 Views from a Smoke-Filled Room
by Rich Perelman
Editor-in-Chief
Los Angeles, September 2 – An open letter to the governor of California:
Dear Arnold:
Having frequented your Santa Monica restaurant “Schatzi” too many times prior to your election to be more formal, I hope you enjoyed your prominent role at the Republican National Convention.
When you return home, I hope you will begin the process of redressing the humiliation being perpetrated on hundreds of thousands of Californians statewide who, like you and I, are smokers.
Now outcast as the lepers of the 21st Century, those who enjoy a completely legal product – tobacco – in the form of cigarettes, cigars or pipes, are cursed or worse and pushed outdoors where some localities are also trying to ban smoking under various guises of health, examples to children or litter.
History teaches us that this is not a new phenomenon. It also shows us the answer.
Tobacco has ebbed and flowed in popularity since its introduction of Western society upon Columbus’ return from his first voyage in 1492. It will continue to do so despite the tens of millions of dollars spent on anti-smoking programs and a potential upcoming de facto prohibition of tobacco products by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that will make the gangland warfare of the “dry” 1920s seem like a picnic.
But from that lawless era come the lessons which can meet the needs of those who wish to smoke . . . and those who responsibly recognize that tobacco cannot be successfully suppressed, but whose public profile can perhaps be lowered.
A modern form of the Speakeasy.
Although designed to skirt the law against the serving of alcoholic beverages in the 1920s, the Speakeasy gathered those who wished to drink in places which were away from the public eye. A controlled version of this kind of establishment – similar in style to California’s modern bar regulations – would allow those who wish to smoke to do so and not bother those who don’t.
Entry into such locations, as with bars, would be restricted to those of legal age to consume tobacco products. A permit would be required to open such a location, as with any business, to ensure accountability by the operator. If on street level, windows would be required to be darkened or opaqued during open hours. Food and drink can be served (subject to all other applicable laws for such service in the state) and signs with large type on the entrance would note that those who enter will be exposed to tobacco smoke and are assuming the risk of such exposure. Don’t forget to require the skull and crossbones, or a suitable tombstone logo at the top of the sign. All employees of such locations will be required to acknowledge in writing that they are choosing to work in such an environment; shouldn’t they be free to choose as well?
The number of such locations will be well controlled by the free market. As a considerable majority of Californians do not smoke, the number of bars, lounges and restaurants which will cater to the smoking market will be fairly small. Consider as proof the small number of full-service tobacco shops which are left in the state.
But these new smoking-allowed locations will be important to restore the dignity of those who choose to smoke and to reduce the confrontations between smokers and an increasingly intolerant segment of the non-smoking public.
The ballot initiative (AB-13) which established California’s anti-smoking law in 1994 as part of California Labor Code sec. 6464.5 clearly contemplated that smoking would be allowed in bars and taverns at such time as a regulation was adopted to specify permissible levels of exposure to tobacco smoke by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ten years have passed and no such regulation is on the books, or is even proposed.
Let freedom ring!
If our California and Federal constitutional promises of freedom for the purposes of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” have any tie to the times when those words were written, then men and women of majority age should be able to consume legal products in appropriate locations open to the adult public. Our founders would be well frightened by our over-regulated society which places roadblocks, if not stone walls, before individuals and businesses, instead of offering people opportunities which accommodate everyone, not just those who claim to know how all others should live.
On behalf of the most tortured of all segments of the smoking public – cigar smokers – I am asking you to help amend the state Labor Code in 2005 to allow smoking on licensed premises. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.
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