When I moved out here some 7 years ago, I had just left CA which had under its belt about 10 years of public smoke bans and 2 years of Bar/Restaurant bans.

Coming out here initially was like traveling back about 25 years. However, there's good and bad in that. The bad was the smoke everywhere, the good was that it wasn't a police-state like CA. Literally, I have spent no money on tickets oe fines here in 7 years. In CA, during a 7 year period I would generate about $10,000 worth of miscellaneous tickets, fines, tack-on fees, citations etc and about $5,000 worth of vehicle registration fees per year (they already started charging registration fees based on vehicle worth in the early 90s) You experienced just a taste of this gouging, loot-the-masses CA bit on your vacation.

I'm happy to see more restrictions on smoking arrive, but I wouldn't want this big-sky paradise to turn into CA. In CA when they want to get you, they can get you and when you live in a state that is fully left, socialized, it gets very expensive, very fast. And not just in money - far worse - in time. Court appearances, paperwork, endless lines at the DMV, courts, etcetera. A real nightmare.

By comparison, the government of this state is kind, compassionate & rational. The disparity is truly unfathomable.

Hopefully, the hundreds of daily CA refugees, arrive with this same understanding and moderate their desire to legislate their way to paradise - otherwise they just empower the state to become a living terror and ruin paradise, just like CA was ruined.

For the past 7 years I've inhaled more second-hand smoke in public places, but I consoled myself with the aforementioned thoughts - and the knowledge that I have probably inhaled fifty pounds less of smog every year.

;-)