Could a Smoking Ban Be Coming to a _________ Near You?

This is a 'gray area' subject for me, I must warn you. After all, I consider myself an ex-smoker, yet I must confess that every once in a blue moon, I may sneak in a puff or two (especially if I'm enjoying a pretty good libation- and/or if I'm trying to get inside some woman's pants/skirt...anyway...).

The subject here is smoking bans, and about 2,200 jurisdictions in the US have bans on smoking in the workplace; in bars and bowling alleys. Some- such as the one in Washington State (just 10 miles up the road from where I'm at- in good ol' Moscow On the Willamette- Portland, Oregon) won't allow you to smoke within 25 feet of a building's entrance. Which means that the only place you can puff that Camel or Marlboro is in the middle of, say, C Street in the Vancouver city center. (Of course, there's this ban here in Multnomah County, Oregon- where Portland is located- this Ordinanace 937 that stopped this blog's author and (then) fellow smokers from smoking at that Wash World on Southeast belmosnt and 28th (it became law about 7 years ago...).

Now the anti-smoking nazis are at it again (I don't think that they stopped in the first place, to be honest). In my birth state of Ohio, there is this ballot measure, Issue 5 (what we call a 'measure' in Oregon, Ohio calls an 'issue', but both 'issue' and 'measure' are one in the same) called Smoke Free OhioThis measure, if passed, will ban smoking in workplaces, bars, race tracks (yes, Ohio has tons of them!); bingo parlors; even radio and TV stations (though I honestly don't know what banning smoking in media outlets has to do with the whole ball of wax here...). Go to the website http://www.smokefreeohio.org/oh/default.aspx for more information.

Then, there's the competing ballot measure, Issue 4, Smoke Less Ohio. It's pretty much the same, except with Issue 4, you can smoke in the bars, bingo halls. Otherwise, like Issue 5, it calls for a uniform smoking ban. There is a comparison chart between the two measures you can go to (at http://www.smokelessohio.com/SLO-SFO-comparison.pdf). Of course, the notable difference here is that RJ Reynolds and other tobacco companies are backing Issue 4.

Now, I may not puff up as much as I used to (in fact, these days, I've pretty much given up on the damn cancer sticks), but I still believe that if you want to smoke your lungs (and heart; and spleen) to oblivion (and risk erectile dysfunction and/or infertility, though admittedly, lots of guys smoked and still were able to keep it up- and put themselves into that skulldrugery that is FATHERHOOD!), more power to you, baby.

But I also have the right to walk away from that smoke. After all, I don't need the temptation to light up again.