Well this is some news in the right direction. A recent poll shows that a majority of Ohio Residents want to allow smoking in bars again, but want to keep restaurants smoke free.

Ohio poll: Rethink smoking ban | cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.Com.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• Ohio Looks to Relax Smoking Ban
• Ohio Smoking Ban T-Shirt
• Kentucky Bars enjoy boom from Ohio Smoking Ban
• Kenton County Smoking Ban Appeal?
• Judge says no to injunction of Ohio Smoking Ban

Got an email from the IPCPR talking about a poll on Parade Magazine’s website asking for your opinion on outdoor smoking bans. Vote in it and tell them what you think.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• Smoking Ban Updates
• Smoking Bans and Employment
• Smoking Ban Updates
• Smoking Ban News
• Thoughts on Travelling

I didn’t grab a picture on the way out, but it was very early morning and I wasn’t thinking. But anyway Iowa now has to rank up there with the stupidest smoking bans.

Here’s the deal:
I prefer to drive at night when traveling any long distance with the kids. So about 3 AM I pull into a Rest Area in Iowa. Trying to stay awake I figure some cool air and a quick cigar will help. So I start reading the sign I parked in front of. “No Smoking in Rest Area except in enclosed Vehicles.”

What the hell? I can understand not smoking in the facility. But outdoors? This is bullshit….

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• The Best And The Worst
• Second Take: Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur Legend
• Friday Challenge: Size Does Matter
• Win a box of Olor del Cibao Cigars. Contest Closed
• Vermouth: Your thoughts? and My Martini

I’m running another busy week here, but will have a couple of great reviews next week. One of the sites I follow a bit takes to task a recent research report done on smoking bans and the impact on employment. Head over to Jacob’s site to read it.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• No Outdoor Smoking Bans
• Smoking Ban Updates
• Smoking Ban News
• Thoughts on Travelling
• What is Everyone Smoking? December 29th Edition

Just a quick update on the latest smoking bans out there. North Carolina and Wisconsin are both enacting smoking bans. There is some good news though, New Hampshire has eased up on their smoking ban and has allowed for cigar bars. Also, Hawaii screwed up their tobacco tax law which ends up suspending the tobacco tax for several months.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• Kenton County Smoking Ban Appeal?
• Smoking Ban Updates
• Ohio Residents Rethinking Smoking Ban
• Smoking Ban Updates
• Smoking Ban Updates

Photo by Joe Holmes.

I keep an eye open for any news regarding the Ohio Smoking Ban and the sad joke it has become. This poorly thought out ban makes even less sense now than it ever did.

The amount of money provided to the counties is not enough to enforce the ban as the Department of Health in most counties don’t have the man power of enforce it.

This Cincinnati.com article shows how well funded the smoking ban is to investigate over 37,000 complaints registered since May 3rd.

Fines do not cover enforcement costs, and the state only spends $625,000 on the program, which is distributed on a per-capita basis.
In total, Ohio has just two investigators who visit bars and clubs to enforce the ban — and 35 of 130 local health districts have turned over enforcement to state officials.

Obviously if they plan to succeed with the smoking ban they’ll need to better fund it. One slight problem, the economic downturn has hit Ohio very hard.

Six months after bipartisan hugs celebrated the nearly unanimous approval of a two-year budget for Ohio, that spending plan is coming unraveled.

The state faces a budget shortfall of between $733 million and $1.9 billion dollars by the middle of next year, the governor’s office said Wednesday.

While that $625,000 is a drop in the bucket to the estimated short fall, but I wonder if the state really wants to discourage tobacco use in these hard times. Ohio’s Cigarette Tax brought in $955.2 Million in 2007 and other tobacco products came in around $31 Million.

Bars are closing because of the ban and less people are smoking. I hope all of the non-smokers are prepared to pick up the additional tax burden. It is my choice to smoke, it is your choice to not go to a place the allows smoking. I’ll gladly pay my extra tax to do something I enjoy, but by preventing me from doing that you’ll be the one paying for it.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• No Outdoor Smoking Bans
• Smoking Bans and Employment
• Smoking Ban Updates
• Smoking Ban News
• Thoughts on Travelling

Cigar Aficionado is the most recognized cigar magazine on the newsstand. If you asked 20 people on the street to name a magazine about cigars, even if they have no clue about cigars they could name Cigar Aficionado.

It bothers me because the Cigar Aficionado “image” is the cigar smoker stereotype. The picture Cigar Aficionado paints is one of expensive watches, private jets, PGA golf courses, and exclusive clubs. Cigar sales wouldn’t be steadily rising over the past few years if these were the only people smoking cigars.

