I agree that "the devil is in the details" of any "smoking club" arrangements, or of any limited licensing of establishments as "smoking" establishments.
For example, would the city create codes to require specific HVAC performance with regard to eliminating second-hand smoke exposure? The "ban" is not quite "prohibition" and we need to be very careful about those terms. Prohibition would make the manufacture, sales, possession, or use of smokes, if I understand correctly. The Star Trib had a good editorial on the topic on Sunday: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4777251.html Two themes from the editoriual seemed strong to me. first. is the idea that the only difference between second-hand smoke and other workplace (or public establishment?) pollutants is that a whole lot of us are addicted to smoking, while not to inhaling, say, asbestos, paints, or varnish fumes. The hue and cry comes from the fear of those who are addicted and/or those who make a living in great part by making their establishments hospitable to a particular polluting addiction -- and this is understandable. Even so, it is at best uninformed or flawed thinking to call a ban "government intrusion" when we expect governmnet to protect us from bad food-handling practices or a variety of workplace hazards. More to Jason's point: the smoking ban might be ameliorated if "smoking clubs" or "smoking permits" were issued, but the city would need to make sure that such devices were truly limited, and also included specific requirements to deal with second hand smoke. A ban seems like a better, cleaner policy to me. Any steps toward addressing this difficult, dear little form of violence would be positive. Of course, I hope we can address other addictive forms of violence we all hold so dear as well. Infoor air quality is important, but we are very hypocritical indeed if we address the very real and significant molehill and ignore the also very real mountain of outdoor pollution due to fossil-fuel addiction. We got into these messes larley by naive and ignorant accident. We can only get out of them with wise, informed intention. I guess that is often how addiction works. -- pedaling my way out of some of my addictions.... Gary Hoover -- Kingfield REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
