People Smoking Outside Bars Warned by Police

[The Straight Story]

People Smoking Outside Bars Warned by Police

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Bartenders in a Baltimore neighborhood say police are threatening patrons smoking outside their bars with loitering charges.

Tabrina Sherman, a manager at Frazier's in Hampden, says patrons smoking outside were warned by police to move 150 feet from the business or face a fine or arrest.

Maryland's smoking ban took effect Feb. 1, forcing people who visit bars to smoke outside.

The head of the Hampden Village Merchants Association, Benn Ray, says loitering by drug addicts and prostitutes has been a problem for years and he wonders why police are only now enforcing the law.

Police Department spokesman Sterling Clifford says patrols have been told to aggressively enforce the law outside bars where there has been a history of problems. But he says the smoking ban has changed the dynamic.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5965594&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[Deja Q]

1. Everybody may no longer have jobs, but they'll be tar-free, is that it?

:rofl:

[HockeyMom]

2. You buy your drinks and/or lunch or dinner

how can you be charged with loitering? I know when I went outside to smoke in Queens, NY, half the STAFF of the restaurant was out there with me. Are they going to charge them too with loitering while at WORK?

[tachyon]

3. Goofing off in public is probably against the law too.

arrgh

[Jed Dilligan]

4. Great news

Baltimore has apparently solved its long-standing gang and homicide problems if it is devoting officers to this...

:sarcasm:

[DesertFlower]

5. our law says you must smoke

20 feet away from the entrance. this is impossible at a strip mall.

[madmom]

6. My SO and I just encountered something like this yesterday, we went

to a local bar/restaurant for breakfast and about 4 of it's patrons were standing outside smoking, they were in the doorway half blocking access to the establishment.While it wasn't a struggle to get in, it was IMO rude of them to block the way, where we had to go around them.

[Wizard777]

7. Well if nonsmokers weren't rude enough to tell them they can't smoke inside in a smoking section.

They wouldn't have been blocking the door way. Ah the minor inconveniences we impose on others in the pursuit of our political agenda's.

[madmom]

8. who said I told them they couldn't smoke inside? and how hard would it have been to stand aside

about 2 feet, away from the door so other patrons, smokers or non could get in? Because we don't like a law we get to ignore it?

[Wizard777]

9. I didn't say you. I said, "nonsmokers." That refers to the group as a whole.

[madeline_con]

10. As if the smoke knows to stay in the right section. n/t

[Wizard777]

11. Smoke eaters or air filtration systems are very effective.

A friend of mine has a bar. No one even knew he had smoke eaters until they broke down one day. The bar quickly filled with smoke. I think smokers are more tollerant of nonsmokers than nonsmokers are of smokers. If they keep pushing that will end. Personally I think most nonsmokers support of smoking bans have nothing to do with their health. They just get off on making others miserable. At this point in time I see no difference between fanatical muslims that won't stop until the whole world is muslim and nonsmoking fanatics that won't stop until whole world is nonsmokers.

[madeline_con]

12. I smoked for years, gave it up.

I know what they say about reformed smokers, but seriously, the smell makes me physically ill. I get a headache and nausea when I'm around smoking.

I'm sure a lot of people just want to eat without having to smell smoke. For some, it could be severe health problems.

Now, if we could only get those little screaming kids banned from public places...

[Wizard777]

13. I still smoke. But I know what you mean. Patchuli can do the same to me.

I'm not morally opposed to nonsmokers. But I am highly politically opposed to them. When it comes to smoking issues. I'm a tax payer. I should receive representation on smoking issues above the nontax paying nonsmokers. If they want to pay a non smoking tax of 2.00 per day. The same ammount of tax I pay on my cigarettes. Then I have less of a problem with them politically. If they want to pay 3.00 per day in nonsmoking tax. Then I have no problem with them and even the smoking bans. Until then I just keep calling nonsmokers deadbeats and tax dodgers. I keep on telling everyone the reason Maryland has a 1 Billion dollar deficit is because the Maryland legislature keeps representing the people that don't pay taxes to the detriment of those that do pay taxes.

[madeline_con]

14. Wow, I never heard it explained that way before.

I see your point, but the tax is to offset the damamge smokers do to nonsmokers. There really are some serious health issues when nonsmokers have to either sit in the same room with smokers, or stay home and not go out.

Secondhand smoke does kill people. I see little kids in cars, windows up, both parents puffing away. That's got to be horrible for the kids. O.K. off the soapbox now.

I personally think bar and restaurant owners should decide for themselves who they want to cater to. Then let the public decide where they want to go.

[Wizard777]

15. The medical bills claims made by nonsmokers make me see red.

Nonsmokers justify their crusade against smokers by saying, "We don't want to have to pay your medical bills." There it is nothing but red. In Maryland 100% of our cigarette tax goes to medicaid. Last year alone Maryland smokers paid 120 million dollars worth of Medical Bills. So I guess the reason we can't pay our own medical bills is because we are paying everyone elses medical bills. Apparently the nonsmokers don't mind smokers paying their medical bills. So not only are they deadbeat tax dodgers. Nonsmokers are lying deadbeat tax dodgers. The cigarette tax money should be put in a fund that only pays thr medical bills of smokers. Nevermind what MIGHT happen in the future. We smokers might not want to CONTINUE to pay the medical bills of nonsmokers.

As for health related claims. I'm a responsible smoker and very sympathetic to them. But I think the better way for nonsmoker to go is the way AA went. They build and run alcohol free clubs. They don't try to legislatively take over bars and run off their alcohol consuming patrons. But teh nonsmokers don't want to pull their own weight. They don't want to build, run, and patronize their own nonsmoking clubs. They want to come in and take over existing clubs built by smokers like a motorcycle gang. The Minn. loophole for smoking by actors. That has revealed how much the smoking ban has hurt those bars. One bar did 500.00 per night before the loophole. Now they are pulling 2,000.00 per night with the loophole. So nonsmokers come off as being arrogant and self centered. All they care about is their own comfort. They don't care if they take food out of the mouthes of the children of those bar owners. That's not exactly good for their health either. But nonsmokers are just a small part of the greater evil called Health Nazi's. The good thing about Health Nazi's is that their pursuit of good health and the immortality they think it provides usually kills them pretty damned quick. I'm 76. If I had a dime for everyone I knew that droped dead durring the jogging craze. Yep even getting healthy can kill you. My doctor says that there is a word for people that take health advice from the Government....... Dead.

[madeline_con]

16. Good points all. n/t