Ahh... My husband and I recently went to Las Vegas for a series Chiropractic Seminars and we stayed at a Casino/Hotel...more specifically Circus and Circus and we had previously stayed at the Rio. Anyhow, those places are like cancer pits... all those people smoking and acting like smoking isn't proven to kill you and others inhaling your profusive smoke. Its just so disgusting watching someone smoke a cigarette and get smoke in their eyes and the smell after they smoke...ahhh..all over their hands and hair..yuck.

One cigarette now and then to celebrate something is fine with me but as a daily routine of someone's life is one of the stupidest things I can think of. Why would you pay some company to give you lung cancer or throat cancer or worse empasemia (spp?).

What kind of "advanced" society allows people to kill others slowly and have so much medical research to back up how bad smoking is for the smoker and the smokee. This law is a no brainer in my opinion.

Shouldn't your efforts be placed upon outlawing the sale of tobacco or specifically the sale of cigarettes or even just chemically altered tobacco? Instead the hypocrites are plenty willing to suck off the mega tax [Bleeeeep!] that smoking brings in. Outlaw the sale and your taxes will go through the roof. Continue to feed off the [Bleeeeep!] and you are condoning it. Yes it's unhealthy and very addictive. But it's still legal. Shouldn't be but it is. So, when laws such as this one are passed where does it end? A simple majority can now ban the use of any legal product from now on? Can we ban perfumes next? How much protection from yourselves do you need? You have a choice. Don't go to places that allow smoking. Nobody is forcing you.

uwfishgirl: you can smoke pretty much everywhere in Vegas. I'd suggest you stay out of that town. Speak with your wallet.

I quit smoking back in the 80s. What finally motivated me to quit was there was less and less places I could smoke. I got tired of being an outcast because of a stupid habit I picked up and that I wished I had never started in the first place. In fact I don't believe there is a smoker out there that deep in their heart whishes they had never developed the habit.

In a democratic society issues like this are always difficult and more complicated then they appear on the surface. But, on this issue if you cut down to the heart of it, the evidence is unrefutable; SMOKE KILLS. I can choose to avoid establishments that allow smoking, but the workers can't, the delivery people, and others who have to do business in the establishment can't. I would also bet that most of these places that allow smoking don't even provide their employees with health benefits or very little benefits.

I applaud Pierce County for taking this on. Politics is local. If the ban continues to stand other counties will do it and eventually the State will do it and maybe even someday the Federal Government that spends millions on anti tobacco promotions will quit subsidizing the tobacco industry.

Being a former smoker I can see where people who smoke feel it is a right, but one of the priorities of government is to provide for the safety and welfare of people. It is a fact in law that rights can be restricted in the interest of public safety, even the right to free speech is restricted in this way. You have to believe the earth is still flat to believe that smoke doesn't kill. Isn't that reason enough to restrict this freedom from public places?

But the employees interviewed on the news at Casinos, restaurants and bars don't want the ban. They say it will put them out of work. Shouldn't they have a choice now like they did when they applied for the job? It's one of those "we know what's best for you" laws.

Stlhead

I also saw reports where employees were happy about the ban. Just depends on who writes the article.

Yes I've seen that too but those people had a choice to work there or not knowing full well that smoking was something they'd be dealing with. Nobody is forcing them that I am aware of.
Anyway, my take on this is ban the sale of cigarettes. Stop companies, the federal government and states from profitting on death. All tax payers need to stop the hypocrosy and buck up the lost tax revenue. It'll be billions but people will have a healthier smoke free environment. But that's not the push. The push is that we want people to smoke and pay all of that tax revenue but just not around me or any where I might wish to go. And now we are going to tell all privately owned businesses that they can no longer allow a legal product that every one of us benefits financially from in their establishment if they choose to do so.
I sound like I have a stake in this or something but I don't. I don't need to smoke when I go out to a restaurant with my wife and we don't frequent casinos or bars. I just feel that there should be places, if there's a market for it, that people can legally hang out and smoke if they wish to since it's legal to smoke.