In the local Washington State election voters passed I-901 which makes illegal to smoke within “public” places. This includes privately owned establishments. I’m not a smoker myself, but I believe in a free market. I voted I-901 down and I implored other to do the same. It is one thing to limit where people can smoke but to completely illegalize it in places that are not truly public is going too far. I think DJ No Name on local radio station 107.7 The End put it best. He pointed out that everything in Seattle is so close together that this law would make it very difficult to smoke even outside. Another point is that businesses that want to make non-smoking sections, but don’t have much room to do so under the 25 foot rule have to completely ban smoking in their establishment. The fact is that a free market will take care of this problem of indoor smoking. If there is market for having smoking free establishments, then the business will take care of it. Something like 75% of restaurants and bars in the state of Washington already have banned smoking and most that still have smoking have non-smoking sections. I think this initiative went too far and I’m sad to see my fellow voters decided to pass it.
On a positive note I-912, I-330, and I-336 all were voted down. At least Washington voters decided rationally on most of the issues.
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