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Indoor smoking ban proposal blows over 

An Albuquerque city councilor now says his proposal for a complete indoor smoking ban, including in cigar bars, went too far.

Councilor Michael Cadigan says he was trying to protect businesses in strip malls that sit next door to cigar and smoke shops. He also wanted to discourage hookah bars from setting up shop in Albuquerque.

Cadigan says hookah bars only encourage a younger crowd to pick up the smoking habit. Additionally, he says businesses around smoke shops have to deal with second-hand smoke.

The councilor says he has decided to drop the smoking ban proposal after it received an unenthusiastic response.

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Smoking ban proposal upsets cigar bar owners 

Owners of cigar bars and smoke shops in Albuquerque are fuming over how a city councilor wants to change the city's smoking ban.

The proposed changes would no longer allow smokers to light up in either type of business.

Larry Monte has owned Monte's near Louisiana and Meanaul for nearly 35 years. He says if City Councilor Michael Cadigan's recent proposal becomes law, he'll lose thousands of dollars in business a year.

"There's a reason why we do it inside, we don't want to offend anybody. We take all that into consideration," he said.

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Albuquerque Tobacconists Condemn Secretive Attempt to Pass Smoking Ban Amendment 

The only thing worse than bad legislation is bad sneaky legislation," said tobacconists Larry Montes and Al Baca when they learned that the Albuquerque City Council was expected to secretly move this Monday on an amendment to the local smoking ban that would eliminate the current exclusion of cigar stores and private clubs. Montes and Baca are members of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

For more than 30 years, Montes has owned Albuquerque's Montes Pueblo Pipe Shop, the largest tobacco shop in New Mexico. His customers include internationally known politicians and local dignitaries. Eight months ago he opened a private club fully in accord with the current law. Both businesses use state-of-the-art filtration and ventilation systems and neither business has received complaints from neighbors.

Now Montes fears both businesses would face extinction if the amendment passes.

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Absolutely no smoking 

At the same time as the state of New Mexico moved to embrace a nearly universal indoor workplace smoking ban last summer, a few large employers were already working on going farther.

Campus-wide smoking bans have now been instituted by several large employers, including Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, Holy Cross Hospital in Taos and the city of Albuquerque. Nathan Bush, New Mexico government relations director for the American Cancer Society, said the idea was first pushed by hospitals and other health care facilities.

"Being in health care, they recognized the health and social and monetary costs of tobacco abuse," Bush said.

That was the experience at the Health Sciences Center

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Spokesman warns against dangers of smokeless tobacco  

Rick Bender is a living testament to the destruction tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, can do. Bender, who lost part of his jaw due to oral cancer, spoke to Portales youth Saturday at the Teens Take Control Summit at the Portales Recreation Center.

Bender, 46, has testified before Congress in support of laws banning tobacco use for those under age 18. He started using chew tobacco at age 12, and by age 26, he found himself in a doctor's office with a dime size mouth sore which turned out to be an aggressive form of oral cancer which required part of his mouth, jaw and tongue to be removed. . . .

With this is mind, Bender is focusing much of his awareness campaign these days on Clean Air Acts, laws which prohibit smoking in public places, which many cities are adopting. While he supports such acts, he said, "This is a problem. They should not only be smoke-free ordinances, but tobacco-free."

To illustrate his point, Bender showed advertisements by the Camel tobacco company which is test marketing a new flavored tobacco product called, "Smus." He showed an advertisement in which a man says, "I love tobacco. I don't smoke .... Take a pinch instead of a puff!" . . .

Terri Teti, coordinator of the Roosevelt County Health Council and a Teen Summit organizer, told of an incident last year in which a group of youth were wearing tobacco product T-shirts at the Curry County Fair in Clovis and told how tobacco product advertisements are no longer allowed in the parade.

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Rodeo promoter rejects tobacco sponsorships  

An independent rodeo promoter pledged today to ban advertising, sponsorships and the distribution of free spit tobacco at all of his events.

Casper Baca, owner of Casper Baca Rodeo Co., which produces 50 rodeos a year throughout the Southwest, signed the "Bucking Tobacco Sponsorship" policy during a ceremony with Lt. Gov. Diane Denish; State Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque; Dr. Alfredo Vigil, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health; and Chris Baca, president and CEO of YDI, a contractor of the Health Department's Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program. YDI helped Baca develop his anti-tobacco policy.

