Maine Smokers Rights
Businesses Harmed by Smoking Bans
Maine: No smoking in the Sanford casino (Then What Good IS It)
Maine: Bingo ad touting no smoking targeted
10/08/2003
"This is an irresponsible use of the tobacco settlement money," he said.
Maine: Groups rally AGAINST smoking ban
John
Michael of Auburn has notified the Secretary of State's office of his intent to
launch a ''people's veto,'' an attempt to get voters to overturn the law in a
referendum.
Article
here
With tourist season upon us, just keep in mind....no matter how beautiful Maine is, if you smoke, you will NOT be able to smoke in any restaurant! Some restaurants with a liquor license still allow smoking, but I can't attest to all of them in southern Maine.
Business's That Have Closed When Forced To Go Smoke Free - click here
I realize the "in thing to do" is to tell them we want to quit. Actually, the adult smokers in Maine do not want to quit smoking. What they want is for the government to quit persecuting them. They want the anti-smoking zealots to stop lobbying for higher tobacco taxes. They want the anti-smoking zealots to quit agitating for smoking bans. The vast majority of smokers want the government to quit filching yet more of their money to be given to Big Drugs for "nicotine replacement therapy."
My letter to TAMC Hospital in Presque Isle Maine:
I usually try to keep up on smoking restrictions and bans, but the one you just instigated floored me. You all say your "Caring Professionals," when the truth is, you do not care about one in four of your patients! I find this unacceptable. Not being allowed to smoke indoors is one thing, but when you ban it from outside and even in a private automobile on your property, this has gotten way out of hand. And you so conveniently have "THE Patch," available to slap on ones arm! Not by choice either!
The Surgeon General recently brought out a report that health problems from the obese, far outweigh the dangers of smoking. What are you going to do: staple every obese stomach that comes through your door? And don�t tell me about the medical rise in health care for sick smokers. The Tobacco Settlement money is paying billions into the state of Maine to cover sick smokers, should there be any. And WE SMOKERS are paying into THAT!
Even Judge Osteen ruled in 1998 against the 1993 EPA report about second hand smoke. So where is your logic in preventing stressful patients and visitors on "your property," as you so aptly put it. You new law is just another war against adults who choose a legal commodity. It�s the Health Communities job to educate and find cures. It�s not your job to "control" people.
When you find a cure for death, I will then consider stopping smoking my legal commodity. I also told my husband, in the future, do NOT take me to TAMC or Carey , unless I am in a COMA or unconscious! I just wonder how much grant money YOUR receiving from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation?? The higher the bans and restrictions, the more blood money you all receive from them. It�s despicable. I�m very disappointment that you have fallen pry to the new war on the smoking adult. It IS a choice and there are many of us who choose to smoke. No one points a gun to our head! What ever it takes for grant money, I guess��..
Smoking
in Public Places:
A properly managed and signed smoking policy with improved ventilation
and, where appropriate, air cleaning should encourage smoking and
non-smoking customers to eat more, stay longer and visit more often.
The right ventilation levels, with a carefully planned airflow will
also ensure that staff can work in a comfortable environment that
meets Health and Safety guidelines.
Where not to go in Maine if you smoke and eat
Smoking ban ignites Maine rebellion
If anyone has information about the ban hurting business's, or forcing a business to close, click on envelope and email me.
By Michelle Emery The Associated Press
Source:
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE
Monday, 11/29/1999
Edition: ALL,
BIDDEFORD -- It was bleak for Amanda Mae's Cafe after patrons were required to snuff out their smokes: Regular customers disappeared, business plummeted 40 percent and tips dried up for waitresses who needed them to feed their families.
Owner Richard Hofsaes doesn't smoke, but his business sense told him that he had better do something to lure his
smoking customers back.So he joined two other restaurateurs in Biddeford and Windham in thumbing his nose at state lawmakers who enacted a restaurant
smoking ban described as the strictest east of the Mississippi.They say the state's ban that took effect on Sept. 18 isn't about
smoking , and it isn't all about money.Instead, they're framing the issue in terms of freedom of choice, free enterprise, and preserving the constitutionally protected right to the pursuit of happiness.
"I'm not standing up for the smoker. I'm standing up for our rights," said Gerald "Mouse" McLaskey, the other Biddeford restaurateur who was the first to flout the state's
smoking law.In other words, they want the state to butt out.
Hofsaes, McLaskey and Dick Metayer have all turned their eateries into
smoking establishments. And Hofsaes is launching a petition drive to get a referendum on the November ballot to repeal the ban."The state Legislature has completely overstepped their bounds in trying to dictate how free enterprise works," said Hofsaes, who quit
smoking 15 years ago. "Freedom of choice and enterprise should not be determined on a state level."Lawmakers swayed by testimony about the effects of second-hand smoke on 44,000 restaurant workers approved the measure by wide margins. And many people are happy lawmakers cleared the air.
But the discord is predictable since 22.4 percent of adults smoke in Maine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"
Smoking is still legal in this state," said Metayer, owner a restaurant in Windham. "If they're going to continue selling them, they have to allow us a place to have them."The restaurateurs are taking different approaches. Metayer turned his restaurant into a
smoking club. Hofsaes is simply allowing smoking in his restaurant while challenging the state to stop him.The sign outside McLaskey's Nutshell Tavern on Route 1 in Biddeford declares that it is "The First Smoking Restaurant."
McLaskey says he is skirting the smoking ban by holding an "ongoing private function" that allows him to legally dodge it. Customers who don't take one of his cards are told to leave.
