If we as adults wish to smoke we should be able to.
We are, of course, allowed to smoke. We are just restricted as to where. Further, smokers can fight new regulations and laws all we want. All we have to do is organize enough voters to have an impact. Lotsa luck with that!
I agree with the ban, but feel any further atemt (sic) to ban smoking should be fought against.
Organizing smokers into a cohesive voting bloc with sufficient monies for the requisite ads, staff salaries, phones, political donations, etc., when smokers come from all different political viewpoints, is an impossible chore. There is a reason political discussions are not permitted on the various fora. One would have to find one hell of a lot of "single issue" voters as the abortion crowd did. Of course they turned the issue into one about a "woman's right to choose." So, perhaps smokers could turn the issue into a "person's right to choose"... smoking? That dawg won't hunt!
I think it should be up to the business-owner. Doesn't seem unreasonable.
Leaving it up to the business owner is a thought. In some areas of the country though, the owner would have to have the various unions agree that he could hire only from a list of members who wish to work in a smoking establishment and, not simply from the top of the list. Labor unions are not going to force members to take employment in what is now viewed and unhealthy environment.
As to pubs closing because of the ban, Ireland has not experienced such, the closings there are more rightly attributed economics and, the stricter enforcement of drunk driving laws, coupled with stiffer penalties. One no longer sees big farm tractors parked at a pub. A lot more bicycles though.
We smokers are but a tiny percentage of the electorate. We are not a "protected" minority. So, we will just have to suck it up and suffer the indignity of standing in the rain, huddled under a heater if lucky, and enjoy our tiny society outside the bars and pubs. Soon, even that wee pleasure will cease as more jurisdictions adopt such rules as "no smoking with in fifty feet of a business", and other such laws.
You young smokers are in for some tough times indeed, should you wish to pursue your wee vice anyplace but in your own, detached, single family dwelling. And, soon you will have to own your dwelling as lenders aren't going to want to finance a home which they may have fumigate and repaint if they have to foreclose and then sell to recoup their moneys.