Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Tuesday, January 6, 2015
(STATEHOUSE) - Legislators will seek to broaden Indiana’s three-year-old smoking ban.
The smoke-free law includes two big exceptions, for bars and casinos. House Public Health Chairman Ed Clere's (R-New Albany) bill leaves intact the exemption for bars, but would extend the ban to casinos. He reasons that a server who doesn't want to inhale smoke on the job can find a comparable job relatively easily, but a dealer at a casino would face a significant pay cut.
In past sessions, the General Assembly's research arm has calculated a casino smoking ban could cost the state nearly 200-million dollars a year. Clere argues the cost would be offset over the long term by reduced health costs.
Clere's bill would also ban pharmacies from selling cigarettes elsewhere in the store. CVS decided on its own last year to take cigarettes off its shelves.
The proposals will be folded into the same bill with proposals unveiled by Attorney General Greg Zoeller last week to subject e-cigarettes to the same taxes and regulations as traditional tobacco.
Clere isn't speculating on which provisions have enough support to become law, but says it's important to begin the conversation.
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