Reply #25: Tomorrow is the last day of smoking anywhere in Ohio, but

[mtnester]

the enforceability of the law begins June 2007. There is a large bureaucracy that has to be created for enforcement, and it will not be up and running until then.

This law also applies to home based businesses. If you have employees (like yourself or your spouse, as long as they are paid and classified as employees) and even if they are not on the premises, during business hours you may not smoke in "the facility" (house), in an area where smoke could infiltrate into the facility (back covered porch) or in any auxiliary buildings where said employees COULD enter (pole barn garage, detached).

That said, and clarified by paid lawyer, I can, according to Ohio law, no longer smoke on my back porch or inside my garage (which is the ONLY place I smoke...outdoors WELL away from ANYONE or in the garage when it is blistering cold... no restaurants, and we do not patronize bars more than a couple times a year and it is for a drink and then gone), during "business hours" (which for a small business owner who provides a service based product like ourselves, is many times 0700 - 2000 or even 2100 hours), regardless of whether the "employee" (spouse) is on the premises or not. SO, when I get home from my full time job, no outdoor smoking for me, according to Ohio law.

Will they come after small home based businesses like ours? If they get "the list" of businesses from the SOS office, sure, they could....and will. The bureaucracy that was required by this law and voted in as PART of this law, is a behemoth, and will require SCADS of money/revenue to simply maintain itself. The only way it can survive, and it is REQUIRED by law to survive, it to dole out fines. And at $250.00 - $2500.00 per fine, they will have to issue TONS of violations. In order to issue TONS of violations, they will have to employ TONS of people statewide. In order to employ TONS of people, they will have to issue even MORE fines...to do this will require tons MORE people...endless circle endless circle endless circle.


If they show up at our door, will I let them on my property? No. Get a warrant to search for an ashtray out on the back porch. Do I have a problem with enforcement in places such as home based day car? No, you should not be smoking around other people's kids (or your own for that matter) anyway...go get them. Private business? I think it ought to be voluntary, and many places have done so....exceptions of home based day care..that is simply common sense.

Bars? Again, I think it should be voluntary. If you want to have a non-smoking bar, great! Advertise and draw a huge crowd. If you have a small Mom & Pop bar, and every one of your customers smokes, as do your employees, you should be able to maintain the status quo...non-smokers are not going there ANYWAY.

Were there a RASH of "private club with liquor license" applications applied for BEFORE election day. Yes. If you apply for one now, you are subject to the smoking regs...if you did so BEFORE, you are not.

If your primary sales are 80% or above of smoking material, you are also exempt from the new smoking laws.

On this the first full day 13 years ago that we were without Zappa, I find that I am extremely bothered by big brother's intrusion even more these days. I do not ever want to trounce on any non-smokers right not to breathe my bad and dangerous habit, however, I should have SOME safe haven somewhere, where it is warm and dry and not so far out in the parking lot that I might get mugged, as long as cigarettes are legal. Whenever they are not (which will be NEVER in my lifetime anyway, however long or short that may be unless campaign finance laws are dramatically changed), then the point is moot, and they can divert their funds to fighting the mob crime that will develop with the cigarette black market.

Do I want to ruin your meal? No. Do I want to go to someplace where EVERYONE is smoking and have a drink and a snack? Yes. Do non-smokers, if 90% of the bars and restaurants are smoke free, HAVE to patronize a place that has a big sign out front that says "This is a SMOKING establishment, enter at your own risk." No, you don't. Go next door to the 90% that that say "this is a SMOKE FREE environment." This is NOT meant to piss off non-smokers...us smokers, rightfully, have been pushed nearly underground now. We went there willingly because we know it sucks to have this habit...the majority of us are VERY careful to not infringe on anyone else's lungs..we already hide behind walls, behind trees, and go to great extremes to be careful not to inflict.

Sigh...I understand that 50% of my post will not be read at all, and I will immediately be called some ugly name because I smoke...some will only see what they want to see. I hope I made myself easily understood...perhaps I did a good job, but maybe not.

Once day I will quit, I hope. I am down to about 8-10 a day. For those of you that have quit, they are the hard ones. You know which ones they are.

Thank you for letting me try to state my thoughts on this. I sure wish the careful smokers could have been involved in writing this law...we would have done a good job for the non-smokers, and left the smokers a little bit that would not be a compromise to those who do not smoke.