Anti-Tobacco Legislations Extinguish Business
Published on January 26, 2010 7:14 AM
Smoking was banned in bars and restaurants in York County too. This was the main reason why a lot of bar owners and customers gather near York County Council who wanted nothing but the freedom to light a cigarette indoors. This meeting lasted around an hour.
For example Steve Lipe, one of the bar owners for 47 years said: "It's killed our business. But it's a private club. If you don't want to smoke, don't join the club."
Even a group of war veterans brought the same message to council. They became tired to go outside for to light a cig at Rock Hill's American Legion and VFW posts for an eight months. They also explained that today is easier to smoking a marijuana cigarette than a tobacco cigarette.
They declared that the public and business owners in the community should have the right to choose where they can smoke and where not.
Buddy Motz, one of seven county councilmen who approved the ban last year, said: "Mr. Lipe, is it your choice to speed 80 miles an hour on a 65-mile-an-hour road? There are a lot of limitations people have in society. And this is one of them."
Recently council members discussed at the conference if private bars that require memberships and have age restrictions should be exempt from the smoking ban.
Although the vote to ban indoor smoking was unanimous among council members, County Councilman Tom Smith requested to amend the ban and to permit smoking in bars that don't employ workers younger than 21 or permit any minors inside.
Smith explained that he is alarmed because he thinks that the new ban would hurt small bars, where most of the customers come after a hard working day to smoke and drink with there friends. But unfortunately he couldn't find any council assistance for the changes.
Smith declared: "I would like to see smoking go away absolutely. But that's not what we have. In general we don't have a perfect world."
Scientists said that not all bar owners protest the smoking ban, and even some bars in York County were smoke-free years before the ban went into effect. Amy Bovender, general manager at the Six Pence Pub in Fort Mill, all the time has run a smoke-free business and explained that smokers usually have no problem going out to lighting a cigarette.
