Michigan Smoking Laws

Sorry for the delay in posts lately. I guess things have just been busy at work and with life. At work we've been trying to get everything ready for the busy season, especially with the office being closed for two weeks between now and the first of the year. The rest of life has been busy trying to get ready for the holidays and working to get our wedding registry done (Macy's, Crate and Barrel, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond for those interested...some duplicate items on each, mostly because I know some people like to shop at Bed, Bath, and Beyond with their 20% off coupons). Luckily, today is a day where I've been able to hang out at home and watch some basketball (MSU beating IPFW, UofM losing to Kansas).

While, I know I write about sports a lot, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the smoking ban signed into law by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. It's a law that, in wording, bans smoking in work places. Most work places have already banned smoking, but this law will have a direct impact on bar and restaurant employees.

I have very mixed emotions on this law. There's a very large part of me that couldn't be more excited about this law. I love going out to the bar with friends on weekends, but I hate coming home and smelling like I've been surrounded by smoke all night. On top of that, I hate the knowledge that I'm breathing in second hand smoke the entire time I'm out. Some bars aren't so bad and you can get away from the worst of the smoke, but many of them are awful all around and you can't get away from it. Some would say you can just avoid going to bars and places that allow smoking. While that's one possibility, it doesn't really seem that likely at my age. Bars are popular hang outs for many people my age. It's a popular hangout for many people at all ages (at least those of legal drinking age). I'm a lot more likely to go out to the bar starting May 1, 2010 now that I know it'll be a smoke free environment.

Ok, that being said, if I was a bar owner I'd be very frustrated. Today, smoking is legal in Michigan (and America really if you want to stretch this that far). If I were a bar or restaurant owner, I have a hard time with the government telling me that something is legal to do, yet I'm not allowed to let it happen in my place of business. They're taking away my ability to run my business the way I choose. Now, if you want to ban smoking all together and make cigarettes and cigars illegal, OK. Then I'd be fine with them banning them from my business place because they are illegal. It's a very slippery slope. What is to stop the government from banning red meat in restaurants? What's to stop them from banning restaurants from using certain kinds of cooking oil that are bad for you? The government will never ban cigarettes and cigars. They receive way too much money in the high taxes on these items to ever make them illegal.

While I think it's a little far reaching to jump from the smoking ban to these items, it can be a slippery slope. The thing that makes smoking so different than my other two examples is how second hand smoke impacts the lives of others. The people who are not smoking the cigarettes are directly impacted by the smoker. In the case of greasy foods, it only impacts the person eating the food (and maybe their families in the long run if the person's life ends earlier than if they hadn't eaten those foods). So, I see the difference in these items, but I still think the government is telling these businesses how to run their operations, even though nothing they're doing is illegal if done outside or in your own home.

It also brings up one other item. The three Detroit casinos are exempt from the smoking ban. They claim they would lose business to the Native American run casinos in the rest of the state that would be exempt from the smoking ban because they're on the Native American land. While they'll probably lose some business, the majority of casino patrons in Detroit live in the Metro Detroit area. The closest Native American casinos to Detroit are the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant (a good two hour drive away) and the new Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek (90 minutes from downtown Detroit). It's hard for me to believe that most casino patrons would drive 90 minutes farther to gamble, just so they could light up at the gaming table. Most of the casino's research was based on the changes that happened at the Windsor Casino when Windsor banned smoking. They lost a lot of business to the Detroit casinos, but the driving difference between those two cities is about 10 minutes (unless there is a line at the border). There's a big difference between 10 minutes and 90 minutes. What it really comes down to is the state doesn't want to take any chances losing tax revenue from the casinos. So, they'll ban smoking from bars and restaurants because it won't change their customer base much (no alternatives), but when it might hurt the government, they make exceptions.