Smokin' USA?...

[Robusto]

Larry. Rokk. Any other US visitors.

What's the deal for you smoking restrictions-wise in the US, please?

In the UK, a blanket ban has been imposed on smoking in all public places since July 2007. It has become established in the culture here remarkably quickly. It actually seems as if the ban has been here forever, and that if you go to a pub or restaurant - well, if you go just about anywhere - you will have to leave the building to smoke.

I'm confused by what I see and hear on BBC news reports concerning the US and smoking. Radio 4 - the main news radio channel (and my usual radio station) - has articles about smokers not being allowed on beaches in certain parts of California, and other really draconian examples of anti-smoking enforcement. Yet a few weeks ago during the Hillary/Obama selection procedures, a BBC television reporter interviewed people in several bars in mid-west towns (I can't remember which States) and they were all smoking in the bars. Cigarettes... the fools.

When I've been out to Texas and New Mexico for holidays with my sister, some of the most fantastic nights were in bars watching local Country and Western bands over phat cigars. (You guys have such a high standard of musicianship in certain genres, and your best C&W players are mind-blowingly good).

When I next go over to the States, will all the cowboys have to be out on the porch-swing?

In short - What variance is there in anti-smoking legislation in the US? And are the measures getting tougher, please?

And tell me about Kinki Friedman (sp?). I've been told I look like him when I'm "going panto". (I love cowboy gear, aka Brokeback Chic).

I hope he's not a modern-day Enoch Powell or Adolf Hitler, or something! (Shit!). I don't know what he represents - but he's certainly a stogie-monger!

[Gary]

I think I'm correct in saying that in America each state is responsible for their own smoking ban and how and were it is applied, unlike here in the UK & Ireland (and for that matter throughout Europe), where it's just one plain total ban for the entire country.

I think in the USA certain states have far stricter smoking bans than others, for example I think the ban in California is one of the worst were you literally can't smoke anywere.

Although one great thing that I found in the states when I visited New York in 2006, that I wish was here is that most cigar stores have some sort or lounge were customers and members can sit for an hour or so and have a smoke with fellow cigar lovers, have a coffee and read a paper or watch some sport on a big screen, I find in very fustrating that whenever I've went into a cigar shop in London or Dublin you are not allowed to smoke, I mean for God sake, surely 99% of people that visit cigar shops either smoke themselves, are buying cigars/tobacco for a friend or family member who smokes or wouldn't find it unreasonable to find people enjoying cigars in a CIGAR SHOP! To me it's like going into a restaurant and complaining about people eating food.

[cohibaIV]

Sorry to go off your original thread Robusto, but I agree with Gary...
We should be allowed to smoke cigars in Cigar lounges (Hotels and select Bars) and Cigar shops....
Rant over...thanks

[Robusto]

I totally agree, CohibaIV. Gary's thread makes complete sense!

Can you still drop in to JJ Fox in St James' and enjoy a cigar in the shop? I love doing that now and again, and the smell when you went in was divine.

[larrysputnik]

Gary's correct. Each of the 50 states makes their own smoking laws. My state, Pennsylvania, is imposing a smoking ban starting September 15. The ban will only allow smoking in cigar stores and bars that make less than 10% of their gross sales in food. So, some bars will be able to allow smoking in designated areas that are separate from the bar. But most will have to be smoke free altogether.

I found a smoke shop a few minutes from my house that is creating a lounge area for smokers. Until the weather begins to get cold I'll just keep smoking outside. Once the weather changes I'll start smoking at the cigar lounge.

In addition, places in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, such as hospitals and government buildings, have even gone as far as to ban smoking to at least 50 feet from the building. Pennsylvania has also been trying to put a bill through that would ban smoking in your car, but it never completely makes it into law.

[Robusto]

I found a smoke shop a few minutes from my house that is creating a lounge area for smokers. Until the weather begins to get cold I'll just keep smoking outside. Once the weather changes I'll start smoking at the cigar lounge.

This is exactly what I'd like here where I live but there's nothing of the sort. To me, cigar lounges seem very convivial.

In addition, places in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, such as hospitals and government buildings, have even gone as far as to ban smoking to at least 50 feet from the building.

Hospitals here often have the cigarette gaspers on every perimeter wall and it looks a bit pitiful... but I feel a bit sorry for them, too. We are distant relatives - distant outlaw cousins - after all.

Pennsylvania has also been trying to put a bill through that would ban smoking in your car, but it never completely makes it into law.

This is the one where I think I'd fight them on the beaches. Precisely because of the lack of cigar bars in provincial UK, my car is my smoking room on many days. I don't smoke cigars with anyone else in the car. I don't relish the after-smell - which is there even with the windows down. But it is MY car and it doesn't harm anyone else. As I've written on here before, if I've been playing an hour or so from home, I crank up Muddy Waters and fire up for the drive home. It actually makes me a safer, more concentrating driver.

[cohibaIV]

But, on the other side of the coin, we can hope across the English channel and enjoy a good cigar without being hung, drawn and quarterd......hehehehe

What European Union?????