It could be easily argued that when it comes to statewide smoking bans, typical 18- to 22-year-old college students are the ones most affected. Smoking is a habit often picked up during a person’s college years. And while Lawrence’s smoking ban has already been law for half a decade, I do not think a statewide smoking ban is what the state of Kansas needs right now.
The economic effects of a statewide smoking ban are obvious. Bars and taverns lose the business of smokers, which, in some cases, is enough to close down the establishment. According to the Department of Labor, the unemployment rate in Kansas for March 2009 was 6.5 percent, the highest in 26 years. Every business in Kansas needs customers more than ever now. A statewide smoking ban would only further handcuff bars and taverns across the state in their fight to stay above water during this recession.
More important than the economic effects are the health effects. The effects that smoking has on a smoker are proven. The effects of secondhand smoke, however, are extremely debatable. According to the Health News Digest, “The results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco-related mortality, although they do not rule out a small effect. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed.”
One last defense against a smoking ban deals with a core American value: freedom. If a bar owner wants to cater to smokers in his or her privately owned establishment, what gives a state government the right to deny that bar owner? Smoking is legal. The government cannot force a bar to sell only American beer. The fact that the government can force bars and taverns to be non-smoking is just as easily out of line.
On a personal note, I am a social smoker. On average, I smoke probably twice a month, I won’t ever be picking up the habit of being a regular smoker. My solution is simple. If a bar owner chooses to accommodate smokers, that’s his or her right. If a bar owner chooses to keep his establishment a nonsmoking place, that is equally his or her right.
A few months ago, I saw an anti-smoking poster on campus. One of the ways it stated to avoid picking up the habit was to not associate with smokers. This disgusted me. It gave the impression that smokers are less than human and need to be completely isolated from non-smokers. Smoking bans have already hit my home state and my college town. I can only hope for significant resistance in the 29 states, Kansas included for now, that they haven’t reached.
— Michael Spatz is a junior from Ellicott City, Md.
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