Will the smoking ban hit only individual, small outlets such as bars and discos, or will it really affect the economy as a whole – for example keeping tourists away from Thailand?
Germany recently had its smoking ban overturned (in some cases)
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Excerpts of a recent story here:
KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – A German ban on smoking in indoor public places should be overturned for small bars, the country’s highest court ruled on Wednesday.
The Karlsruhe-based Federal Constitutional Court said smallbars were at an unfair disadvantage due to the ban, renderingit in breach of the constitution. The measures came into effectin most of Germany’s 16 states at the start of the year.
The ruling upheld a complaint lodged by the owners of twosmall bars in Berlin and a disco operator in the southwesternstate of Baden-Wuerttemberg, who argued the anti-smokinglegislation had put their business at risk.
Almost a third of the population smokes in Germany, wherelighting up became a badge of freedom and tolerance afterHitler’s Nazi regime cracked down on the habit in the 1930s.
An attempt by the federal government to introduce anationwide ban failed in 2006, and many bars and restaurants inBerlin flouted the ban when it came into force in January.
Hans-Juergen Papier, the court’s president, said the lawwould need to be redrawn by the end of 2009. Until then,smoking should be allowed in bars and restaurants of less than75 square metres that lack a separate smokers’ area, he said.
In the case of the disco, the court said the ban should berepealed for discos open only to adults.
As most of Germany’s states have similar smoking laws toBerlin and Baden-Wuerttemberg, the ruling is likely to set aprecedent for future complaints.
For the full story:
Germany’s highest court rules against smoking ban – 30/07/08 – elEconomista.es
August 25, 2008 at 1:01 pm
A smokeless environment
The right to a smokeless environment.
I believe that non-smokers, like anyone else, have this right. But how far
does that right extend? Should it take priority over someone
else’s rights? Airplanes, court houses, publicly owned
buildings and anywhere else an individual might be forced to
go should properly be included in any smoking law. What
should not be included are places located in or on private
property, providing an individual is not compelled by
necessity or law, to frequent or work at that specific location.
Thomas Laprade
Thunder Bay, Ont.
August 29, 2008 at 8:31 pm
How do we understand a society so determined to place oppressive restrictions on itself. Perhaps a second look at your sources of information driving your perspectives might help shed a little light on the situation. When you look at all the information and opinions available, it all boils down to one simple truth.
The Public Health movement represents a joining of theology with politics, promoted with highbrow propaganda. Because you can not legitimately describe “disease management” as Science, Research or Medicine. Although the protagonists will assure us they represent them all.
False and misleading advertising applies, in the use of the funds and resources of medical charities and Government expenditures, provided for something which can never describe the prescriptions of hatred and divisions provided, by demeaning judgments in place of medical treatments.
If there is a legitimate use of the term “pandemic” in describing a non contagious disease it has to be in reference to the Public Health Ministries who coined the term “Sin taxes” and have worked diligently to promote their legitimacy in planting the seeds of division and hatred in our once unified communities.
In 1945 when UNESCO set out to do battle with Nazi ideologies, they defined Racism as a comparison of one group of Human beings with another, in mean spirited demeaning and hateful ways. That same mindset resides today in the auspices of “Disease management” a political rendition of the same principles we understood then and only ignorance praises today, through the Cult of public health.
Contagion is evident in the minds of men, who prefer to react with anger in reaction to what is only self denial in balancing the lost integrity of their own character by the truth revealed. Once the learned among us step back and see “Health Intervention” for the ignorance it embraces, we can start out on the long road back to sanity and confidence in community, as our greatest hope in dealing with the problems of the future. Balancing the ethics and re-establishing some respect of moral or ethical boundaries, to solidify the integrity and trust in our processes of science and ingenuity. We don’t have to wait for another Holocaust to sober us up. We can simply look back and understand the mistakes of the past and recognize their origins.
Consider the source and follow the money. I am sure you can figure it out from there.