Comments on: Stogie News: Illinois Smoke-Free, Virginia Next?

By: Stogie Commentary: Cigar Aficionado’s Reviews Are Illegal

Stogie Commentary: Cigar Aficionado’s Reviews Are Illegal — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:53:42 +0000

[...] at StogieGuys.com, we regularly focus on smoking bans in bars, cigar lounges and cigar parties, but workplace smoking bans are just as wrong. Surely most employers would, as they rightfully [...]

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:04:18 +0000

Yeah, there have been two attempts already to pass a statewide ban in VA(2006, and last year). Both bans failed in the Va. Legislature, after passing in the Va. Senate.

Hopefully, the Va. Legislature will again thwart Kaine's newest attempt to ban smoking. Sure hope too that the local ordinances that some cities/towns have tried to pass will be overturned by state courts, due to the fact that state law(and Dillon's Rule) prohibits local communities from passing bans, unless the power is explicitly given by Virginia government.

And I know really well about both IL and VA, since my mom's family is from Virginia, and I'm personally from Chicago. Most bars I've seen in Chicago than not have had a decline in customers, based on my observations, and from talking to bar employees/owners.

By: Patrick A

Patrick A — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:38:41 +0000

That's right. Around this time last year we wrote an analysis of the proposed ban, but thankfully it ultimately failed. This time, though, Virginia has more Democrats in the state legislature.

By: Desmond

Desmond — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:14:15 +0000

Didn't Virginia already try to pass a statewide smoking ban and fail?

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:14:45 +0000

The shame of this is that since smoking was banned in DC, I spend more time – and more money – in Virginia. When I was chased out of the District Chophouse and Nathan's…I took my cigars and my business to Carpool and Talulla.

I say to Tim Kaine – and to anyone on the other side of the river – this is not Jefferson's Virginia. To this point Virginia had a sensible solution – let the individual business owner decide which customer base they wanted to cater to. But politicians like Kaine and the DC city council would rather tackle issues that are popular, rather than necessary.

So that means to DC our bars are safe from second hand smoke…and our streets aren't safe from second hand bullets. In Virginia, it'll be just as hard to smoke a cigar in a bar as it is to take a train to Dulles.