Smoke free bars....

Recently, while spending time out in Washington, I found out that the state had a state wide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. Now, at first, being a non smoker, I found this really cool. I could now walk into a bar and take a deep breath of the semi fresher air. However, I soon came to this conclusion. It should be the bar owners personal preference on whether or not the bar was smoke free or not. In America we enjoy many freedoms and we would like to believe that you can run your business however you want. To elaborate, if I were to open a bar, I would do so with the intent to make money. If I though more people would come to my bar if it were smoke free then, it would be smoke free. However, if I thought that it was in my best interest to allow smoking in my facility then I believe that I should be allowed to do that as well.

The argument that people used was that they could not go to their favorite bar, because of the second hand smoke was bad for them. In all reality, every good thing has a down side. I would love to eat greasy fried food all day and not get unhealthy. So you take the good with the bad guess, or you lobby the owner to change the rules.

Another argument that they used was the fact that it was un-healthy for the workers. Once again, no one is forcing those people to stay in that line of work. I know that McDonald or Taco Bell does not allow smoking on their facilities. In fact there are many restaurants or bars that don't allow smoking, if you don't like the job find another. If you really want the extra money so bad, then take the good with the bad.

The bottom line is that people should lobby the government to settle these things. As an advocate for small government we don't need them to tell us proper etiquette in a bar, the owner should set the rules and the bouncer or police enforce them. If the owner wants to have a smoking bar or restaurant then thats up to him.