Bar owners, AA club unite to fight smoking ban

Toledo, OH: A raucous, smoke-choked barroom meeting found bar owners and AA members united in opposition to a smoking ban passed by the state's voters and effective today. A lawyer hired by the bar owners advised the crowd to file a lawsuit against the measure, and meanwhile to defy the law and keep puffing.

United with the bar owners in opposition to the smoking ban was a member of the local AA club. The Toledo Blade reports:

Roy A. said he was misled.

He was certain that Idle Time, 2044 Genesee, a club for Alcoholics Anonymous members, was protected from the ban, so he voted for it. (Alcoholics Anonymous requires its members to remain anonymous.)

"I voted only because I thought it wasn't going to affect us. I thought us, the bowling alleys, and the VFW, and The Eagles, were exempt," he said, adding that almost all of the club's 200 members smoke. While they do not permit smoking at AA meetings, they allow it afterward. The law would change that. He intends to support the move to challenge the law.

Source. The statement echoes the stance of an Omaha AA group reported here earlier.

AA group wants exemption from smoking ban

OMAHA, Neb. -- Some people struggling with addiction are fighting Omaha's new smoking ban. A group of Alcoholics Anonymous attendees said it has been contacted by authorities and warned that attendees can't smoke during meetings, Omaha television station KETV reported. The group is talking to an attorney, hoping to create an exemption to the law.

The group contacted attorney James Martin Davis. "One of the city councilmen told me keno and smoking go hand in hand. Well, what goes hand in hand is AA meetings and smoking," Davis said, referring to the temporary exemption the city's ordinance allows for keno parlors. Source.