Korean Business Owners Challenge Legality of Smoking Ban
I don’t smoke, but it seems to me that the business owners are making a good point about the legality of the ban:
Twenty owners of restaurants and bars will ask the Constitutional Court to review the smoking ban imposed on all such establishments.
An online community of smokers, I Love Smoking, said Friday that some of its members who run eateries will file a petition with the court next month as they believe the new law, which bans smoking at all cafes, restaurants and bars, regardless of their size, infringes on their basic rights.
The move came after the restaurant owners saw a sharp decline in sales after the expanded ban on smoking took effect on Jan. 1.
“Sales have dropped more than 30 percent since the law went into effect. It is threatening my livelihood,” Kwon Huck-nam, who runs a restaurant selling grilled beef tripe in Seoul, told The Korea Times.
Like Kwon, many owners of restaurants, especially meat restaurants and bars where many patrons smoke while drinking, have faced similar difficulties due to the regulation.
“Given that cigarettes and alcohol go together in most cases, many customers are leaving their old hangouts because they cannot smoke there any longer,” Kwon said. “In this regard, the regulation is unfair and too harsh for people like us. It infringes on the freedom of business and the right to property.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but is it a stretch to imagine someone in the future wanting to ban alcohol in business establishments as well?
I don’t like smoking in restaurants, but if I go to a bar it is not like I am going there for my good health…
I didn’t find anything in this article pointing towards a “good point about the legality of the ban”, but instead saw some financial and business related reasons. These are two different things.
“but instead saw some financial and business related reasons”
From a philosophical standpoint, a purpose of government is to protect the rights of citizens to prosper.
The Korean legal system has codified this… including within the Constitution… and business owners have some legal protections against laws that unnecessarily affect their income.
This case involves complex issues of individual rights, societal costs, and well-intentioned social engineering…
…but it might be hard for the government to make a clear legal case that it can arbitrarily ban smoking in a private place that traditionally hosts smokers and customers who come of their own free will… as opposed to a place such as a government office or public space where smoking bans make sense.
Further, this issue is easily solved by the free market… with smoking and non-smoking places opening next to each other and seeing which model prevails… an example of personal and economic freedom which the Korean Constitution and law appear to protect.
While discouraging (with the goal of abolishing) smoking is likely a worthwhile goal for the long-term good of (global) society, there are less intrusive and more evolutionary ways of doing it than arbitrarily hurting small businesses starting on an arbitrary date with no clear explanation how the sacrifice will benefit society.
Smoking is despicable… but the right of small business to set their own smoking policy must be supported by those who believe in free enterprise, individual freedom, and the role of government to serve its citizens by protecting that.
And, while a world without smoking would be great, it is hard to advocate more laws that trample freedoms and encourage criminality. It would be preferable to see a multi-generational program of social engineering to reject smoking as a cultural value… sending it the way of cannibalism and human sacrifice.
Soooo… Korean business owners may have a good case to overturn the smoking ban.
“but is it a stretch to imagine someone in the future wanting to ban alcohol in business establishments as well?”
It’s funny how bars don’t allow smokers but the thing they’re serving is MUCH worse/costly on people and society…
Oh for the life of GOD alcohol not be the drug of today.
Alcohol costs society substantially more than smoking…
http://www.livestrong.com/article/348601-which-costs-society-more-alcohol-or-smoking/
There are a lot of restaurants that allow smoking here.
They get around the law by making the food relatively cheap. If they obtain only 50 percent or less of the profits from food, it’s considered a bar and they allow smoking. Of course, the drinks are pricey and they’re hoping people drink a lot (it’s the Florida Keys, almost a resident requirement around here).