Sunday, March 30 2008
SEATTLE, WA - (Marketwire) - Washington's Keith Robbins loves mooching, martinis and Macanudos almost as much as he appreciates fairness and the freedom of personal choice.
Robbins is one of Washington state's greatest salmon guides and an expert moocher (light tackle saltwater fishing). He also owns Tini Bigs, a martini bar that he calls the 'second best cocktail lounge' in Seattle. He is living a life most men would envy, but he misses his premium cigars and the right to smoke them in his bar.
Tini Bigs was a cigar bar before the Washington smoking ban took effect in 2005. The ban is among the most stringent in the nation. The bar's business dropped nearly 30% in the first three months following the ban and has been flat ever since.
Now Robbins is helping to gather 225,000 signatures of registered voters by June 30 in order to get Initiative 1016 on the November 8 ballot. I1016 would permit smoking in cigar bars, cigar stores and private clubs.
"The current ban is not fair to owners and customers of cigar stores and cigar bars and members of private clubs. These are locations that cater strictly to adults who want to be able to enjoy a perfectly legal product -- tobacco, generally, and premium cigars, specifically. No one would go into a cigar store or cigar bar and not expect smoking to be permitted."
Robbins emphasized that the so-called Cigar Bar Relief Act of 2008 is very narrow in its exemptions to the smoking ban which will otherwise remain in full effect.
According to the initiative, in order to qualify as a cigar bar, the business' food sales must be incidental and it needs to generate at least $25,000 in annual sales of cigars. Private facilities would have equally daunting requirements to be exempted from the ban if they so choose, except when they are occasionally open to the public when smoking would not be allowed.
"Before this can happen, we need all registered voters -- smokers and non-smokers alike -- to express themselves by signing our petitions to get the initiative on the ballot," Robbins urged. "This is as much a matter of supporting personal rights and fairness as anything else."
Petitions are available throughout the state at most smoke shops, private clubs like the VFW, American Legion and Eagles and at former cigar bars like Tini Bigs. They are also available online at www.cigarwa.com, the website of the Cigar Association of Washington, said Robbins.
"It's important to remember that the initiative does not overturn the existing ban," said Dale Taylor, a tobacconist with Rain City Cigars in Seattle andpresident of the Cigar Association of Washington which is coordinating the campaign for the initiative.
Taylor is urging all Washington residents who are registered voters to sign the petitions by June 30 to get the measure placed on November's ballot.
