Why does Florida allow smoking in bars and beaches? | You asked, we answer

As part of the Sun Sentinel’s Sound Off South Florida project, we’re taking questions submitted by readers and doing our best to provide an answer. We’ve already answered questions such as “Why can I bet on horse races in Florida but not football?” and “Why doesn’t Florida use more wind energy?,” plus many more at our Sound Off South Florida site.

Today, we’re tackling another query, as reader Damon Scott wrote in: “I’d love to know why Florida allows smoking on patios, some bars and on the beach? Other states are way ahead of the curve on this one.”

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Other states may be slightly ahead of the curve here, but not as much as you may think. Besides, technically speaking, the Florida Legislature never banned smoking at all.

Back in 2003, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment that banned indoor smoking in all workplaces, with a few exceptions, including bars that receive no more than 10 percent of revenue from the sale of food.

That places Florida in somewhat lenient territory compared to other states, but only just.

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According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 25 states have smoking bans on all indoor spaces, including workplaces, restaurants and bars. Another five states have banned smoking in all restaurants and bars, but not in private workplaces that aren’t open to the public, as restaurants and bars are.

Florida is among the remaining 20 states that have a mish-mosh of partial smoking bans, with the strength of them varying from state to state. And among those states, Florida is actually one of the more restrictive. Some states, especially in the south, have left smoking regulations up to individual municipalities, so that dozens of cities in places like Alabama and Kentucky with no statewide smoking bans have enacted their own.

That, however, will never happen in Florida because the same amendment that banned smoking in 2003 also preempted regulation of tobacco use to the state, meaning that if any further changes in Florida’s smoking laws are to occur, they would have to come from the Florida Legislature. However, such legislation is on the move for the 2019 legislative session.

State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota and state Rep. Thad Altman, R-Indialantic, have filed bills that would ban smoking on beaches in Florida. If passed, the law would mean smoking on a public beach could be subject to a $25 fine.

Cigarette butts left on the beach are a major problem, according to a survey by the Ocean Conservancy, which found that butts led the list of the more than 2.4 million items found on the beach in the organization’s beach clean-ups.

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But could an outright ban on smoking on public beaches really pass a Florida Legislature dominated by regulation-wary Republicans? Well, bills are usually assigned to three committee hearings in the legislature. In the Senate, the smoking ban has four committee stops, which means a pretty high bar, though it’s not unheard of for bills to survive the increased oversight.

California, where the beaches are just as necessary for tourism as here and with a state government dominated by Democrats, may provide some foreshadowing. For three years running now, the state legislature there has passed a bill that would ban smoking in state parks and on public beaches. And for three years running, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed the legislation, calling it government overreach.

“Third time is not always a charm,” Brown wrote in his latest veto letter in Sept. 2018. “My opinion on the matter has not changed.”

So, if they can’t get a beach ban passed out there on the Left Coast, what’s the likelihood of one passing here?

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Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Outdoor