On Public Smoking Bans

Along the politics theme that I've been going on, another post. I've determined recently that I'm not as conservative as I thought I was during 2008. A couple things have helped me to realize this, but chief among them are certain laws that are enacted for public health reasons.

The first sign of this was when we went home to Michigan after Christmas. With one exception, most of the restaurants we went to had smoking sections. I don't smoke, and I cannot stand the smell of it. Living in Northern Virginia (coined "Communist Country" during the 2008 Campaign by Joe McCain), and working in suburban Maryland, I am very spoiled. The District of Columbia and the neighboring Maryland counties (MoCo and PG) have specific ordinances prohibiting smoking inside bars and restaurants. In Northern Virginia, the practice isn't specifically prohibited, but most restaurants do it on their own, or will have very small and very isolated smoking sections.

For health reasons, and my own enjoyment, I think this is a very good thing. Gov. Kaine of Virginia tried in 2007 and is rumored to be trying again in 2009, to pass a statewide smoking ban like those in DC and Suburban Maryland. It is not likely that this will pass the Republican-dominated General Assembly. That's ok, I guess. But what irks me, and why I'm inspired to post about this, is that there is a bill in the works that specifically prohibits localities from enacting their own laws for against public smoking. I'm not saying that we should actively support banning smoking laws everywhere, but the idea that Alexandria or Arlington or Fairfax should be prohibited from enacting public health laws on their own is preposterous!

Kal