Clearing The Air

Minnesota Public Radio story admits one year later statewide smoking ban eliminates business

Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association interim director Tony Chesak said it's clear to him the ban is causing bars across the state to fail.

"I'd say, realistically, 200 to 300 licensed establishments, at least, have closed," Chesak said. "I would think that would be a conservative number."

Membership in the association dropped about 25 percent this year. Chesak said the promise of non-smokers frequenting bars more often because of the smoke free law hasn't panned out.

Meanwhile, ClearWay MN (recipient of tens of millions of tobacco settlement dollars) spokesperson Kerri Gordon claims "...studies have found that smoking bans don't hurt businesses in states that have bans in place....."

It's obvious that Gordon hopes we've all forgotten about this Clearway MN survey from 2006 that found smoking bans eliminate business in 7 out of 10 hospitality venues they polled.......oops it appears that facts are a stubborn thing Kerri.........and ClearWay MN is caught lying to the public once again.

The rest of the MPR story can be found here.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 9:33 PM