Cigars get props in Colorado.

A recent statewide smoking ban in Colorado made for a few exceptions.
The exemptions included casinos, certain airport lounges and an exclusive category called “cigar bars”.
According to the Rocky Mountain News it was intended as a nod toward high-end establishments like the Churchill Bar in the Brown Palace Hotel.

The exemption declared that if an establishment made 5% of it’s revenue (or more than $50,000) from the sale of tobacco products patrons could smoke. Many of you no doubt picked up on the fact that they said “tobacco products” not cigars. A fact not lost on local restaurant and tavern owners. Many combed through receipts to see if they sold enough cigarettes to qualify.

This of course ticked off all sorts of people and politicians scrambled to re-write the law.
When I first read about this I thought “Great… so much for the exemption. Another area of the country is going to end up an anti-stogie zone.”

But Colorado republican Ellen Roberts is proposing to specify that only the sales of cigars or cigar tobacco can qualify a tavern for a cigar-bar exemption.

At least someone is trying to maintain a cigar exemption instead of making a blanket ban of everything.
This may actually be the first bit of anti-smoking legislation news that I would deem as “good news”.

Certainly it would be better if the government would keep their collective nose out of the policy making of private businesses all together. But at least this alternative keeps the door open for our brothers and sisters of the leaf in Colorado to find a safe place to enjoy a quality smoke.

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