Smoking Ban Supported by Justices

Ohio's voter-initiated ban on indoor public smoking, the first enacted in the Midwest and among the strictest in the nation, is constitutional and enforceable, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday. The decision struck a blow against stubborn bars and their customers who smoked and then doused their cigarettes in plastic cups after ashtrays were removed. Opponents of the law argued that it amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their private property and unfairly targeted business owners while ignoring the smokers themselves. The high court called the Ohio Smoke-Free Workplace Act "a valid exercise of the state's police power" as it rejected a challenge from Zeno's Victorian Village, a Columbus tavern that has been cited 10 times and fined $33,000.

Tobacco Free Laws in Montague, Public Smoking Ban

It's taken three years, but the shaky marriage between coffee and cigarettes was snuffed out here when town council Monday night approved a tobacco free policy for town owned places. The vote was unanimous and means that smoking is prohibited on all town owned properties from the hockey rink to the marina and waterfront. No more lighting up at the waterfront and watching the ducks or even standing outside the doors of the local rink. "People knew it was coming and it's about time,'' offered Scott Bell, the president of the committee operating the Wellness Centre. "We've had nothing but trouble with butts all over the place and people having trouble recognizing the need not to smoke at the entrances." Frank Morrison, with the Council for a Smoke Free P.E.I., said Montague has taken a long time to initiate a tobacco free policy, but the end result is welcomed. "We have about 25 per cent of Island communities still working on such policies," he said from the town hall gallery after the vote was taken. "So it is slowly becoming the norm. Smoking tobacco is a killer."