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If this was really a health issue, couldn't we just ban alcohol.
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It's more than a health issue. It's a health issue in which unwilling people have their health compromised, due to behavior that can easily be stopped without any hardship whatsoever. I'm less concerned about banning a behavior that harms others needlessly than banning a behavior that harms only the user in privacy.
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It is poison. Also, I would argue that the costs of alcohol far outweigh second-hand smoke.
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Drinkers don't force other people to drink, by virtue of being in public.
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I just don't see how this is a societal health issue if alcohol is not.
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They both are. But people are obviously more open to a public smoking ban than an alcohol ban because because public smoking directly infringes on the rights of bystanders, whereas public drinking does not. That should be easy to see.
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The Atlanta Journal and Constitution is hardly Peer-Reviewed.
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Nor did I say it was. However it referenced several peer reviewed studies that demonstrated economic benefits of the public smoking ban. Did you read it?
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I might be able to find a study that shows a few hours a week in a bar drinking alcohol leads to astronomical government/societal costs when compared to second-hand smoke ($185 billion!).
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Of course. But we as a society tend to allow people to harm themselves in costly ways. However we generally don't take kindly to people harming innocent bystanders in costly ways.
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If smoking doesn't hurt sales, explain this (pay careful attention to where it says "Closed."
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That's hardly a peer-reviewed article. Nor is it remotely unbiased, having been published by smokersinc., a smoker's rights organization.
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The article you posted seems to focus on restaurants, rather than bars.
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So you don't dispute its conclusions about the economic effects of a ban in restaurants?
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Also, the part about 76% of business owners saying the lost business... can we really just toss that out because it was just an opinion poll?
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Sure we can, if it conflicts with undisputed peer-reviewed studies.
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Not that any of this really matters to me. As I said before, for me it is a freedom issue.
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Freedom for whom? Smokers or non-smokers?