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Business owners should decidesmoking rules in restaurants

Richard O. Provost Dillon

The Breckenridge anti-smoking activist (SDN, Aug. 23) who believes in the tyranny of the majority does not offer a strategy to help the restaurant and bar owners who feel that their businesses and customers have been unduly damaged or inconvenienced by the draconian smoking ordinances enacted by the local governments.Instead, he parrots the views of the outsider organization for a smoke-free Colorado. I do not doubt that some business owners may have benefited from the ban, nor do I doubt that some have been hurt. The theories of the “level playing field” and “one size fits all” are myths and plainly wrong. There is no substitute for good old American free enterprise. Let us rely upon the wisdom of the owners of our local businesses to determine how to best serve their smoking customers.The final outcome should depend upon what benefits the county, smokers, nonsmokers, the tourist industry, tax revenues and other considerations, but not on the agendas of outside pressure groups.


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