Smoking ban

Tax increase proposals got all the attention from Gov. Parkinson's speech Monday, but he also called for a strict statewide smoking ban. Here's what he said:


Let's ramp up our fight against cancer by enacting a public smoking ban. It is time. Twenty-four states including North Carolina have done it. If North Carolina, the largest tobacco producing state in the country can enact a public smoking ban, surely Kansas can.

Let me be very clear, I'm not proposing that we pass a watered down smoking ban. I do no want legislation that the tobacco industry writes, full of loopholes and not a real ban. Seventy-five percent of Kansans want a real public smoking ban and I am asking you to give that to them.

If this passes, it makes Ark City's effort mute. I have long advocated the ban, although I'm OK with letting bars, places where alcohol is the main product, to allow smoking, as a compromise. The trends are obvious. Even local restaurants are banning all smoking on their own, including Sirloin Stockade and Green Door.