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| SMOKERS AND ANTIS FACE OFF IN DALLAS |
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Page 1 of 2  Plus: Second-largest U.S. tobacco trade show soldLos Angeles, August 7 – “We’re going to meet this head on. What’s happening here, this is socialism. This is communism.” That’s John Barton, manager of the Up in Smoke tobacco shop in Dallas at a rally against a soon-to-be-proposed extension of the city’s smoking ban to bars and potentially city parks, smokeshops, private clubs or other facilities. Dallas-area retailers who might be affected are gathering strength and the Dallas Morning News reported on their meeting at the Havana Social Club on Tuesday. “It’s a small group of people trying to have their utopia at our expense,” said Barton. Smokeshop owners were joined by the Amusement & Music Operators of Texas, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and the Greater Dallas Bar & Tavern Coalition in opposing the prospective ordinance. Amusement & Music Operators spokeswoman Kathy Grant said the City Council should protect adult rights to smoke in “adult venues without children present. “The free market will generate nonsmoking bars if there’s a demand. It’s unfortunate that the government is trying to take away individual freedom. What are they going to do next? Ban alcohol?” There actually isn’t a proposal for a new ordinance to expand the city’s smoking ban past the current limit of restaurants and workplaces. But Mayor Tom Leppert, Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia and others are in favor of such an extension, based on the argument that people should not be exposed to secondhand smoke. According to the Morning News story, City Council member Pauline Medrano – head of the applicable committee – “says she plans to conduct [a hearing] before her committee in late August or early September.” Both sides showed they are ready for a fight: “At Tuesday’s event, the Amusement & Music Operators of Texas touted the results of a poll of 500 Dallas voters it commissioned that indicate 67 percent favored ‘allowing bar owners to set the smoking policy of their establishment, as long as they clearly posted it at the door.’ In June, Smoke-Free Dallas released a poll indicating 71 percent of responding Dallas voters favored expanding Dallas’ smoking laws to ‘all indoor workplaces, including bars.’ “Perhaps not surprisingly, each side on Tuesday questioned the legitimacy and methodology of the other’s survey.” Second-largest U.S. tobacco trade show changes hands, locations The nation’s no. 2 tobacco trade show has changed hands once again and will move from its Las Vegas home to New Orleans in 2009. |
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Did you know?
“Although introduced by Robert Levin of Holt's, Ashton cigars are named for British pipemaker William Ashton Taylor.
