This is the same thing that happened in Oregon 1/1/2009. A new statewide law (ban, really) went into effect:
- No smoking withing 10 feet of any door or window of a public establishment. If someone smokes within 10 feet of a business, and someone else complains, the business owner is fined. Ridiculous! Why should a business owner be required to police the public property outside their doors??
- No smoking anything other than cigars at existing cigar bars
- No new cigar bars - Only cigar bars with established cigar-related revenues in 2006 can be cigar bars after 1/1/2009 -- lots of places closed due to this
- Only 40 people allowed in a cigar bar (regardless of actual capacity). This caused several cigar bars to stop allowing cigars due to the loss of revenue
- Ad infinitum
One of the major justifications for this is "employee safety" -- employees required to work in an unsafe (second-hand-smoke environment). If you don't like working in a smoky room, get a job elsewhere...
The Oregon Bar Owners association has complained to the legislature because their business is off 29%. The Oregon Lottery revenue from Video Poker is down 20%. Several of the B&M cigar stores are no longer able to allow smoking so their revenue is off... (have to be a free-standing building, ventilation requirements, etc. that most B&Ms cannot meet -- particularly the free-standing building requirement).
What ever happened to people voting with their feet/dollars? If you don't like a restaurant or business due to smoking or non-smoking requirements, you take your business elsewhere.
I used to have a choice of at least a dozen cigar-friendly places to eat or drink within a reasonable drive. Now I have two in the winter and a third in the summer.
Like many others, I went out and got propane heaters for my deck, so as long as it is not too windy or wet, I can smoke out there. If it is windy or wet I can smoke in the garage, but I have to be careful about smoke getting into the house from the furnace intake...