Medical groups fight for local smoking ban

Business owners say they should have the right to decide if smoking is allowed in their establishments.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. March 1, 2004.

Tobacco is the No. 1 cash crop in Kentucky. But the local government banned smoking of the state's top crop in Lexington- and Fayette-area public buildings, including bars and restaurants.

The ordinance, passed last year, immediately came under attack. Now the AMA, Kentucky Medical Assn. and others are arguing to the state Supreme Court that state laws should not wipe the local smoking prohibition off the books.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government is the first local government to pass a smoking ban in Kentucky. But the law, which was set to kick in last September, has yet to take effect. The Lexington-Fayette County Food and Beverage Assn. challenged the ordinance in court.

The Kentucky Supreme Court stayed the ordinance while it winds its way through the legal system. A lower court judge last year threw out the lawsuit, but the business association appealed. The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case March 10.

The AMA says that ensuring that the Lexington-area law and others like it succeed is important to improve public health.

"So much of our progress in tobacco control is based on what we can achieve in the policy arena," said AMA Trustee Ronald M. Davis, MD. "It is most difficult to get tobacco legislation passed at the federal level, and it is hard to get it passed at the state level because the tobacco lobby is so well-funded. It is easiest to get legislation passed at this level -- the county or city level."