North Dakota Legislature Votes Down Smoking Ban In Bars, Hotels
I meant to post on this yesterday but never got around to it.
North Dakotans will still be able to smoke in bars. The North Dakota House has defeated a proposal to ban smoking in bars and hotels. . . .
Representatives voted 59-33 to reject the smoking ban in bars.
Most of the Representatives who voted against this bill did so on the basis of property rights for the hotel and bar owners. And good for them. But I did want to note some of the arguments from proponents of the ban:
Rep. Joyce Kingsbury: “I think ND is ready for smoke free policy in bars and I think we respect our workers and realize importance of healthy workplace.”
Rep. Lee Kaldor: “Going into a public place we have a right as citizens to breathe clean air.”
Rep. Metcalf: “None of these bars have came and offered me $120,000 to pay my medical bill for surgery from breathing second hand smoke.”
It’s a little sad to see these representatives have so little respect for personal responsibility.
If a worker doesn’t want to risk his/her health by working in a smoky bar or hotel, then why can’t they choose to work somewhere else? Nobody is forcing them to take a job in a bar or in a hotel. And for citizens having a “right” to “breathe clean air” in a public space, I’d note that hotels and bars are not public spaces. They are private establishments that are open to the public. That’s an important distinction. The public does not own these establishments, and thus the public has no right to dictate smoking policy in them. Property owners do, in fact, have a right to allow smoking if they want to. The public does not have a right to choose to enter a bar or hotel and then demand that everyone else there stop smoking.
If we were to consider a law requiring restaurants and bars and hotels to post their smoking policies on the outside so that people would know before entering whether or not they’d be in a smoking environment I’d be fine with that. But banning smoking to please the whims of a noisy minority is absurd.
As for bars being responsible for the medical care for people exposed to second hand smoke, why should anyone else be responsible for your choice to be around smokers?
The tobacco prohibitionists like to play victim. They like to pretend as though their health is being infringed upon by irresponsible tobacco users. But the truth is that smokers, and the owners of private establishments where smoking is allowed, just want to be left alone. It’s the prohibitionists who are doing the infringing and expecting everyone else to be responsible for their choices.
