Does Indianapolis Need a Stronger Smoking Ban?
Now that Democrats are getting ready to assume control of the Indianapolis City-County Council one of their tops priorities will be a “stronger” smoking ban. Note the language; they say they want a “stronger” ban as opposed to a “total” or “comprehensive” ban. Part of the logic for this is that there is absolutely no support for a total smoking ban in Marion County and there is no way it could pass the Council.
But let’s take that out of the equation for a few minutes, I think the more important question is does Indianapolis need a “stronger” smoking ban? The original compromised that passed several years ago seems to work well. If you allow anyone under 18 in your establishment, then you can’t have smoking. Seems pretty simple. Of course at the time, the point of the smoking ban was to protect children. Over time that argument morphed to “protect workers”. So now that smoking ban advocates believe they have a more friendly council they want to bring the issue back up.
The best research that I’ve been able to gather is that about 25% of the places that serve alcohol in Indianapolis allow smoking. Which is interesting, because according the Center for Disease Control about 21% of the population in Indiana smokes. So there appears to be ample choice for consumers, workers and owners to avoid exposure to smoke.
But if smoking advocates are going to push forward, might I make a suggestion. Leave out cigar bars, private clubs, VFW halls and tobacco shops. Include bowling alleys that allow children. And pass a ban on all new establishments and grandfather in existing ones. So if an individual already has a liquor license they can stay smoking, however if they sell or transfer that license, the new place must go non-smoking. A rather reasonable compromise, don’t you think? With 75% of all bars and restaurants already non-smoking, over time you will only increase that percentage.
That may not be good enough for some people, but to be honest they would be luckily to get that. Especially after the mailer sent this election year sent out by the Tobacco Free Kids PAC attacking Mayor Greg Ballard, not only on his position on the smoking ban, but also education and crime. But zealots have never been reasonable. They will very likely hate my idea, which means it makes absolute perfect sense. I think I will go celebrate with a cigar.
