Underground smokehouses open amid crackdown on smoking, strip clubs

[High Plains]

Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Ohio's crackdown on strip joints and barroom smoking has spawned as many as two dozen underground nightclubs that operate in houses across Cleveland.

Known as smokehouses, the after-hours hangouts offer what legal clubs and bars cannot - places for patrons to smoke while they drink, watch strippers after midnight and have sex with prostitutes, according to city vice detectives. So far, the smokehouse owners have been cagey enough to avoid being busted.

"These guys aren't stupid," said attorney Skip Lazzaro, who represents legal nightclubs in court. "They know that if they want to stay open, they have to fly below the radar, avoid complaints and the attention of neighbors."

To stir up business and avoid detection, the smokehouse proprietors rotate the dancers from house to house and open on alternating nights so they don't compete with each other, Lazzaro said.



Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/120203113016350.xml&coll=2

[Withywindle]

1. Smoke-easies! n/t

[High Plains]

2. Wow, who could have seen that coming?

We could have regulated smoking establishments, but no, we have to ban them.

Well, guess what? You can't regulate what you prohibit. You just drive it underground.

I'm waiting for the first SWAT raids on smokehouses (or smokeasies, as they call them in San Francisco).

[BearSquirrel2]

14. I agree ...

A total ban is a bad idea. It's better to create a permit system. That way, the default is no smoking and limit the number of permits in an area. Plus, I would probably put some requirements in place for ventilation equipment to clear the air o all the smoke. That way there are plenty of smoke free places in an area and smokers still have someplace to congregate.

I think that all buildings should be smoke free by default. But we shouldn't try to use this to change people's behavior.

At the building I work at, all the smokers hang out immediately outside the building. The owners moved the urns to stop this behavior but the smokers just started popping their cigarettes out on the floor. I would rather support a "smoker's shack" complete with decent roof and walls so that they can puff away without clogging up the entrances.

Lots of great people smoke. I don't want them smoking next to me. But I don't think draconian laws will influence them in the slightest.

[ixion]

3. proving once again that prohibition DOES NOT WORK

although there are some out there that seem to have difficulty with that fact.

[RainDog]

6. exactly

I asked someone in my local gov. if I could legally start a business in my no-smoking town that exists solely for the purpose of smoking. Or, if I could make it a private club and everyone had to pay a one-time membership of ten dollars to get in and the club's purpose was smoking. Non-smokers would not be allowed.

I just got this look like... don't even think about it.

no strippers or pros for mine, tho.

I saw someone post about the "smoking issue" here the other day and the post was so funny because the person was so judgmental about people with a nicotine addiction. sometimes I honestly wonder who is NOT addicted to something.

sort of like Joe Jackson sang... Everything gives you cancer...

except sing.. everyone is an addict...

smoking, overeating, valium, a.d.d. drugs that school kids pass around.. running, worshipping, reading, internet use, and so on and so forth. and yada yada. I don't want someone to breathe my second hand smoke, but that's not the point, even tho the anti-smokers act as tho it is. They want to punish smokers. Otherwise they'd have accommodations if businesses wanted to go that route.

[ixion]

7. One of my favorite Mark Twain quotes is:

"Never trust a man without a vice"

And by that I think he meant that anyone who claimed to have no vices was a liar.

So, yep, I agree with you.

[calimary]

16. I was reading your post and thinking -

Holy Cow, that's a great idea - a club or business establishment explicitly for smokers. I'm a non-smoker, but really, that sounds like a terrific idea. We are taking things away from smokers, so it seems only fair that we give them something in return. It's also the perfect example of what a good business is presumably supposed to do: see a need and fill it.

Why wouldn't they let you set up something like that? I mean, it'd be paid admission, and I'm guessing you'd have some sort of age restriction, but you don't have to go in there if you disapprove. For Pete's sake...

I wouldn't have such a problem with it, myself. I think it's a terrific idea for a business. Smokers are customers, too.

[AngryOldDem]

17. I don't see why private clubs can't have smoking.

If the majority of the members agree to it, whatever such a club does is its business, no one else's. I know of one club that did just that when the ban was implemented, then it went back on that after someone looked through the bylaws and found a clause that said the club would abide by all state laws.

I'm a non-smoker too, and I think this law is totally ridiculous. Always have.

[frylock]

9. prohibition?!

last i checked, anyone of legal age can go to pretty much any store, purchase a pack of smokes, and blaze away to their heart's content.

[ixion]

10. as long as they're not in a public place

that is where prohibition starts, my friend.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

11. it works for increasing police power.

which, of course, is the point. the police and the system rely on increasing criminality.

[ixion]

12. very true

it's very effective at putting money in the hands of organized crime, a.k.a the Law Enforcement Community.

[Mojambo]

4. What about people who want to drink, watch strippers and have sex with prostitutes without getting

cancer!?

What about us... I mean them?

[slor]

5. LOL nt

[Robb]

8. LOL

...Won't someone think of the non-smokers? :rofl:

[jdadd]

13. Easy....

Start a non smoking sex easy, or strip easy...Damn theres a whole new market out there...:rofl:

[onehandle]

15. Better in there then out here. nt