Re: [Mpls] If you ban smoking, limit ethanol

[Clark C. Griffith]

I have been thinking about this smoking ban for a couple of days and 
have concluded that it is simply dumb for a city like Minneapolis to ban 
smoking.  Minneapolis is so small that smokers only have to go about a 
mile in any direction and they are free of the ban. Of course, St. Paul 
may ban smoking, but that only makes it slightly more complicated.   
Also, Minneapolis has spent  tens of millions of dollars on a convention 
center and losing a few conventions a year is no longer a concern for 
our city council anymore.   Conventions have to go to New York, but they 
don't have to come here. So it's a good idea to offer as friendly a city 
as possible; banning smoking ( as it will be known) is just not a 
friendly act and smokers will just go away.   Anyway, the problem is 
faulty ventilation.  If the bar vents air out at the ceiling, the 
problem ends.

The reason given for this proposed ban is that it is claimed that all 
these people, like waiters and bartenders,  get lung cancer from second 
hand smoke. Well , I've read some of the studies and it seems that the 
some of the experts sort of think it may happen, and some suggest 
suggest that it could happen, but that such incidents, if they are 
really due to second hand smoke, are very rare, if they exist at all.

However, if health is really the issue here, I propose that the City 
Council pass limits on alcohol consumption. It would work like this:  A 
patron would be asked to take a breath test to establish sobriety and 
then would be allowed to drink one ounce of liquor, or three ounces of 
wine, or 10 ounces of beer for every hour in the bar.  Just think, the 
Minneapolis City Council can save the lives of those who would have died 
while drinking or the lives of those who will be killed due to other 
person's drinking.  Surely, the numbers of lives saved here is several 
thousand times higher than the deaths from second hand smoke, if there 
are any. Remember, also, that the smoking ban will hurt the city in the 
long term.  By banning smoking and limiting drinking we will have the 
perfectly safe city.

I'm not worried about second hand smoke: I worry about drunk drivers on 
behalf of my wife, children, and all of you.   Let our City Council get 
it right. Limit drinking to one ounce of ethanol per hour.    The only 
reason they are thinking of banning smoking is because they can. It's a 
power thing.  And these are the people who built a garbage burner in 
downtown.  Clark Griffith, Lowry Hill, Minneapolis.

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