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# Don’t worry, be happy
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/dont-worry-be-happy-editor/
- Published: 2007-11-28T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T04:08:15.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Downtown, #archive-import

*By Marilyn Brennan*

Regarding the restaurateurs upset with having to enforce the no smoking laws for outside dining — thinking it may lose business for them (Re: “Airing it out on smoking,” Nov. 20): Isn’t there already a law stating no one should smoke within 20 feet of bus stops, etc. And did the restaurants have a problem telling their customers there was no smoking within the restaurant when the law was passed? How much business was lost then?

What about losing business of the non-smokers who never smoked or quit because they no longer wished to court death while smelling horrible? The laws against smoking were passed to protect our elderly, our children, grandchildren and ourselves from breathing in the toxic fumes from people who are involving the rest of us in their addiction. Now, once again, profit over health and well-being is the issue.

Oh, and the argument given by a local unnamed restaurant and bar owner that if she tells her customers that they cannot smoke, they will go out on the street and smoke and flick their cigarettes into the gutters that lead to Santa Monica Bay, which, in her opinion, would be bad for the environment. Oh, come on! Does she think they don’t already do that whether they can smoke in her establishment or not? Daily, I see people smoking at bus stops (against the law) throw their cigarettes down the storm drains. As do the ones walking on the promenade, and in the downtown business area and in the parks. And since these non-smoking laws are obviously not being enforced, the worry about Santa Monica turning into a police state is just not going to happen. The police may stop a few smokers if they think they may be up to something more serious, like the no riding bikes on the sidewalks — also not enforced, unless the police want to stop that particular individual. So not to worry.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 28, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112807.pdf?ref=smdp.com)