SMOKING BAN STILL A BURNING ISSUE

In Florida, one can smoke in a bar or outdoor dining area, but not in a restaurant, the result of the state's Clean Indoor Air Act passed by voters as an amendment to the state Constitution. Two years later, it remains a hot issue among some restauranters who believe that the ban on smoking has cost them business.

Now one restaurant in Naples is taking the state to court, challenging the Act as unconstitutional. The owners of The Castaways Backwater Cafe, Inc. is claiming that the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation and it's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco's enforcement of the law is a violation of the Fifth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The idea is that the ban on smoking in restaurants or other locations where more than ten percent of it's business is from food sales creates an unequal application of the law based on economic considerations. Bars pay much more for state liquor licenses than restaurants pay for their licenses, thus the "unequal application".

Castaways' Backwater Cafe is one of a handful of restaurants which have not enforced the smoking ban, and has been cited three times for violations of the law. As the cases have been in the midst of negotiations and administrative hearings, the accumulated fines have yet to be paid. It's owner, Alfred Rusillo, began a petition drive for the Legislature to establish "smokers only restaurants" which would cater only to smokers or non-smokers who sign a waiver of the non-smoking requirment.

Even the Castaways' attorney states that the unwanted consequence of this litigation could be the end of all indoor smoking in Florida. Naples attorney Ludwig Abruzzo says that the intent is simply to give people a choice of dining at a restaurant that allows smoking, or one that doesn't.

I should be used to this. I am the only one of four children in my family that never started the wicked habit, and both my parents died from cancer significantly related to smoking. When I dine out, which is not as much as I would like, I prefer a place that is smoke-free which allows me to better enjoy the dining experience. Also, the evidence on second hand smoke is quite handy. But most importantly, this is not just a decision made by folks in a backroom; the people of Florida decided by a rather large majority to make this a part of the state Constitution. The will of the people should be respected.