maryland smoking ban

let me begin by making it perfectly clear that i hate cigarettes only slightly less than the people who smoke them. they disgust me so much that i can almost see the logic in the maryland legislature’s proposed smoking ban. almost, but not quite.

the bill’s legislative backers will tell you they’re protecting the innocent from the dangers of second-hand smoke. now, i’m fairly certain they’d accept the praises of voters who want unabashed paternalism and are out to ban smoking in all its forms, but let’s take them at face value.

the problem with their argument is that non-smokers do have a choice. it’s a tough choice, but you can always just not hang out in bars. i’m actually selling it a bit short, because there are some bars that don’t allow smoking (even some nice ones like our local “red maple” on charles).

there are clearly benefits to the ban, but i seriously doubt they’d outweigh the costs of trying to legislate it. this law’s impact on overall smoking will most likely be negligible. smokers will smoke outside, at home, in their cars, and pretty much anywhere they want to besides public buildings, bars, and restaurants. at the same time, smokers will spend less money at bars and tip less, which will hurt those business owners. and though smokers will save a little money, they are denied one of their pleasures, making them less well-off.

but perhaps the biggest problem is that after all the sound and fury, things probably won’t change that much. there will inevitably be some exception to the rule, into which all bars and restaurants will crowd.

just look at what happened when virginia tried to shut down all its bars. their law excepted establishments who derived a certain percentage of revenue from food sales, so guess what happened? for every bar that shut down there was a restaurant that added a bar, and the bars that survived just added a restaurant. in fact, some of them run their food operations at a loss, just so that they can meet the revenue requirements and keep their bar running. obviously, the profit on alcohol (which is inflated due to regulation) more than makes up for that loss.

so, the best we can expect to get out of all this hoopla is that every bar will start selling discount tobacco products, and every tobacco shop will open a bar.

well, at least we know that our legislature's trying to nanny us to death, even if they fail at it. and maybe that's not so bad. after all, it's the thought that counts.