Five years have passed since the city of Lawrence passed its public smoking ban, however other area towns haven’t followed suit.

Right now the state of Kansas does not have a state-wide public smoking ban in place and area smokers certainly seem glad that’s the case.

“I don’t think it’s anybody else’s decision,” said Tammee Marvin, daytime manager at Cecil Monday’s in Eudora. “It’s not right, it’s not constitutional.”

This week, state legislators have taken up the issue again about a state-wide smoking ban. Senate Bill 25 passed through the senate Tuesday 26-13, but it’s the house where the bill could be snuffed out.

“I have not detected a great deal of support for the bill in the house,” said State Rep. Paul Davis of Lawrence. “It probably has 40 votes and needs 63 to pass.”

The bill is expected to be decided by next week. Currently 23 states have full public smoking bans, including neighboring Colorado and Nebraska.