A Rant In Favor of No-Smoking Laws
In a few days, New York State will put into effect strong anti-smoking laws which will prohibit smoking almost everywhere indoors, including workplaces, bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, etc. And there has been a lot of consternation over this. I can sympathize with the smokers, they see something they enjoy being taken away from them by politicians. I wouldn’t like that either. A lot of arguments have been put forth as to why this is a bad law. I’d like to rebut several of those arguments

Argument 1 — Our rights are being taken away! Americans guard their rights very carefully. We believe that they cannot (or should not) be taken away. Our rights are defined in the Bill of Rights and in the United States Constitution. Smoking isn’t in there. Smoking in these places isn’t a “right�, it’s something that our laws have allowed. And because the laws have allowed smoking in these places, the laws can also be changed to prohibit smoking in these places. That’s essentially what most other laws have done, they take something that used to be allowed under the law, and they prohibit it. Nothing wrong or sinister about it.

Argument 2 — Non-smokers have more rights than smokers. First, as I have explained, smoking is not a “right�. But more importantly, why should a law favor one group of citizens (non-smokers) over another group of citizens (smokers)? One reason is that this is a democracy, majority rules, and if the non-smokers represent more voters than the smokers, then the non-smokers most likely win in a democracy. More importantly however, is my feeling that the laws should allow you to do anything as long as it doesn't harm another person. That's why libel is not permitted. That's why theft is not permitted. And now with smoking, where we have developed a large body of scientific evidence that smoking harms non-smokers who are in the vicinity, my opinion says that a good law will not allow smoke to harm others.

Argument 3 — If you don’t like the smoke, stay home! I can’t stay home from work. I like to go out in public and enjoy the same fun things that you smokers do, and I’d prefer not to breathe your smoke. But, once the new law passes, if you don’t like going to places where smoking is prohibited, you can stay home.

Argument 4 — Bars and restaurants will lose business, and people will lose their jobs. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports on a restaurant/bar known as The Distillery which implemented a no-smoking policy months before the New York State law took effect. And what happened? Business went up! People who used to stay home because they did not like to go out to smokey places, are now going out to The Distillery. It seems that the possibility is a real one that smokers who decides not to go out will be replaced by non-smokers who now are going out again. The same article also discusses the experience in California, which enacted no-smoking laws in 1998 and the dire predictions of doom and gloom didn’t happen, in fact business seems to have gone up in restaurants and bars.