State bill would ban smoking at tobacco shops

State Senator Mark DeSaulnier wants California to enact even tougher smoking laws. In 1994 California became the first state to ban smoking in most indoor places but DeSaulnier says 25 other states have since adopted stronger laws to protect people from second-hand smoke. He's proposing a bill which would expand the statewide smoking ban to include employee break rooms, private residences that house day care, warehouses and tobacco shops.

The Sanctuary Tobacco shop has been in San Luis Obispo since 1973. As the city has enacted groundbreaking legislation over the years to ban smoking in public places, The Sanctuary has always gotten an exemption and patrons have been able to smoke at the shop. The proposed state law may put the smoke out.

Sanctuary owner Doug Shaw says banning smoking at tobacco shops is ridiculous. "To me it just doesn't make sense. It's not as though someone's walking through my door with the idea that there won't be smoking" says Shaw.

Mark Burnes goes to The Sanctuary nearly every day to smoke a cigar and talk with friends. "The regulation of peoples freedom can only go so far and this is, what we have maybe 400 square feet in this little store out of a city of what about 20 square miles that you can enjoy a pipe and tobacco" says Burnes.

Shaw says banning smoking at his shop would "definitely affect business."

Senator DeSaulnier says he's been negotiating with other lawmakers about taking tobacco shops out of the bill but says there needs to be a better way to identify them. He says some bars disguise themselves as tobacco shops so people are allowed to smoke. DeSaulnier authored a similar bill that passed in 2007 but was vetoed by then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The bill will be discussed by the Labor Committee on Wednesday.

source: www.ksby.com