LONG: LOGIC FLAWED WITH SMOKING BAN

ALBANY, N.Y.- The head of the state conservative party says there was
a distorted sense of perspective at the state Capital when the new
smoking ban was adopted.

Michael Long asked how legislators and Gov. George Pataki could agree
to impose fines of up to $2,000 for smoking tobacco, a legal
substance, in public while people caught smoking marijuana in public
generally face fines of $100.

"The New York State Legislatures Clean Indoor Clean Air Act of 2003
has managed to make the fine for smoking a legal substance 20 times
harsher than an illegal substance," Long said. "Something is just not
right with that logic."

Long, a smoker, predicted that the business of bars and restaurants
would suffer because of the ban. He also objected to the way the law
puts the onus on businesses and their employees to be "smoking police"
by requiring them to ask patrons to put out cigarettes or to leave the
premises.

If businesses and employees do not enforce the new ban, they are
subject to fines of up to $1,000 where county health department
officials oversee the law and of up to $2,000 where the state Health
Department is the regulating agency.

Russell Sciandra, head of the center for a Tobacco-Free New York, said
the fine structure under the expanded smoking law is the same as
existed for a more limited smoking ban that went into effect in New
York in 1989. The fine levels were not set specifically for smoking
violations, but are in effect for a range of public health violations
for businesses, he said.