The Negative Effects Of Banning Public Smoking Starting To Show

Posted on January 15, 2007 — The Monkey
Filed Under Freedom, Smoking |

Baning something almost always ends up causing more harm than the good that was intended. This was true for alcohol prohibition and is true for drug prohibition. It now seems like it may be true for public smoking bans.

This interesting article from Australia, while hardly conclusive by any stretch of the imagination shows some interesting negative side effects from the ban on smoking in public areas such as bars.

Tasmania, the first state to place a blanket ban on smoking in bars 12 months ago, has experienced a rise in illegal pubs, a situation hoteliers say is likely to spread.

…

“We’ve been snowed under with reports,'’ Mr Hanna said.

“Some of these premises are operating everyday with a large number of people drinking for a large number of hours.”

“There is no responsible serving of alcohol, no supervision of minors, these places are not licensed and they are not regulated.”

“The situation is setting the scene for irresponsible drinking, drink-driving and the sale of alcohol to minors.'’

He said smoke-free legislation introduced into Tasmania in January 2006 was one explanation for the spate of backyard establishments.

These statements were made by the Australia Hotels Association, Tasmanian Manager and he obviously has some bias towards the matter, but for good reason! As I stated in an earlier article, it should be up to the pub/club owners to decide the smoking rules for THEIR premises based on what their patrons want. They are the ones loosing the most from the smoking bans.






Comments

Leave a Comment

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Comments

Recently


Categories