North Carolina, the nation’s largest grower of tobacco, will soon prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars. The ban, signed into law on Tuesday by Gov. Bev Perdue, is another defeat for the ailing tobacco industry on home turf in the South.
Starting in January, North Carolina will impose a fine of up to $50 for smoking in bars or restaurants and $200 for owners who repeatedly allow it. The state joins 28 others with similar bans, but it was a landmark victory in a state where tobacco and politics are historically linked and where the likes of R. J. Reynolds and James B. Duke became titans.
“This is a historic day for North Carolina,” said Governor Perdue, a Democrat. “By banning smoking in our restaurants and bars, we will greatly reduce the dangers of secondhand smoke and lower health care costs for families.”
Since March, smoking has been banned in most bars and restaurants in Virginia, where tobacco has been grown for 400 years.
North Carolina’s ban reveals the declining influence of tobacco in an increasingly metropolitan state, said Ferrel Guillory, an expert in the politics of tobacco at theUniversity of North Carolina.
“The temperature of tobacco as a political issue has gone from white hot to barely simmering,” Mr. Guillory said. “In general, the population of North Carolina doesn’t feel much different from the population of the country as a whole about smoking.”
The ban passed the General Assembly last week by a narrow margin. The final version is a compromise for opponents of smoking who originally hoped for a ban in all public places but conceded on exemptions for cigar bars and private clubs.
Opponents of the bill generally framed their arguments in terms of protecting owners of restaurants and bars, not propping up the tobacco industry. But Representative L. Hugh Holliman, a former pipe smoker and a lung cancer survivor who co-sponsored the bill, called it a “huge turning point.”
“We have a big tobacco history and legacy,” Mr. Holliman, a Lexington Democrat, said. “This ban has been a long time coming.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/us/20tobacco.html?_r=1&ref=us
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