Hi! Woo! Okay! Hello boys and girls and welcome to another installment of the Smoke Report. I'm your host Jay Ty. My apologies on our show being late but I had a slight medical issue last week. First it started off as kind of... And then it morphed into more of this... Yeah! And finally the pain set in. Pain which I could best describe as someone crawling up my butt with an ice pick and slicing up a guts. Turns out after a battery of tests that I have a condition called diverticulus which is basically an infection of the intestines that I wouldn't wish upon anyone. However, it's quite manageable. I'm recovering just fine and things are getting back to normal. Thank you for your concern. So now that you all know far more about my digestive tract than you probably wanted to, let's talk smoke. We are all acutely aware of the many smoking bands that seem to just keep popping up every time you turn around, right? Some make sense. Some not so much. But what's been interesting to me are the unintended consequences that some of these bands have created. Take for example Texas State University, the largest public university in the United States to go tobacco free. The band there effectively removed all ash trays from their property but people just kept on smoking meaning that they had no place to throw their butts away, resulting in what looks like the campus becoming one giant ash tray itself. Also up in Montreal, smoking bands at city hospitals have resulted in patients being locked outside on winter nights. They got to have their smoke break they can't get back in. And trevenous lines are freezing while they're out having a toque. And some patients have said, screw it, I ain't going out there. And they're smoking in their hospital beds. My friends, you want to know why these bands result in unforeseen bad negative consequences? Because none of the people implementing the bands or coming up with the idea for the bands, give a damn about people who smoke. I've said it before and I'm going to say it again right here right now. I believe most smokers understand reasonable bands. But some of these crusading bastards out there who want to implement all these bands don't want them to be reasonable. Something in them thinks that there is no middle ground here that smokers should have no rights at all and that their freedoms override your freedoms. It doesn't matter who they hurt or what the consequences are or what they destroy. Sad, isn't it? We'll be back in a minute. Ball is in the air. Got some encouraging stories for all my smoking buddies out there. Most of all from Ohio, a bar owner is taking that state's smoking ban to their Supreme Court. This after his bar ran up $33,000 and fines for not enforcing their smoking ban with and I quote, sufficient zeal. Yeah. And in Nebraska, a pub owner in that state is arguing that their ban on smoking is unconstitutional because some businesses are exempt from the ban like cigar clubs and hotels with smoking rooms. And if he were to prevail, my friends, that could be a game changer. But what I really wanted to come out here and talk to you about in the second half of the show is a story out of Seattle, Washington just down the road from me, a story that has to do with gun control. Gun control? Yes, I said gun control. What does gun control have to do with a show on smoking? A fair question I'm glad you asked. And here it is. Just the other day, a Washington State appeals court ruled that a ban on firearms in Seattle city parks was essentially unconstitutional because it violates citizens' rights to keep and bear arms. So, don't get ahead of me here. Let me understand this. Smoking in city parks is bad because some children might get hurt. However, strapping on a 9-millimeter pistol is perfectly acceptable. What the hell is wrong with our society? You know, with laws and politicians like the ones we've got, is it any wonder people need to light up just to get by these days? We'll see you on our next installment of The Smoke Report.