Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

Last week Illinois voted to apply a statewide ban on smoking. This would supersede Chicago's own proposed ban that was to go into total effect in mid-2008, and would also head off any attempts city lawmakers made to include loopholes that would still allow smoking in certain establishments. For instance, it was widely assumed that some vague wording about "a sophisticated air filtration system" might allow bars and clubs that installed such things -- specs to be named later, of course -- to continue to allow smoking on the premises.

I'm torn.

I'm a smoker. I've tried to quit in the past but always failed because, when you're in the midst of a four-hour DJ set, the call of the cigarette can be mighty strong. I started seriously smoking my freshman year of college which, not so coincidentally, is when I really started drinking as well. So it's no surprise that smoking is pretty hardwired into my social habits. I rarely smoke at home, and when I do it's often just before I'm leaving for a show / bar/ club / party. So, paret of me had been pulling for the sneaky Chicago city council to be the bastards they usually are and find a way around the ban so I could keep happily puffing away to my favorite band or deep into another thrilling DJ set.

On the other hand, I should probably be shaking the hands of my state lawmakers because, annoying though it may be, their steamroller action is not only going to keep Photogal's clothes smelling nice after a night at the bar (and, heck, with no smoking in bars she's more likely to go out in the first place), it's also probably going to force me to quit. If I can't smoke when I go out, I really will have no reason to smoke at all. I imagine the first few months are going to drive me up the fucking wall, and since the ban goes in effect during the deadest section of the Chicago winter I'll also probably find myself risking frostbite from time to time as I stand outside a club and shiver through a square. But in the end I'm going to have to quit, and when I do it's going to be because it's just not worth the hassle anymore.

So, from a civil liberties viewpoint one could argue this subject for days on end. I'm not even going to offer my own opinion on whether the legislature's actions are wrong or right. From a physiological standpoint, regardless of what my brain thinks, my lungs are probably going to end up happier in the long run.

AN ASIDE: All the above notwithstanding, the city's proposed ban on actors smoking on-stage is just fucking silly, and has absolutely no positive ramifications to recommend it.

MP3: Oasis "Cigarettes and Alcohol"