The drive by West Virginia bar owners to protect their businesses from the smoking ban has taken a hit from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co
Jump to full article: Charleston (WV) Gazette, 2009-10-10
Author: Edward Peeks
Intro: The drive by West Virginia bar owners to protect their businesses from the smoking ban has taken a hit from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Winston cigarettes.
Kerry "Paco" Ellison, owner of the Blackhawk Saloon in Charleston, took the double blow after resisting the ban for more than a year and becoming prominent statewide in the movement by bar owners.
Reynolds charged Ellison with using an inflatable balloon of a pack of Winston cigarettes to the detriment of the company by promoting "unlawful smoker rights and to encourage patrons of your bar to violate the county's smoking ban."
Ellison told Gazette staff writer Eric Eyre, "It just baffles me that no matter what I do, somebody goes and gets a bigger dog. At this point the fight continues."
But since then, he has had second thoughts about continuing to defy the smoking ban by offering special nights for smoking in the bar. Yet no decision to move the giant Winston sign ballooned at the front of the place, though the lettering has been revised with duct tape.
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