Sack the shack

Minnesota’s ban on smoking in public places has been on the books for about six months, hardly time to see if it works, but already there are serious challenges to the law.

Some bar owners have tried using “theater night” as a way of getting around the law. The bar owners hope to make use of a loophole in the law that allows working actors in a theatric production to smoke. They declare it is “theater night” in the bar, and all the workers and patrons are actors in some improvisational live theater production, which allows them to smoke. The legality of that dodge is being challenged.

Now the Legislature itself has passed a loophole to the law, the idea of allowing bars and restaurants to build “smoking shacks” for patrons who want to slip outside for a smoke. No drinks or food could be served in the “shacks,” but nothing in the law says that patrons can’t take their drinks with them.

There are no descriptions of what constitutes a “shack,” either. State Sen. Kathy Sheran (DFL-Mankato), who opposes the idea, thinks bar owners could build lavish structures next to the bar and designate it as the “smoking shack.”

Proponents of the amendment say it is an attempt to protect bar patrons from harsh Minnesota weather, and a way to help bar businesses that are suffering from loss of business due to the smoking ban.

If the Legislature thinks the smoking ban law has too harsh an impact on the state’s bars and restaurants, then let it modify the law. We shouldn’t be adding convoluted measures to weaken the law, however, without a thorough study on just how it is affecting business.