News of the state’s new smok­ing ban was like hear­ing music to my, well, lungs really. I can now some­what relax my con­cerns about sec­ond­hand smoke and rest and breathe a bit more easily.

I can now go out to eat din­ner and com­fort­ably enjoy the expe­ri­ence with­out hav­ing to inhale smoke that drifts over from the bar across the room.

I can now go out, if I so desire, to a night­club, bowl­ing alley, or bar with­out hav­ing to worry about com­ing home wreak­ing of smoke, want­ing to shower and change right away.

For me, the new smok­ing ban that will take effect in May will make my life more com­fort­able, sim­ply because I won’t have to be around smok­ers as often as I am now.

I know that some peo­ple have their reser­va­tions about the smok­ing ban and how they believe that it is not really a good thing for the people.

One of the biggest uncer­tain­ties that I have heard voiced is that telling peo­ple where they can and can­not smoke over­steps the government’s bound­aries into the per­sonal lives of its cit­i­zens. They see this as just another step toward a “big brother” type of gov­ern­ment or an expan­sion of the government’s con­trol over us.

In one sense, I can def­i­nitely see the strong points of their argu­ment. Smoking is a per­sonal choice of the smoker and no one should have the right to tell them they can’t do it. However, when other people’s health is on the line, espe­cially mine, I under­stand where the gov­ern­ment stands on smok­ing in pub­lic places.

Another worry is that the ban will have a neg­a­tive impact on busi­ness own­ers because peo­ple won’t want to come in any­more because they can’t smoke. I do not feel that the ban will have any sub­stan­tial impact on busi­nesses. Although peo­ple may enjoy smok­ing while they are out, I do not believe that it will deter them from con­tin­u­ing to visit those establishments.

In the short-term, I can see where smok­ers may not want to go out to the bar or to din­ner because they are not allowed to smoke within those build­ings, but even­tu­ally they will under­stand that it is not com­pletely unrea­son­able. This will espe­cially become true once they real­ize that if they still want to go out for a drink or to a restau­rant, by law they have no choice but to not smoke.

The smok­ing ban has many good points which, in my opin­ion, out­weigh any neg­a­tive ones it may have. For one, although the chances are slim, I don’t have to worry about the can­cer­ous effects of sec­ond­hand smoke while I am inside. If I’m sit­ting in a restau­rant and I hap­pen to breathe in cig­a­rette smoke, I can’t help but to think about all the dan­ger­ous chem­i­cals I’m inhal­ing from some­one else’s enjoy­ment. My health can now be, some­what, reas­sured when I’m in an indoor pub­lic setting.

Maybe this new smok­ing ban will even moti­vate social smok­ers to knock the habit. Without the lux­ury to smoke while out at the bar, night­club, or even just hang­ing out with friends on top of the ris­ing cost of cig­a­rettes, social smok­ers may real­ize that now is the time to quit.

Whether or not this new leg­is­la­tion will lead to decreased cig­a­rette con­sump­tion, decreased busi­ness pro­duc­tion, or greater gov­ern­ment con­trol, it ben­e­fits me all the same and I can now, lit­er­ally, breathe easier.

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