Friday, December 14, 2007

Smoke-Free Illinois, Jan. 1, 2008

On January 1, 2008, new rules become effective for smoking in public places.

You can't.

Smoking will be prohibited in public places - restaurants, bars, theater lobbies, the Opera House (which might be smoke-free already), retail stores, places of employment and within 15 feet of entrances to buildings.

A comment was made in a local meeting recently that one exception to the new smoking prohibitions was fraternal organizations, but the statute doesn't mention this. A call to the Woodstock VFW today confirmed that they will go smoke-free on January 1.

Imagine the shock on January 1 at 12:01AM, when smokers must extinguish their cigarettes, cigars and pipes. Probably the Smoke Police won't be haunting bars, restaurants and hotels just after midnight, but they could be.

The fine for the first offense for the smoker starts at $100.00. The range is $100-250. Pretty stiff, eh?

And the fine is $250 for the FIRST offense for the proprietor of a public place, so I wouldn't expect too many tavern operators will be thumbing their noses at the new law. The fine for the second offense? $500.

It was a gutsy move on the part of our legislators. We non-smokers thank them!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't be a non smoker if you smoke pole all the time. Pole smoker.

Anonymous said...

That should be "some" of us non-smokers thank you.

Anonymous said...

there u go u weasel, why dont u become the smoker gestapo. u sure do have alot of time on ur hands for that job. please remember that the gestapo knocked before they entered.