After 25 years, Iowa City’s only smoker hang out will be closing: The Tobacco Bowl. A place where smokers can congregate and chain smoke, drink coffee, read the paper, do their homework or even bring in their small dogs on a hot day for a drink. The Tobacco Bowl is a place where anyone can go without being judged, even if they’re not a smoker, to sit in the coffee shop environment and breathe in two lungs’ worth of secondhand smoke.

Five years ago, when the law was passed in Iowa that there would be no more smoking in enclosed spaces, the Tobacco Bowl was grandfathered in and kept going strong. Now, however, the Tobacco Bowl has announced that they will close at the end of the month.

This kind of discrimination against smokers has been going on in the past few decades, as more and more information arises on the dangers of smoking. Some smokers have been addicted for their entire lives, and started smoking before all the dangers were known. Other smokers are completely aware of the dangers and chose to start smoking because they enjoy it.

In this day and age, every smoker is aware of the risk they are taking. SMOKING IS BAD has been pounded into our heads since grade school, the surgeon general has a very clear warning on every cigarette pack, and it’s just basically common knowledge that smoking does kill.

However, if someone is willing to take this risk, they should be allowed to do so free of judgement, and that’s why having the Tobacco Bowl in Iowa City is so important, because there is no where else the everyday smoker can have a quick cig without being judged. When some people see someone having a smoke, they’ll glare, make an overdramatic cough, or tell them to put it out. In the Tobacco Bowl, nothing like this happens, and the everyday smoker can enjoy smoking without worrying about offending or making anyone uncomfortable.

I don’t encourage smoking by any means. Smoking kills almost half a million people every year, gives people cancer, and destroys lives and families. Smoking is not a healthy habit to have, and smoking can ruin your life. But as I said, if someone is willing to take this risk, then they should be able to.

When May rolls around, lots of smokers will be out of a place to have their cigarettes and will be banished to street corners where they’ll receive the glares and overdramatic coughs. If it was up to me, and the dozens of regular customers who inhabit the Tobacco Bowl, we would all keep it open.

Although the Tobacco Bowl is closing, every cloud has a silver lining. At the end of the summer, Thomas Connolly, owner of the Tobacco Bowl will be transforming his space into a pizza parlor/video arcade, which is almost as great.