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Opponents: Lift The Smoking Ban

Friday,  November 13, 2009 5:39 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A group in Columbus is fired up over a three-year-old smoking ban.

Bar owners and employees met in Grove City, today claiming there weren't enough signatures for the ban to go on the ballot.
    
They also said 46 convicted felons were allowed to collect signatures for the smoking ban petitions. That is not allowed under state law.

Members of the Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association want the Department of Justice to investigate these claims.
    
They are also threatening a class action lawsuit for the hundreds of bars they claim went out of business because of the ban.

"We're losing money in our businesses because this never should have gone to a vote and it went to a vote anyway. Winter's coming and we're not going to have the few customers we do have, because they aren't going to go outside and smoke," said Pam Parker from Parker's Tavern in Grove City.

A representative from the American Cancer Society told ONN that this is just another desperate attempt to overturn what more than 2 million Ohioans voted for three years ago.

Members of the Buckeye Permit Holders Association want family owned businesses and private clubs to be exempt from the ban.

The group is asking anyone who opposes the ban to call and e-mail the governor asking for the smoking ban to be lifted.

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