Maryland, the Free State, has set out to be free of tobacco.
On March 27, barring a revolt in the state legislature, the state will impose the strictest, most far-reaching ban on smoking in the country.Smoking will be outlawed in almost all indoor workplaces - including such remaining havens for smokers as bars, restaurants, airports, hotels, bowling alleys, pool halls and convention centers.
The ban was signed by Gov. Parris Glendening, a liberal Democrat of that breed widely thought to be extinct, and given emotional reinforcement by the presence of Victor Crawford, a former tobacco lobbyist dying of throat cancer.
Predictably, health groups hailed the ban, and tobacco groups denounced it as anti-business. Restaurant and tavern owners say their customers will either go somewhere else or not stay as long.
Maryland will be an interesting test case of the anti-business charge. Many of the state's residents live in the Washington, D.C., suburbs or close to Pennsylvania and Delaware and can easily cross the line to more smoker-friendly territory.
If that happens, the shift will be quickly detectable in business receipts and tax revenues. And state tourism officials can quickly tell if the ban is driving off tourists and conventions.
We have our reservations about the ban, which seems to us obtrusive in the extreme in certain small businesses. But Maryland's experience could determine how far other states go in saying yea or nay to smoking.
Whatever the outcome, the ban marks a long sojourn for a state whose early wealth from that controversial weed is still marked by redolent place names like Port Tobacco and Upper Marlboro.