Tobacco.org

Smokers: The bar should stay a bar  

Just a few hours after the city of Soldotna failed to introduce its proposed smoking ban, Barton Mulder sits at the bar in the Maverick Saloon, alternating between sips of beer and drags on a cigarette. Had the ban been introduced and passed, the latter would have been outlawed.

"When I come to a bar, I expect to be able to smoke," Mulder said. "How are you suppose to relax and have a couple drinks when you're a smoker and not be able to smoke?

"I don't think they should be able to take that right away from the bar," he said.

"I shouldn't have to go outside to smoke," said Maverick patron Candy Hurst on Wednesday.

If smoking is banned in a bar, what's next? Hurst asked. Are they going to ban swearing? "It's just one more freedom we're going to lose," she said.

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