Smoking Ban a Level Playing Field???

Today I want to pick apart one part of Ryan’s article “Day 1 of Eau Claire ban…”

However, a statewide ban must be enacted soon to protect “the little mom and pop” taverns most at risk in communities where bans are adopted, Smith said.

I whole heartedly agree with everything that Ryan said, I just can’t understand Smith’s reasoning. This so called level playing field is nothing more than a myth created by anti-smoking activists to get statewide bans passed. A statewide ban won’t help the “little mom and pop taverns” that Smith professes that he wants to protect. He will hurt all the mom and pop taverns across the state. My article “Does Doyle really want us to play follow the leader” Should have been proof of that. State wide bans have not only shut these business down in every state they have been enacted, the ones that have survived are violating the law just to survive. A nationwide ban is equally ineffective, The UK and Germany are going through exactly the same problems with their bans.

More than 6,000 pubs in the UK could close in the next five years if they do not deal with the impact of the smoking ban and the current squeeze on customer spending.

Landlords are fighting to keep their head above water faced with a choice between bending the rules or going out of business.

Before long the traditional community pub could be a thing of the past.
One landlord, who allows his customers to smoke after hours, says: “I would say at least half of pubs like this are doing what we do.

It is high time the politicians get their heads out of these studies faked by the tobacco control groups and look at the real world. Once they realize that they were lied to with these bogus economic studies they will take a serious look at the so called science behind the bans.