Next Tuesday is the election, and Marcia Oster doesn't know how she will vote. It isn't the race for governor or the judge's election that has left her confused and undecided; it is the referendum.

Marcia's state is asking its constituents to vote on a ban on smoking in all public places, including restaurants, businesses, and bars. Such a ban would require businesses to set aside an area a few feet outside of the business for people to smoke.

California recently passed such a measure. It prohibits all smoking of tobacco products in all (100%) of enclosed places of employment. The objective, cited in the law, is "to reduce employee exposure to environmental tobacco smoke." Smokers can have an enclosed smoking room, if it has proper ventilation. Employers must also post nonsmoking signs at the entrance to their establishment. This includes all restaurants and bars. The California ban was implemented gradually over a five-year period, and only in 1998 did the third phase, which affects bars and clubs, go into effect.

Although Marcia doesn't smoke, both her parents do, and they have told her many times that they feel discriminated against by groups pushing for nonsmoking areas and by laws that restrict where smokers can go. It doesn't bother them not to smoke when shopping, but they are angry about the ban in restaurants and bars. Most restaurants in their state already have nonsmoking sections, and Marcia's parents feel that this is enough.

Marcia has a friend, Cathy, who has very strong feelings on the other side of the issue. Cathy is very allergic to cigarette smoke. Her physicians have told her to stay away from smoke whenever possible because it triggers her asthma. Cathy argues that people should be allowed to do what they want, as long as their actions do not harm others. People can eat all they want and drink all they want, because these things don't impose on others. Smoking, however, does. Cathy says that if you are around smokers, you have no choice but to breathe in the smoke they exhale, and this is harmful. In fact, some scientists have determined that the exhaled smoke actually contains more carbon monoxide than the smoke inhaled directly from the cigarettes.

Marcia can't decide how to vote on the measure.

1. How would you vote if you were Marcia?
2. Should the state be able to regulate where one smokes? Why or why not?
3. Businesses, too, suffer from a smoking ban through a loss of customers. Many bars in California have filed suit to stop the ban, but so far they have not succeeded. Should businesses have the right to decide who comes into and what is done in their premises? Why or why not?
4. The California law demands that an owner ask nonemployees to stop smoking, and to use reasonable steps to stop them. What are some reasonable steps?
5. Many opponents to the California law say that it "deprives people from using a legal product in a private establishment." Should the government of California or any state make cigarettes illegal? Why or why not?