With every passing year, the movement to protect the population at large from exposure to sidestream or second-hand smoke keeps chipping away at the viability of social smoking. That’s because the “anti-smoking” movement latches on to any viable argument that may work.

What began with some of the most obvious, confined spaces and public venues, places where it could be argued non-smokers had no choice but to be exposed, has since moved into the deepest realms of purely social gatherings - places where people choose to congregate. The second-hand smoke argument morphed into an issue of protecting the health of employees.

Economically, anti-smoking movements are no longer a simple matter of trying to convince an individual to quit, once the goal of reasonable tobacco excise tax hikes. These days, massive, unprecedented excise tax hikes are the magic elixir tapped to cure the economic ills of government at large. “Quadruple the cigarette tax,” the anti-smokers whisper, “and everyone wins!” That’s all the weary, budget-balancing legislators need to here... if a few smokers are saved along the way, so be it, but hey, we’ve got bills to pay here!

Don’t expect the trend to stop. Today, a whole new generation has no recollection of a day when smoking was permitted in such seemingly odd places as hospitals, public transportation, one’s office, or government buildings. That’s the new baseline. Tomorrow’s population will have no recollection of a smokey jazz club or a cigar at a fine restaurant.

The map is beginning to look like a casualty list, and it isn’t just some crazy small towns in the middle of nowhere. California took the lead in vilifying public smoking, but now Florida has done them one better: amending their state constitution to ban smoking in most public places! That should be troubling to any student of history regardless of their personal views on smoking.

Delaware has fallen with a statewide ban, too, joining a handful of New England states. In fact, the northeast is rife with trouble. Boston has now joined 69 other cities and towns across Massachusetts where smoking is completely banned in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. There is rumbling to take the ban statewide, with possible support from the hospitality trade frustrated by the inequities of patchwork bans.

And in New York City, Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s comprehensive ban was slated to pass at press time with only minor compromises. Smoking will be outlawed in all remaining workplaces, including restaurants, most bars, and offices. The only exceptions: tobacco businesses, existing cigar bars, and small portions of outdoor cafes.

All that may be left some day is one’s own home (don’t count on that, though, since at least one New York City condominium has banned resident owners from smoking), or the great outdoors, presuming no one else is around of course, or you’re not in a handful of towns that have banned that too.

E. Edward "Ted" Hoyt III
Editor