He would not elaborate on what he says is a loophole in the ban because he did not want to reveal his legal defense before going to court; his restaurant was the first to be cited. He and his son, co-owner Mack McLaskey, have each already racked up $6,000 in fines, he said.
About 30 miles north, in Windham, is Uncle Dick's Smoking Club, which was Uncle Dick's Family Restaurant until Oct. 15. Customers must pay $1 and sign on as members before being served.
Metayer said lost about 50 percent of his business the first week of the ban and formed the club in an effort to bypass the statute. By Nov. 12, his smoking club had nearly 600 members -- 258 nonsmokers and 338 smokers, he said.
As for Hofsaes, he is not running a club or a function, just a smoking restaurant.
"We're in defiance of the law and will continue to be until it's resolved," he said.
A few years ago, Hofsaes anticipated a law regarding smoking in restaurants and built an additional room so he could completely separate smokers from nonsmokers. But the ban rendered his second room useless. It is filled with tables that are set but never used.
Opponents of the ban believe restaurateurs should have been given the option of establishing separate, ventilated rooms for smokers.
Hofsaes said most customers have been supportive.
"They're saying, regardless of whether they smoke or not, it's not the state's place," he said.
"It's not about smoking. Smoking is the catalyst."
Helen Trask, 50, of Lewiston and her ex-husband, Cecil Trask, 54, of Auburn, are regulars who stop by Amanda Mae's every week. Both are smokers who were overjoyed that Hofsaes decided to fight the ban.
"If we all stick together, we will get back our smoking rights," Helen Trask said.
Prosecutors have filed a civil complaint against the Nutshell, were considering filing complaints against Uncle Dick's and were looking into Amanda Mae's, which has allowed smoking for only a few weeks. The restaurants could face fines of $100 for each violation.
"Our position is, we don't believe that just calling yourself a private club justifies that," said
John Archard, coordinator of tobacco control for the attorney general's office.Hofsaes believes many residents didn't understand how broad the ban would be and hopes they will now stand up to lawmakers and force change.
"I would like to see the people get more involved with their government again," he said. "I would like to see the apathy disappear. Take control back from legislators."
For Kareem Yostos, 23, a nonsmoking student at the University of New England in Biddeford, it was not an issue of personal freedom, or health, or any of those other things.
"If the food is good, then that's all that matters," he said as he gobbled down breakfast.
Richard Hofsaes can be reached at 284-6640
23 December 1999
Local reaction mixed to ban on eatery smoking
by Peter Payette, Staff Writer
Caribou-At Carol's Roadside Cafe, not much has changed since the statewide smoking ban went into effect.
Inside the small diner, sit and chat after breakfast, nursing a cup of coffee. The morning new's sounds from the TV in the far upper corner of the room. The smell of bacon wafts into the air and mingles with the smell of cigarette smoke.
Carol and Marshall Adams are among many local restaurant owners and managers who have no complaints about the effects of the smoking ban on the restaurant business.
One thing that is different at Carol's is a sign on the front door that reads, "No one under the age of 21 allowed with a parent or guardian." The establishment is now a tavern by license. Switching licenses was the measure that the owners took to adjust their business to comply with the new state law that bans smoking from restaurants. And, according to them, "it's been great."
The atmosphere at Carol's is social. Marshall greets people by name when they come in the door, as do his customers. People sit next to folks they didn't come in with.
And many customers smoke.
"I'd be hit hard if I couldn't allow smoking." said Marshall, who will have been in business for one year come January 1.
Caribou resident Paul McEwen sits at the counter smoking a cigarette, talking to people at the table next to him. He said he has always been a regular costumer and now hardly goes anywhere else to eat. "You walk in here and everyone knows your name," he said.
According to Marshall, the drawbacks are relatively few. The alcohol they can serve is more restriced under their new license, allowing them to sell only beer and coolers. Before they could sell wine, for example. They said the amount of customers they have turned away because of age restrictions is few.
Some customers have stopped coming in favor of smoke free environments, according to Marshall, but he said "the ones I lost, I gained back."
Others say the ban has been good for other reasons. Nelson Corriveau, owner of Reno's Pizza House, said he is getting more customers because his restaurant is smoke-free.
Some establishments have not noticed much change at all.
"It's not a big deal," said Betty Hersey, manager of the Caribou Inn, "people have just learned that's the way it is." At the Caribou Inn, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., smokers have the option of eating in the lounge, which is a separate room.
Down the road at the Green Acres, the bar is not separate from the dining room, so smoking is not allowed anywhere. Owner Farzi Katkhordeh said that it has not had an effect on business. She feels people come for the food, and are not concerned with whether or not they can smoke. The bar, she said, has never been a big draw by itself.
One restaurant in town that doesn't report good news about the new law is Pat's Pizza. Both a restaurant and bar, Pat's elected not to switch their license, but is now seeking a tavern license from the state.
Pat's Manager, Ann Gagnon, estimated that business at the bar is down 50 percent. She thinks a significant amount of customers will be turned away if Pat's operates under license that prohibits minors unaccompanied by an adult. "You can buy cigarettes if you're 18, but you can't go into a restaurant, that's ridiculous," she said.
The City Council gave approval to Pat's request for a different license.
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Footnote: We refuse to cater to any restaurant that does not allow smoking. We refuse to spend our hard earned money in a place where we cannot relax and smoke. There are three restaurants left in our area where we can enjoy fine food, and our cigarettes. And these three restaurants are the ones who get our money and our tips! We hate to take it out on the business owner, but this is our time and our money. If more people stood up for personal rights, the smoking bans would never have gotten this far.
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