Haze Makes O.C. Smokers’ Position Clear

Shrouded by a blue haze that filled his tavern, bar owner John Johnson blew smoke in the face of authorities Friday, daring them to enforce the state’s two-week-old prohibition against lighting up in bars.

“If they want to come down on me, let ‘em,” Johnson shouted over a rowdy, capacity crowd of about 100 people at a protest of the latest anti-smoking law at his bar, Lucky John’s Too. “They’ve got mush for brains. Nobody knows what’s going down.”

“Smells like freedom,” said Sean Scruggs of Laguna Hills, clutching a thick cigar between his fingers. “If the government wants to protect us, they should ban cars.”

Johnson actually did nothing different at Lucky John’s Too or at the other three bars he owns in Orange County on Friday. Since the law went into effect Jan. 1, he’s ignored it.

Health officials and code enforcement officers have sent letters warning him that he’s breaking the law but have yet to take action.

But then no one in the state has been cited for smoking in a bar, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Besides, Johnson says, he’s exempt because he has fewer than five employees, and they don’t mind working in the haze.

The authorities disagree. “They are in clear violation of the law,” said Herm Perlmutter, supervisor for Orange County’s Tobacco Use Prevention Program. “It’s extremely disappointing they are choosing to violate a law that was signed by Gov. [Pete] Wilson.”

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Westminster police were content to make sure the overflow crowd didn’t interfere with the busy traffic at Beach Boulevard and McFadden Avenue. “We’re watching it, but in this instance we’re not going to do anything,” Lt. Bob Burnette said.

What made Friday different was that people knew radio talk show host Tom Leykis of KLSX-FM was broadcasting his show from the bar, dedicating his four hours to the cause. “Drink heavily. Smoke a lot,” he said as the crowd hooted and hollered behind him.

There was a two-hour wait to get inside, and 200 people waited in the parking lot.

Asked if he’d ever had a crowd like that, Johnson replied, “Of course not. You can’t buy this kind of exposure. But you also can’t buy this kind of exposure for a cause.”

The protest came two days after the Journal of the American Medical Assn. reported that cigarette smoke, including secondhand smoke, causes hardening of the arteries, which unlike lung damage is irreversible.

Johnson said his rowdy protest is the first step in an all-out attack on the law. He said a newly formed coalition of bar owners plans a legal challenge, and, at the end of the month, they will stop selling lottery tickets. Meanwhile, in Sacramento, another group of bar owners failed to get an injunction against the no-smoking law Friday.

In Newport Beach, Dan Marcheano, owner of the Arches restaurant, has engaged in his own form of protest. While he doesn’t allow smoking at his steak and seafood establishment, he hands out free packs of cigarettes. You show him your pack, and he gives you the same brand.

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An occasional cigar smoker who hates secondhand smoke, Marcheano said his bar and restaurant has been equipped with seven powerful air ventilators for more than a decade.

“The rules and regulations of this prohibition don’t take that into account, and to me that’s amazing,” he said. “We’ve always been noted for having clean air.”

He said he has already seen a decline in business, with many customers going to bars with patios where they can still legally smoke. “Prohibition didn’t work in the ‘20s and it won’t work now,” Marcheano said.

Up the freeway at Lucky John’s Too, most of the hundreds who packed the bar and parking lot agreed.

“I don’t go to places where I can’t smoke,” Theresia Pearson said, pausing to take a puff. She said she’s smoked for 30 years and has no plans to stop. If no bar or restaurant will allow her to light up, “there’s always take-out,” she said.

Outside, Marc Compte of Garden Grove waited eagerly to support Little John’s owner. “I want to see smoking going on in there,” he said, showing off a pack of Kamel Red’s he was saving to fill the bar’s already thick air. “I want to see freedom back.”

Chris Eftychiou, spokesman for the American Lung Assn. of Orange County, said the protesters don’t understand the law’s purpose.

“We had these predictions of doom and gloom and taking of civil liberties when we passed the restaurant ban” in 1995, Eftychiou said. “Now, it’s an accepted fact of life. The same thing will happen with bars. It really is a workplace issue. It’s a public health issue. If a smoker wants to smoke, they can go outside. Period.”