The Lee Strasberg Institute for Tobacco Studies
Michael C. Moynihan | February 22, 2008, 2:50pm
Smokers in the Gopher State are coming up with some clever ways of circumventing Minnesota's smoking ban.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports on a pomo experiment in group theater sweeping the Twin City bar scene:
Dozens of bars are expected to stage "theater nights'' this weekend in which patrons are dubbed actors. The [anti-smoking] law, which went into effect in October, permits performers to smoke during a theatrical production. "Two weeks ago, we had one bar doing this,'' said Mark Benjamin, a criminal defense attorney who launched the theater-night idea. He estimates 50 to 100 bars could be on tap for theater nights this weekend based on phone calls, e-mails and requests for the how-to-stage-a-theater-night packet that he's devised. And many bar owners are passing on the information quickly among themselves without getting in contact with him.
[...]
Lisa Anderson, owner of Mike's Uptown bar in Hill City, said that last Saturday she staged a "theater night" and packed in four times the usual crowd that has come in since the smoking ban took effect. Anderson said she has been helping other bar owners who want to put on their own tobacco productions. "I'm going to continue to do this,'' she said. "It increased my business.''
As Jacob Sullum
pointed out recently, the town of Belmont, California, which allows special dispensation for theatrical productions "where smoking is an integral part of the story."
Back in 1998, Sullum joined reason.tv star Drew Carey to protest California's smoking ban by
staging a "smoke-in" in Los Angeles.
Trolls need attention too | February 22, 2008, 3:36pm | #
Susan | February 22, 2008, 2:53pm | #
This is wrong on so many levels, because while technically legal, it violated the spirit of the law which is to ruduce smoking and increase health.
Haw haw haw! The
spirit of the law ain't that quaint. Where is the legal (or spiritual for that matter) authority saying that the
spirit of a law has any validity?
And please, if possible, define exactly what the
spirit of the law is dear Susan? Isn't it just some airy-fairy idea that the law is "good" and everyone
should know that it is "good" and it is only meant for the "good" of society, and to protect people from "not goodness"(i.e. anything they might choose for themselves)?
And if not, tell me how it can be violated, and what, if any is the penalty for its violation?
If the only penalty is a whiny posting from a troll, folks ain't likely to be too concerned about not violating it, and therefore any perceived "goodness" of it leaks away, and "bad" people continue to refuse to act "good"...
And lawmakers are encouraged to make another law (with attached
spirit of) in order to do further "good". (to self: hmmm sounds like gun control laws.)
And besides that, speaking of violating spirits what kinnath said below:
kinnath | February 22, 2008, 3:01pm | #
This is right on so many levels, because the law violated the spirit of the constitution which is to protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But since the subject has been brought up, is spirit violation actually just sexual relations with an under age ghost, or the ghost of an under age person... and would it make Susan's (may I call you Susie?) posting pertinent if the death was caused either by smoking or by acting?
