Tobacco Documents Online

Proposals Highlight Anti-Smokers' Wacky Ideas Other inter ting initiatives include one by Honolulu City Councilman St ve Holmes to ban smoking in all workplaces, includi g restaurants, bars and nightclubs, ballgame? A~f izona, orld. For example, local lawmakers in have proposed banning smoking in places where peo le g~t~er, which would presumably include restaurant , bars, parks, dinner parties.... A proposal of this broad magnitude would open the door to all sorts of interpretat on. Could a family gathered around the table at dinnertime b construed as "gathering"? Or how about a group of friends gat ered in someone's family room tn watch a \/ despite Hawaii's hea y reliance on tourism. Apparently, jobs are not terribly impo ant to Mr. Holmes, but Mayor Jeremy Harris takes a differen view. He has promised to veto the city council's proposed r staurant smoking ban. Last fall, Alfred Mul er, the mayor of Friendship Heights, Maryland, proposed anning smoking outdoors. He was willing to permit smoking in ivate cars, but wanted to Some impose a$100 fine on anyone ge cigarette. The town has only one The village council approved t car with a lit e ban 7-0, but later decided not to-submit the ordinance f4r anti-smokers will stop at nothing in their quest smbke-free' ~ .- approval by the

,DISCUSSION DRAFT/February 27, 1997 page 2 Motorola, the electronics manufacturer, nearly outdid Friendship Heigkits last year by banning smoking on company ~ property at two lants. The ban was even supposed to include vehicles on compa~y property. Employees were told that if they insisted on s~noking in their cars in the parking lot, they could be fire The policy mad the national news and outraged people across the county. I even attracted the attention of the American Civil Libertie Union, which called the policy "morally tainted." Afte a couple of months, Motorola backed down. Common sense often prev ils when nutty rules are proposed, but we can't always ount on the ACLU or anyone else to fight for us. To prote our right to make our own decisions about whether or not to smoke, we Americans have to pay close attention to what our loc 1, state and federal governments are up to. And we have t stand up for ourselves. If we wait fo.r someone else to stand up for our rights, we start losing them. # # #