Lawyer Mark W Benjamin to speak to media Tuesday March 11, 11:30 AM

Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 10:42 AM
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Media Invitation to Speaking Engagement by Mark Benjamin on Theater Night

MARK W. BENJAMINCriminal Defense, P.A.237 Second Avenue SW, Suite 111Cambridge, MN 55008763-691-0900 (office)763-670-9664 (mobile)
Press Release

MEDIA INVITATION – SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT WITH MARK W. BENJAMIN: Mr. Benjamin to speak at conference of managers of metro-area VFWs and American Legions on Tuesday, March 11th at 11:30 a.m. regarding Theater Night exception to Minnesota’s smoking ban.

Location: VFW #230, 4446 Central Avenue NE, Columbia Heights, MN (763-788-8187)
For the past month, Theater Night (a previously little-known exception to Minnesota’s smoking ban) has captured the imagination of local, state, national and international news organizations. Law enforcement and the Minnesota Department of Health have been non-responsive (not a single ticket has been issued; not a single fine has been levied) but the public’s response has been anything but.

Angry letters and passionate commentary splash themselves across the editorial pages of our newspapers. Public health pundits solemnly issue grim and grave warnings that bar owners who engage in Theater Night endanger the lives of their patrons.
Lost in the, ahem, theatrics of Theater Night are the stories of small bar owners who reported a precipitous drop in customers and sales after October 1st when the smoking ban took effect. Some bars went bankrupt and closed. Others cut back hours and/or laid off bartenders and waitresses. The rosy and fanciful predictions of the 2007 Legislature, namely, that Minnesota bars would see more customers coming through the doors turned out to be tragically wrong.
Since the advent of Theater Night on February 9th, those same bars report their customers and sales bouncing back to pre-ban levels. They are now generating data to provide a compare and contrast between the economic desert of October 1 to February 1 and now. This is information we hope to provide to the Legislature so that the smoking ban might be amended – in several ways.

First, our veterans deserve to be fully-exempted from the smoking ban. Minnesota’s VFWs and Legions generously serve their communities with monies earned from food and beverage sales and charitable gambling revenue. Sadly, these monies dried up after the 1st of October. Our veterans are more deserving of an exception to the smoking ban than the performing artists of the Guthrie. Indeed, our veterans performed valiantly overseas on our behalf – and some of them gave their final performances. If we support our troops, then we just as surely should support our former troops.

Second, our small bar owners have been hit hard by the smoking ban. Last spring they warned the Legislature they would lose customers and money. They asked for a ventilation system or financial hardship exception. They got nothing.
And now some grumble that bars employing Theater Night to avoid economic oblivion are disrespecting the law. Others whine that the “spirit” of the law is being violated. We answer that our veterans and small bar owners have been disrespected. We respond that the spirit of this smoking ban is mean-spirited.

Because some would prefer not to hear the sad and sorrowful stories of bar owners tearfully laying off waitresses they saw baptized in their churches. Or the bartenders quitting school because their hours and tips have gone into the toilet. Or the former customers who now drink and smoke alone in their ice shacks on frozen Minnesota lakes. These people are financially frazzled, socially isolated and emotionally depressed.
We say that public health policy must be about more than clean air and pink lungs. It must also be about keeping company and green wallets. People who drink and smoke alone do not live as well or as long. People who lose their jobs and businesses do not live as well or as long. Surely the components of social and financial health are deserving of discussion when we make public health policy.

That is a discussion the Legislature and the Minnesota Department of Health do not want to have. We do. And we will continue to march loud and proud until that day comes.
In the meantime, the show must go on.