Adelstein: Smoking ban faced “tremendous amount of pressure”

Sen. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, said he’s disappointed the Senate failed to pass a statewide smoking ban this week. “There was a tremendous amount of pressure,” said Adelstein, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services committee.

The Senate voted 18-17 on Tuesday to kill SB83, which would have banned smoking in all indoor public spaces, including bars, restaurants, casinos, hotels, video lottery establishments and tobacco shops.

Disclosure: The Chief does NOT smoke or use tobacco products, and if asked, would discourage anyone from doing so, for both obvious and personal reasons.

Having said that, the state really has no business telling someone that they cannot engage in a legal (and taxed!) activity on private property, if that’s what the owners and customers are willing to accept. If someone doesn’t want to be around the tobacco use, then there is freedom to find somewhre else to take one’s business.

Somehow the Chief is not surprised that stealth Democrat RINO Sen. Adelstein has his paw prints all over this idea. It’s the old lib conceit that governmental meddling can engineer and force us into meeting someone else’s idea of more desirable activity.

Once one goes down this trail, where’s the stopping point? No tobacco? OK. What about no…hamburgers, sugared pop, unsugared pop, butter, steaks, beer, wine, coffee, tea, meat, leather, dairy herds, etc…the list is endless of something that some faction or group claims results in Bad Things happening to us, or being caused by us.

Forget the whole idea…allow folks to make up their own minds about such things. Otherwise, we could end up with a system so intrusive that it  would make “1984” look like a New England town meeting.

’nuff said.