BOSTON— Sometimes Justin Hegarty savors his cigars by himself, and sometimes he enjoys them in a cigar bar with friends. “Either way, it’s relaxing,” said Hegarty, soon after an afternoon smoke at Churchill’s cigar lounge.
Hegarty may need to find a new city where he can wind down with his cherished stogies.
The Boston Public Health Commission is scheduled to vote soon on expanded smoking restrictions that would be among the nation’s toughest. The proposal would ban cigar bars and hookah bars, which currently enjoy exemptions from Boston’s four-year-old workplace smoking ban. It would also eliminate sales of tobacco in pharmacies and on college campuses.
The commission gave preliminary approval to the rules in September, and is scheduled for a final vote Thursday (December 11, 2008).
Boston would be the largest city, by far, to outlaw smoking bars. Hegarty was baffled about what the city hoped to accomplish, and said it seemed almost unconstitutional.