Average Joe (and Jane) is today’s cigar smoker. It is a relatively cheap luxury/hobby. (As long as you don’t hand over your credit card to those Auction sites). It is a way to relax alone or to socialize. We like finding the cigar that is our best bang for the buck. We gather in backyards or local bars, instead of yacht clubs. Our cars are used, and McDonald’s is about as exclusive dining experience we get especially if you can get the kid’s into the play area so you can have 15 minutes of peace with your spouse before all hell breaks loose.

Alight I’m done rambling, I’d love to hear your thoughts and about who is today’s cigar smoker.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• Today’s Smoke Break: J. Fuego Origen
• Aurora 100 Anos Final Shipment.
• Father H Protests Smoking Ban with a Smoke In
• Fire Destroys Two Arturo Fuente Tobacco Warehouses | News & Features | Cigar Aficionado
• Just a Cigar Smoker

I’m not going to give away the details it takes the smoking ban to the next step.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• Cigar Review: Outlaw Padilla Miami 8&11
• Colorado Goes After Cigar Bars
• Cigar Reviews

There are some people in Ohio’s State Government that are restoring my faith in politics. One is Senator Seitz who co-sponsored SB-346. This is his letter to Smoke Free Ohio, pointing out the deceptive language used in the ballot and their total disregard for anyone’s rights.

July 15, 2008

Angie T. Huber
Vice President of Government Relations
Smoke Free Ohio
5555 Frantz Road
Dublin, Ohio 43017

Dear Ms. Huber:

Your July 3 letter opposing Senator Schuler’s SB 346 typifies the casual disregard for the truth that we have come to expect from the “Smoke Free Ohio” crowd.

You claim that the initiated statute “treats all businesses with employees the same” and “protects all workers and customers from exposure to second hand smoke”, and that the campaign unswervingly advertised that “fact”. Nothing could be further from the truth. What about hotel workers? 3794.03 (B) of the Act exempts up to 20% of the rooms in any hotel. What about nursing home workers? 3794.03 (D) of the Act allows indoor smoking rooms in nursing homes. What about tobacco retailer workers? 3794.09 (E) of the Act exempts such facilities. This isn’t an argument; it’s plain fact, and you, who wrote the law, should know better than to mislead the General Assembly as you have plainly misled the voters.

Because the misleading just goes on and on. The ballot language (copy attached ) plainly told voters that family-owned businesses and private clubs would be exempt. It did not say, “but only if they have no employees” nor did it include the other limiters that are in the law that you wrote to make these exemptions wholly illusory. To claim, as you now do, that your campaign, “requested as much detail as possible be included” in the ballot language is sheer sophistry. I would like to see where you proposed including in the ballot language the language that in fact limits the scope of the family business and private club exemptions. If you cannot produce that document, I hope you will have the decency to quit claiming that you wanted all the details to be included.

You next claim that 28 states have passed comprehensive smoke free laws (including Ohio). Why don’t you have the intellectual honesty to tell us which ones – so we can then prove that the vast majority of them contain the very kind of real exemptions that Senator Schuler has proposed in SB 346, and why don’t you also concede that no state bordering Ohio has a smoking ban nearly as draconian as Ohio’s? After all, it is these states that we compete against for hospitality business.

Finally, you rely on your own polling. I rather suspect it is as faulty as your purported factual representations, but I, for one, have never assessed proper public policy by a fleeting poll. I would hope my colleagues in the General Assembly feel the same way. My support for SB 346 is instead based on grim and real facts about the devastation that your zealotry had inflicted on the Ohio hospitality industry and the private clubs that have long supported local charities and constituted a vital part of the social fabric of our neighborhoods. I am talking about real businesses and real people who have suffered real losses that show up in the bottom line of Ohio’s grim economy. Like any other statute, an initiated statute is subject to revision by the Ohio General Assembly. We would be remiss in our duty if we fail to revise this one.

Very truly yours,

William J. Seitz

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• Ohio Smoking Ban Exemption in the Works.
• Ohio Residents Rethinking Smoking Ban
• Ohio Cigar Bar Exemption News
• Ohio Smoking Ban T-Shirt
• Ohio Looks to Relax Smoking Ban

I’ve actually been impressed with some members of the Ohio House and Senate. They seem to understand the damage the smoking ban has on businesses and the erosion it has on our personal rights. Another bill has been introduced that will relax some of the restrictions of the Ohio Smoking Ban.

Sponsored By: Cigarmony.com Get 5% Off Your Order By Using The Promo Code “CJ2010″

Related Posts

• Ohio Smoking Ban T-Shirt
• Ohio Residents Rethinking Smoking Ban
• Kentucky Bars enjoy boom from Ohio Smoking Ban
• Kenton County Smoking Ban Appeal?
• Judge says no to injunction of Ohio Smoking Ban