Topeka — Kansas officials are launching a new website to help with the implementation of a new statewide smoking ban.
Lt. Gov. Troy Findley and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will announce the new site on Monday.
The ban was signed in March by Gov. Mark Parkinson and takes effect July 1.
It prohibits smoking in most enclosed public places, businesses, taxis, limousines, restaurants, bars and within 10 feet from entrances and air intakes at such facilities.
Members of the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition are attending a press conference with Findley and KDHE Secretary Rod Bremby.
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consumer1 (anonymous) says…
So as i read this, it indicates smoking will be verboten in "most public places"? Why not all public places? Sounds like big lobbiest have written this law.
Centerville (anonymous) says…
This is pathetic.
sherbert (anonymous) says…
Either allow them or outlaw them. Don't be hypocritical and sell them to get the tax money, but then say you can't smoke them anywhere.
somedude20 (anonymous) says…
Guess those e-cigarettes will become big sellers now since you can puff on those in bars and restaurants. What is next, are they going to command the people of Kansas to wear seat belts? Are they going to tell women what they can and cant do with their bodies? Are they going to...... wait.....what was that, they already do? That sucks!
ivalueamerica (anonymous) says…
Actually, a lot of people are starting to ban e-cigarettes too now. I am not making a statement pro or con E-Cig ban, just mentioning that it is a trend.
http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/ris...
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009...
http://www.ecigwars.com/2009/05/propo...
http://www.tobacco-facts.net/2010/04/...
AreUNorml (anonymous) replies…
it seems that those are cutting into the profitability of big tobacco and big healthcare. like it or not, sick and dying people are a great source of revenue.
Youvebeenhad (anonymous) says…
Many bar owners have had enough. Some are well aware of the corruption of smoking bans. Listen to what Sheila has to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1uEPO...
raby627 (anonymous) says…
As good as this sounds, it will have negative consequences such as: Bars WILL close as they have done in other non-smoking states when the ban took hold...jobs will be lost, but, of course, will never be reported as bar jobs and supporting industry jobs lost...just plain old "jobs lost". People will live longer, requiring more costly medical assistance to keep them going (unless, of course, the Obama prescription he forecasted (i.e., "the pill") becomes the norm). Our taxes will go up since the planned taxes from tobacco sales will dry up as they already have under the SCHIP Bill of 2009 (the first broken promise of "no new taxes for those making less than $250K"). As a free market businessman, you will no longer have the choice of opening a smoking friendly establishment staffed with smokers who are willing to be your employees...complete with a "non smokers welcome, but expect smoke" sign adorning your front door (another notch on the free trade expectations of our founders). I am a non-smoker, but do believe this law takes a bite out of our freedoms! I choose to avoid smoke...no one has ever forced me to stay in a room filled with smoke, unlike some whiners I hear about on this subject.
ivalueamerica (anonymous) replies…
States that have submitted smoking bans have not seen any increase in the rate of bar, tavern or restaurant closures than before the ban.
Any chance you cam make up something that has not already been discredited to try and make your point as this dead horse has been beat to death.
Better yet, try something true to support your argument..na..nevermind..that would be asking too much.
And you are advocating that it is better for the economy if people die younger from lung cancer and Emphysima is.....you are just a very ugly person inside.
puddleglum (anonymous) says…
what would doctors do without all the dollars generated by tobacco-induced sickness?
my guess is that insurance companies and doctors are pro-tobacco use.
Youvebeenhad (anonymous) says…
puddleglum, nicotine is very valuable. It helps to prevent a myriad of diseases. Big Parma wants to own it. My goodness, it helps prevent alzheimers, parkinsens, ulcerative colitis, uterine cancer, preeclampsia, certain types of arthritis etc. It is therapeutic for people with schizoprenia, adhd, tourets. Perhaps they must villify it just so they can take it over and profit like the tobacco companies did. I would classify it as a nutrient rather than a drug.
InvestigateNonProfits (anonymous) says…
Ever wonder who funded Tobacco Free Kansas? http://www.tobaccofreekansas.org/about/
Ever hear of the very profitable "non" profit of Johnson & Johnson? They're called the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and they've funded smoking bans nationwide. They funded Tobacco Free Kansas. Ever wonder why? Well, what happens with smoking bans and what's pushed with the Master Settlement money? Nicotine replacement products. Who has the market cornered on over-the-counter nrt? johnson & johnson (Nicorette, Nicoderm, Commit). It's all about the money, folks, and it's NOT about health. Who's pushing for tax on pop with sugar (they dumped half a billion into the new "obesity epidemic"). RWJF. Who owns splenda? j&j. How in the world has this "non" profit been allowed to funnel tax exempt money to other orgs to lobby for laws from which they profit? btw, Robert Wood Johnson was a big temperance movement guy. What businesses CLOSE because of smoking bans? places that serve beer and liquor. It's a crock. One paper reported that J&J sold 1,000,000 boxes of Nicoderm in January, 2008 - in one month. You don't think what they've paid in "grants" to these orgs to sell their products hasn't seen their return-on-investment 1,000 fold?
smartin1955 (anonymous) says…
Tobacco Free Kansas? Excuse me for dying laughing. They want to Kansas to be tobacco free, like my dog wants t bones to disappear. A tobacco free Kansas equals zero grant funding from nicotine replacement. And it would equal flat broke Kansas! Do you really think that Kansas wants to give up their over $200,000,000.00 per year in just excise and Master Settlement income? And that does not even include the retail sales tax at point of sale. Demonizing smokers onto THEIR nicotine as opposed to tobacco company nicotine is the simple WHY of this balderdash! EVERY Senator and House member who voted for the ban has received campaign funds from either Glaxo, Johnson and Johnson, or Pfizer (All members of the J&J "family" of companies. Nicoderm, Nicorette, Nicotrol, Nicoderm CQ, and Chantix) for their complicity in this transference of wealth. (The "philanthropic arm" of this "family" is Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That's who pays Tobacco Free Kansas, and the Heart Lung and Cancer Associations and Societies for their lobbying for bans. People are not falling over dead from a whiff of smoke, kids. Bars are closing all over this country. People are lying, and they are doing it for money. Check the American Cancer Society's lobbying for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and check the Corp and PAC donations from Pfizer and Glaxo and J&J to politicos. It's all there. You want people to stop smoking, stop selling it. The State, as far as I am concerned, should be sued as a partner to tobacco, as they licence the selling of it, and make JUST as much money from it. Second hand smoke has never killed anyone. But keep on believing the baloney. You would think that a town like Lawrence, with it's science programs, would at least TRY to tell the truth about all this. But then you would have to remember that they released a study on heart attacks that they KNEW was flawed, and had it released in every paper in five States, and then did not bother to correct the error until a reporter from Kansas Watchdog threw it in their face. Even THEN they would not contact the papers for the retraction. And then you look up the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants to k u and k State, and understand WHY the propaganda is promulgated. After the donation to K State, they came out with a study that said if you smoked in your home you were killing your puppies and kittens. Ah--- the best science that money can buy!
Interesting that immediately after J&J bought Splenda, the new "war" on obesity started. The same pipeline for money funneling into foundations, for the same doctors, to say the SAME baloney about obesity now causing every problem that they said tobacco caused. And, they ONCE again have a cure------- splenda!!!! ain't it amazing!!! p t barnum would be envious. Step right up, Suckers.
mdrndgtl (anonymous) says…
Tl;dr
Zype (anonymous) replies…
Your loss.