{"id":1147,"date":"2013-08-02T14:42:30","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T20:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theloungeisback.wordpress.com\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2013-08-02T14:42:30","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T20:42:30","slug":"lawsuit-filed-over-smoke-shacks-built-by-great-falls-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1147","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit filed over “smoke shacks” built by Great Falls bars, injunctions filed, groups formed, it’s a mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a hell of a convoluted story<\/a>. It’s too complicated to tell the whole story here, so I’ll sum up … It’s a city\/county health department fighting the courts, owner of some Great Falls, Montana bars and a citizens’ group has gotten in the middle of it. It’s all over things called “smoke shacks.”<\/p>\n

I only know of one bar locally that has one of these “smoke shacks” (Another one has some shelter in an alley behind the bar, but that’s different).<\/p>\n

Under Montana law, bar owners could install a “smoke shack” in their bars. It’s usually a really small room, with a few video gambling machines, completely cut off from the rest of the bar. So, if you really want to smoke inside and play video poker or whatever, you kind of get shut off alone in these little rooms.<\/p>\n

The owners of a bunch of casinos built these smoke shacks, but then received notices from the city and county that they were violating the state’s clean air act. The bar owners finally filed suit over it. The city and county health department requested an injunction against the smoking shelters and lost.<\/p>\n

According this article, the judge ruled that the health department “took a ‘kaleidoscope of ever-shifting interpretations,’ concerning smoking structures in Cascade County, and that the board failed to adopt a coherent and logical interpretation of the Clean Indoor Air for bars and casinos in Cascade County.”<\/p>\n

So… it gets more convoluted, because now a citizens’ group has gotten involved on the side of the city and the county, mad that these bars in Great Falls have found loopholes in the Clean Air act.<\/p>\n

One of the strangest parts of this article is an interview with a former smoker\/gambler:<\/p>\n

Doug Richardson watched the tavern industry change from a gaming machine in the Palace Casino.<\/p>\n

He was there before the law, when the law was implemented and today after the smoking shelters were built.<\/p>\n

He smoked like any other gambler, until he was diagnosed with emphysema.<\/p>\n

Now whenever he\u2019s around smoke, whether it\u2019s someone smoking a cigarette outside or if he\u2019s near a backyard fire pit, his lungs act up and he has to use a rescue inhaler.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rooms have at least cured that as far as coming into places where people are smoking outside,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cThey should build rooms like this. It takes the smoker away from people and into their own zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson was playing a game at the Palace Casino, adjacent to one of the Palagis\u2019 smoke lounges, and he said on any given day the smoking room is full and there\u2019s not a hint of smoke inside the main facility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whoa, the guy is dying of emphysema and he needs an inhaler if he’s around cigarette smoke, but I give him credit for being so tolerant toward smokers.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it’s a big honkin legal mess … and headed to court, if not the State Legislature.<\/p>\n

Personally, I’m not worked up about it too much, but it’s annoying to me when bars try to find these loopholes and just don’t deal with the fact that smoking bans are the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a hell of a convoluted story. It’s too complicated to tell the whole story here, so I’ll sum up … It’s a city\/county health department fighting the courts, owner of some Great Falls, Montana bars and a citizens’ group has gotten in the middle of it. It’s all over things called “smoke shacks.” … Continue reading Lawsuit filed over “smoke shacks” built by Great Falls bars, injunctions filed, groups formed, it’s a mess<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,57,60,1,79],"tags":[128,176],"class_list":["post-1147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-secondhand-smoke","category-smoking-2","category-smoking-bans-2","category-uncategorized","category-workplace-smoking","tag-great-falls","tag-smoking-bans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-iv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3194,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3194","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":0},"title":"New Orleans’ smoking ban becomes official: Media goes wild, lawsuit filed","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 New Orleans' ban on smoking in bars and casinos (smoking in restaurants was already banned in Louisiana) went into effect this week. And two things happened. 1) A million media outlets are fascinated by the story and wrote about it and 2) The inevitably doomed-to-fail lawsuit has already been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=410"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/new-orleans-179186.jpg?fit=760%2C275&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/new-orleans-179186.jpg?fit=760%2C275&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/new-orleans-179186.jpg?fit=760%2C275&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/new-orleans-179186.jpg?fit=760%2C275&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=302","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":1},"title":"Ooops, lawsuit against Nebraska smoking ban didn’t go as planned","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Oops. This business owner muffed the punt. A smoking ban in Nebraska exempted cigar bars, but not pool halls. A pool hall owner filed suit against the state last year and a judge this week ruled that yes, the smoking ban was unconstitutional. Because it exempted cigar bars. So he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Secondhand smoke"","block_context":{"text":"Secondhand smoke","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":486,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=486","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":2},"title":"Rural Montana bar says smoking ban putting it out of business","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a big article about a rural bar in Montana that says the state's smoking ban, implemented 18 months ago, is driving it out of business. The business completely ignored the state's smoking ban, racked up thousands of dollars in fines, and then finally was forced to start complying.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Montana"","block_context":{"text":"Montana","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=39"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/turah-bar.jpg?fit=620%2C422&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/turah-bar.jpg?fit=620%2C422&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/turah-bar.jpg?fit=620%2C422&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3834,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3834","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":3},"title":"Alaska Senate passes statewide smoking ban","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Alaska, in all of its rugged individualism and Libertarian glory, was one of the last places I would expect to pass a statewide smoking ban. But, The Last Frontier state just might do it. The Alaska State Senate passed a bill to ban smoking in all enclosed buildings, including bars\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alaska"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=795"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/alaska-cabin-northern-lights.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/alaska-cabin-northern-lights.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/alaska-cabin-northern-lights.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/alaska-cabin-northern-lights.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/alaska-cabin-northern-lights.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1113","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":4},"title":"Smoking ban relaxed in Casper","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's something you don't see very often. 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