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Judge convict Alamogordo-area businessman of smoking violations 

An Alamogordo-area businessman has been found guilty of 15 violations of New Mexico's no smoking law.

Henry Morgan Smith says he will appeal to state district court.

Smith's restaurant and bar shut down last year after repeated citations over the no smoking law.

He was convicted yesterday of violating the Dee Johnson Clean Air Act.

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• Belen rodeo bans tobacco advertising 

A Belen rodeo is bucking a decades-long relationship by banning tobacco advertising of any kind.

Casper Baca is the promoter of the Baca Rough Stock Rodeo Series that puts on more than 50 rodeos each year in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. His Belen rodeo that gets underway Saturday is the first one he'll stage that will be free from tobacco advertisements.

"I hope we set a precedent here that will lead to bigger and better things to come for the Buck Tobacco sponsorship program," says Baca.

Buck Tobacco is a nationwide movement to ban tobacco sponsorship at rodeos.

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Got a Light? 

Billy's Long Bar converted one of its rooms into a cigar bar in late December so folks could smoke cigars and cigarettes indoors.

The question becomes whether new cigar bars are legal under the state's Dee Johnson Clean Indoor Air Act, which banned smoking in New Mexico businesses last year.

"It is clearly not allowed," says City Councilor Michael Cadigan. "We can't let businesses flaunt the law, because once the camel's nose is under the proverbial tent, it's going to be more difficult to enforce the law in the future."

Cadigan contends the limits on what can be considered a cigar bar make it illegal for establishments like Billy's Long Bar to open cigar lounges. He notes the last stand-alone cigar bar in Albuquerque, the Cigar Lounge, closed in 2007.

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Pictures of Health 

Fourteen juniors and seniors from Estancia High School filmed three public service announcements in early December about the deadly aspects of tobacco use. The students will find out soon whether they have won a contest sponsored by the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, an outreach project founded in 1993 whose mission is partly to cultivate critical thinking, according to their Web site.

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Smoking ban goes into effect 

On June 15, the Dee Johnson Clean Indoor Air Act went in to effect in New Mexico, making it illegal to smoke in most indoor public places and workplaces. The law exempted a number of politically sensitive and smoke-heavy locations, including retail tobacco stores, private clubs, casinos, bingo parlors and state-licensed gaming facilities.

New Mexico became the 17th state to enact such a law. . . .

The Otero County Sheriff's Department declined to respond.

"Based on the current litigation, we are unable to comment at this time," said Undersheriff Norbert Sanchez.

On Dec. 10, five of the defendants filed a motion in U.S. District Court demanding a trial by jury for Smith's civil suit.

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Top 10 stories of 2007 

Domenici's decision to retire in early 2009 was voted the top story of 2007 by Associated Press editors and news directors. . . . New Mexico's statewide smoking ban rounded out the top five. . . .

5. Smoking ban: New Mexico officially became smoke-free - at least indoors - June 15. The 2007 Legislature banned smoking in bars, restaurants, stores and most other indoor workplaces, making New Mexico the 17th state in the nation with a broad, smoke-free policy. At least a dozen New Mexico municipalities already had smoking bans.

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LETTER: Ban the smoking ban 

There were businesses in town that had a separate place for smokers, true, and granted, the ventilation system could have been better so that non-smokers would not have been bothered so badly.

This silly law is taking one of our small liberties away. The government is slowly but surely making sure we don't have many freedoms anymore. I could get on my soapbox and go on and on, but I won't.

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LETTER: Smoking areas good step toward smoke-free campus  

The University has tried to implement a smoking ban on campus but failed. The issue is yet to be revisited.

Students, staff and organizations on campus should support a proposal for designated smoking areas in an effort to keep everybody happy while moving toward a smoke-free campus. The image of a clean, relaxing, beautiful campus that UNM strives to present to the public is slowly being diminished by the cigarette stubs littering the campus grounds. The potential for dangers, such as fire, increase with every stub that is carelessly flicked away.

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LETTER: Smoking law it wrong 

To Alex Vargas of Alamogordo and all others cut from the same cloth you or the state do not have the right to enforce an unconstitutional or illegal law. Sometimes the government is like big business; it needs a big fine to get their attention. If you are tired of paying these fines, stop pressing for the illegal laws. And yes, I have contacted my government on this and other issues.

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