers and they say it’s the smoking ban that drove everyone away. As a 30-year Las Vegas resident (not from California), I KNOW many of these places were “dead” prior to the smoking ban. Many bars/casinos have gone out of business/bankrupt over the years and none of them were caused by a smoking ban. From now on, every bar that doesn’t make it will blame it on the smoking ban.

It’s important to remember also that many bar owners are also smokers. I’ll repeat some things I’ve said before in this blog, but if you don’t believe that statement, ask a recovered drug addict or a recovered alcoholic if they were trustworthy when they were “using”. You cannot trust a drug addict. I believe many of these bar owners who smoke, would rather smoke in their bars and make less money, than to abide by the law and make more money. It’s just the nature of an addict. The addiction becomes the focal point of the addicts’ life and everything evolves around it. Protecting the addiction and the means to feed the addiction is everything. Read the posts on here from some of the smokers and get educated.

Smoking will never be eliminated and I will always fight for a persons right to smoke or any other stupid thing they want to do. However, nothing that a person does, can be at the expense of another, AND they must pay for the damage they knowingly do to themselves. So please don’t tell your (our) insurance company you didn’t know smoking would hurt or kill you when you get the bill. More bad news, if you’re smoking with the hopes of leaving your family with a chance to sue the tobacco companies for millions due to your early death and years of suffering, not gonna work. Those days are over. There are other reasons you will be able to sue these ruthless bastards for, but you can’t say you didn’t know the repercussions of burning rolled up weeds, laced with cancer-causing chemicals, and inhaling the smoke deep into your lungs.

As a matter of fact, I think we should lobby the tobacco companies to increase the number of chemicals in cigarettes from 4000 to 8000 and to increase the number of cancer-causing carcinogens from 50 to 100. If you don’t like that idea, how about if we lobby to eliminate all the cancer-causing carcinogens in cigarettes and you can smoke them wherever you want? Don’t tell me you don’t like that idea either because it’s taking away your rights to let Big Tobacco slowly kill you. Get it together man! Please don’t let Big Tobacco determine your fate. Take control of your life and what goes in your body. Don’t hate non-smokers because they do. Feeling animosity towards non-smokers will only prevent many smokers from becoming one. This is part of the ingenious tactics of the tobacco industry by funding organizations that empower smokers to fight for what they believe are their “rights” and fuel the fire of pitting smokers against non-smokers. This is what keeps many smokers a loyal customer for life. The only difference between a smoker and a non-smoker is that one is addicted to nicotine. The only thing that smoking laws prevent is the ability for some smokers to hurt innocent people.

Smoking bans have a tremendous impact on reducing the percentage of smokers because it isn’t long before many smokers start to see the whole illusion of smoking from a very different perspective. Standing in the back alley and smoking is not much different than what most all other drug addicts have to do. Do you really think you’d be so proud of being a nicotine addict if it wasn’t for the billions of dollars spent by the industry trying to glamorize it? It actually went from being perceived as glamorous to the reality of being pathetic in about 25 to 30 years.

Feel free to visit my web site drgood.com. I will give $500 to anyone who can convince me smoking isn’t stupid. Please take a few minutes if you would to do a survey on smoking at surveysue.com.

Love, Dr. Good