HELENA (The UM Legislative News Service) — A Senate committee tabled a controversial bill Friday that would have allowed “cigar bars” in Montana after healthcare professionals said it would be a dangerous revision to the 2005 Clean Indoor Air Act.
House Bill 285, sponsored by Rep. Jeremy Trebas, R-Great Falls, would have permitted cigar smoking in bars that generate 10% of their income from cigar sales. This would mark the first major revision to the Clean Indoor Air Act, which went into effect in 2009 and prohibited smoking in all public indoor areas and workplaces.
The House passed the bill on a 55-43 in February before it moved to the Senate. While it permitted smoking cigars in bars that meet its requirements, HB 285 would not have allowed other products to be smoked indoors, such as cigarettes or marijunana.
During its Senate hearing, three of the measure’s supporters said it would expand freedom of choice for Montanans and provide a place of gathering and relaxation for cigar smokers.
Patrick Webb, a representative of the Libertarian Group Americans for Prosperity, spoke in support of HB 285, calling it a “good freedom bill” and saying cigar bars could bring fulfillment to the lives of some Montanans.
“That fulfillment is so important,” Webb said. “I mean, that is something that really actually can build people up.”
Lake County resident Gage Henderson said the provision that requires cigar bars to make 10% of their income from cigar sales will ensure that not every bar can allow cigar smoking.
“Overall, I feel that this is a long-overdue change to Montana law,” Henderson said. “Montanans want the ability to choose the things they participate in.”
Twelve opponents from the healthcare industry and health advocacy groups warned lawmakers that cigar bars would lead to increased cancer, lung disease and heart disease rates — and not just in bar patrons, but in workers and children who inhale secondhand smoke.
Dr. David King spoke against the bill and said he’d been working as a physician in Belgrade since 1984. Back then, he said, patients were allowed to smoke in their hospital rooms, and he told the committee he had seen patients “drink, eat, drug and smoke themselves to death.”
“Frankly, the hardest is watching people who are suffocating from not being able to breathe,” King said. “I think the workers in any facility deserve a right to work in a clean-air environment. I think this is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible act.”
Bella Childre, a junior at Bozeman Gallatin High School and advocate for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, also opposed the measure and said she sees enough of her classmates smoking and vaping already without the state providing more venues to allow that to occur.
“We shouldn’t be glamorizing and normalizing tobacco when it causes so much death and disease,” Childre said.
During the hearing, Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said he was concerned that cigar bars could lead to increased Medicaid expenses in the Department of Health and Human Services due to a potential increase in smoking and the health effects that would cause. Trebas said the 50% tax Montana collects on tobacco products could help defray that cost, and stated he believed the people most interested in cigar bars would be “higher income people who aren’t on Medicaid.”
The bill is considered dead unless the committee votes to reconsider.
Austin Amestoy is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation. He can be reached at austin.amestoy@umontana.edu.
