NEWS: Boston Smoking Ban

This section offers up-to-date information on the proposed smoking ban in Boston, Massachusetts.

LETTERS TO BOSTON MAYOR MENINO

We are urging CRA members and fellow cigar enthusiasts to contact Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to voice their opposition to his proposed smoking ban. Many of you have sent him an email and we would like to share their letters with you.

Please write to Boston Mayor Menino at: mayor@cityofboston.gov .
Please copy info@cigarrights.org so that we can share your letter with your fellow cigar enthusiasts.

You can also call Boston Mayor Menino at (617) 635-4500 and let him know that you are a cigar enthusiast and that you oppose the proposed Boston Smoking Ban.

Click Here to read letters that CRA Members have sent to Mayor Menino...

EXCESSES OF SMOKING BAN NEED SNUFFING


  

December 11, 2008

When does government go too far? The question has resurfaced with the proposal to ban cigar bars and smoking on outdoor patios at restaurants and bars in Boston. The Boston Public Health Commission should be commended for its work prohibiting smoking inside bars and restaurants, which has significantly improved the atmosphere of so many of our eating and drinking establishments. However, the new regulations, which are scheduled for a vote this afternoon, go too far.

Boston needs to present itself with the flexibility and diversity of the major urban center that it is. The elimination of cigar bars targets a number of our city's small businesses for destruction, ignoring the important role they play in our business community and our economy. In addition, the smoking prohibition in outdoor places disregards investments made by bar and restaurant owners in the construction of areas designed to accommodate their smoking patrons.

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BOSTON COMMISSION VOTES TO BAN CIGAR, HOOKAH BARS



December 11, 2008

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Public Health Commission voted Thursday to extinguish cigar bars and hookah bars and end the sales of tobacco in pharmacies and on college campuses, giving Boston some of the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the nation.

The panel, however, decided to give the bars 10 years before they would have to close, doubling the original proposed grace period for the establishments.

Boston is the largest city, by far, to move to outlaw smoking bars, which have been exempt from the city's four-year-old workplace smoking ban.

"It's very important that we really think about what are the steps we can take to make our city as healthy as it can possibly be," she said.

The commission gave preliminary approval in September to the rules, which would take effect on campuses and pharmacies in 60 days.

The panel also voted to expand the workplace smoking restrictions to include adjacent areas such as loading docks and smoking in hotels, inns and bed and breakfasts.

Under the new regulations, operators of a smoking bar whose permit is current or whose application is pending before the commission by Nov. 1 will be able to operate for a period of not more than 10 years. After 10 years, they can petition for another 10-year extension.

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BOSTON HEALTH COMMISSION SUNSETS CIGAR BARS

BOSTON, MA., December 11 – The Boston Public Health Commission voted unanimously on Thursday ban smoking on outdoor patios of bars and restaurants, to ban the sale of tobacco on college campuses and in pharmacies. These new restrictions will take place in 60 days.

On the vigorously-debated issue of cigar bars, the Commission had originally proposed to close these businesses in five years, but changed the time frame to 10 years. After that period (ending in 2019), those cigar bars – there are six in Boston now – can ask the Executive Director of the health commission for an additional extension.

However, no new cigar bars may be opened in Boston. The Commission changed the regulations after receiving more than 300 comments from the public, of which two-thirds were against the regulations, especially concerning the cigar bars.

UP IN SMOKE: BOSTON CONSIDERS A BAN ON TOBACCO (CIGAR) BARS

December 7, 2008

BOSTON— Sometimes Justin Hegarty savors his cigars by himself, and sometimes he enjoys them in a cigar bar with friends. "Either way, it's relaxing," said Hegarty, soon after an afternoon smoke at Churchill's cigar lounge.

Hegarty may need to find a new city where he can wind down with his cherished stogies.

The Boston Public Health Commission is scheduled to vote soon on expanded smoking restrictions that would be among the nation's toughest. The proposal would ban cigar bars and hookah bars, which currently enjoy exemptions from Boston's four-year-old workplace smoking ban. It would also eliminate sales of tobacco in pharmacies and on college campuses.

The commission gave preliminary approval to the rules in September, and is scheduled for a final vote Thursday (December 11, 2008).

Boston would be the largest city, by far, to outlaw smoking bars. Hegarty was baffled about what the city hoped to accomplish, and said it seemed almost unconstitutional.

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BOSTON PONDERS EVEN TOUGHER REGULATIONS ON TOBACCO

October 25, 2008

BOSTON — For Jay McGwire, Churchill's cigar bar here is a place to relax and strike up conversations while sipping a stout and smoking a cigar.

“I come here and I meet nice people,” Mr. McGwire said. “And I can't smoke cigars in my house.”

But Mr. McGwire worries that he will eventually not be able to light up at Churchill's, either. The Boston Public Health Commission is proposing some of the nation's strictest smoking regulations, banning the sale of cigarettes at drugstores and on college campuses, and shutting down the city's 10 cigar and hookah bars by 2013.
  
The Board of Health will vote on the regulations on Nov. 13. If approved they will take effect within 60 days.

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PROPOSED BAN IGNITES CIGAR SMOKER PROTESTS

October 9, 2008

For years, Bostonians have confirmed these sentiments at any one of four cigar bars in the city, where patrons still can enjoy a fat Habano with a snifter of fine liqueur. The bars were exempt from the city's smoking ban that took effect in 2004.

But now city health officials are poised to revoke the exemption and order the bars closed, drawing angry protests at a public hearing yesterday and in interviews this week at the bars, where patrons fumed about the move over glasses of port and hand-rolled Rocky Patel Premiums.
   
The restrictions, which face a final vote by the commission's seven-member board on Nov. 13, also would ban smoking on outdoor patios at restaurants and other businesses and prohibit tobacco sales on college campuses and by all drug stores in the city.

Clich Here to read the full article...

CIGAR PROTESTS HAVING AN EFFECT IN BOSTON

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, October 10, 2008– Although the Boston Public Health Commission's recommendations to further local smoking bans are getting a good reception at City Hall, cigar smokers strongly protested the closure of cigar bars.

According to the Boston Globe, there are only cigar bars that would be affected, but Cigar Masters co-owner Brett Greenfield pointed out that "there aren't people who are in there who are expecting not to be around second-hand smoke."

The city's director of public health, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, says she wants to "de-normalize" smoking and "Ideally, I'd like to say by 2025 that we don't have anybody smoking."

However, the argument made by the cigar bars is receiving some interest. Mayor Tom Menino told the Globe, "I understand they've been there for a while and I want to work with the cigar bars. I cannot, during these tough economic times, prevent them from doing business."

NEW BOSTON ANTI-SMOKING REGS NOW IN PROCESS

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, September 4, 2008 – To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Boston Public Health Commission unanimously approved a new set of smoking regulations. It's the first step in the process of further punishing smoking and smokers in the city.

The new regulations would target cigar and hookah bars, prohibiting any new such businesses to open and then requiring all of them to be closed within five years. In addition, the sale of blunt wraps would be outlawed and stores which sell tobacco products would be required to post "harsher" signage to deter people from smoking. Sales of tobacco products would be banned from all pharmacies.

The city is now in the public comment stage and will hold hearings within 60 days.

The city's cigar bars will be active in opposing the proposals. Patrick Kelly, who works at the cigar bar Cigar Masters said he has been in contact with other cigar bars to work together on the issue. "No one who comes in here doesn't know that they are putting themselves at risk [by smoking]," he told MetroBostonNews.com.