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by KERRY ZIMMERMAN
Intern News Reporter
Smoking in bars, restaurants and public places could soon be illegal in North Carolina.
The North Carolina House Health Committee is currently discussing a statewide bill that will confine smoking to private homes, tobacco shops, cigarette manufacturing plants and no more than 20 percent of a hotel’s rooms.
 Boone resident Adam D. Amesbury stands outside Macado’s Restaurant & Bar to smoke a cigarette. Photo by Alisha Park |
The first hearing on the measure was held Feb. 26, and the committee is expected to resume deliberations this week.
According to the bill, the N.C. General Assembly aims to protect citizens from secondhand smoke.
Jonathan W. Miller, a smoker and piercer at Ink Link, sympathized with smokers, but saw light in the proposal.
“It would give everybody a reason to try and quit,” he said.
Adam M. Yarber, a tattoo artist also at Ink Link, agreed.
“We want to quit so bad,” he said. “Something like that will help.”
If the
bill is approved, a person caught smoking in public could face fines up
to $50 after two written warnings. Businesses face $200 fines if they
do not comply.
“Two
hundred bucks for smoking a cigarette?” Justin T. Grogan, general
manager at Macado’s Restaurant & Bar said. “It’s kind of
ridiculous.”
Grogan
said the restaurant would obey the bill if it becomes the law, but he
thinks Macado’s properly handles the problem of secondhand smoke
already.
“We’re still a family restaurant,” he said.
Macado’s
allows smoking at the bar all day, and smoking in the restaurant after
10 p.m. “We try to cater to both [smokers and non-smokers],” Grogan
said.
Murphy’s, a restaurant and pub on King Street, is non-smoking until 10 p.m. except at the bar, which allows smoking all day.
The bar has doors that separate the area from the rest of the restaurant.
Murphy’s owner, Erik J. Larson, would like to see the bill pass under certain conditions.
He
suggested allowing an outside patio area that was separate from the
restaurant would eliminate secondhand smoke without abolishing smoking
altogether.
As for the business side, he said the bill could both help and hurt.
He may
lose regular customers who wish to smoke at the bar, but many customers
have complained about the smoke and thinks they would embrace the
change.
Though he doesn’t completely support the bill, he said, “I would enjoy a smoke-free place.”
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