EDMONTON -Former alcoholic Lawrence Lathe never envisioned the day he would be applying for a liquor licence for the recreation club he runs for people with addictions.
But Lathe, 45, who has been sober for 20 years, said he plans to apply this week for a liquor licence for the Keep It Simple Club in order to dodge Edmonton's no-smoking bylaw.
After a six-week battle with the City in a futile bid to win an exemption for the club for recovering alcoholics and drug users, he has taken aim at a loophole that exempts liquor establishments from the no-smoking edict until July 2005.
"It is totally ludicrous, but we have to do something," he said. "We're trying to comply. If that's what we have to do, that's what we have to do."
Lathe quit smoking several years ago, but he said it is too much to ask the club's 300 members that are struggling to cope with more serious addictions to give up smoking, too.
"It's much too big a challenge," he explained. "I would sooner have been dead than try to quit everything at once."
Lathe said the club won't serve alcohol, or even have it on hand, but is willing to fork out an extra $450 for the licence in order to continue to allow smoking on the premises.
He said he's worried that if his members can't smoke at the club, they will head down the street to the bars and won't be able to resist the temptation to start drinking again.
"It is not smoking that's causing neighbourhood turmoil," he said. "Drugs and alcohol are severe problems in this city and I don't think nicotine is near the problem."
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, a heavy smoker who recently quit drinking, has been sympathetic to the plight of the club, but his letter of support has failed to sway City council.
Suggesting that smoking is by far the lesser of the two evils, Klein remarked that council should have a "stupid rules committee" to veto decisions that fail to meet the common sense test.
Councillor Stephen Mandel said many councillors support the club, but fear that allowing an exemption will kill the bylaw.
"I think there is a desire on council to have it approved and that's the general will, but there's a greater general paranoia that if we make an exception to the rule the whole bylaw will fall apart. And I think that's ridiculous," he said. "I really have a problem with that logic."
But Councillor Michael Phair believes the club could serve its membership better if it banned smoking.
"I well understand that people recovering from addictions have significant problems," he said. "I just think having them in a smoking environment compromises their health as well."
Edmonton is about the middle of the pack in terms of Canadian and North American cities that have banned smoking, said Phair.
"There isn't any doubt in my mind that within the next five to 10 years, that the ban prohibiting second-hand smoke in public areas will likely be pretty much across all of North America."
