Southern cities weigh effects of smoking ban

In Louisville, Kentucky, citizens are grappling with conflicting opinions over a ban on smoking in some bars and restaurants. Louisville is just one of several southern cities debating smoking bans in bars and restaurants in an effort to protect employees from secondhand smoke.
Small business owner:

...There are compelling reasons to go smoke free. No one, is making the argument that smoking isn't dangerous to health.

Last year Kentucky--formerly where one out of six American cigarettes were made--raised cigarette taxes in an effort to raise revenue and in the long run, save public dollars that would have gone to pay medical expenses for the state with the highest rate of lung cancer in the nation.

In Doing Better: Progressive Tax Reform for the American South, more reasons are laid out that explain the advantages of raising cigarette taxes.