Monday, 02/27/06
Let towns decide smoking
The Tennessee General Assembly should take the opportunity to join the 21st century and get real on anti-smoking laws.
Tennessee's current law is a joke. A decade ago, when other states and cities were passing laws restricting smoking in public places, the General Assembly reversed course and ran the other direction. It passed a law in 1994 that prohibits local governments from adopting anti-smoking laws more restrictive than those adopted by the state.
At the time, state lawmakers insisted that the bill was needed as a matter of consistency. Guess they thought the average Tennessean traveling across the state was too dumb to read a "No Smoking" sign at a restaurant.
Yet the real impetus behind the bill wasn't consistency; it was the tobacco lobby, tobacco growers and the tobacco users in the legislature who were all determined to ward off anti-smoking laws.
Since that time, states and cities have continued to tighten smoking laws to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke.
Officials in Lakeland, Tenn., discussed an anti-smoking ordinance just weeks ago, only to be told that a local law would violate the state law. At least 11 Tennessee cities have adopted resolutions asking the General Assembly to repeal the 1994 law so that they can determine their own smoking policies. The Metro Council adopted such a resolution more than two years ago.
Two anti-smoking bills have been introduced in the legislature. One would ban smoking at all restaurants in Tennessee; the other, which would allow local governments to establish their own anti-smoking policies, is the better way to go. That bill would allow towns and cities across this state to broaden the anti-smoking debate beyond restaurants.
But either measure is a far cry better than the status quo.
Most state lawmakers are up for re-election this year. Passage of an anti-smoking measure would put something significant on their resume. |
