Surgeon General's Warning: Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and may complicate pregnancy.

And in the eyes of those wearing "I support smoke-free bars" pins, this column might cause such problems too.

But I'll clear it up before it gets heated -- I recognize the atrocious effects cigarettes have wreaked upon our culture, but our society's foundation protects the right to a free choice.

Every pack of cigarettes bought by the nation's estimated 47 million smokers begins with that red-flag warning explaining the connection between inhaling cigarettes and breathing in a slew of grave consequences.

And a standing ovation should be given to those trying to tout the perils of the Marlboro method.

But of all the arteries you could cut trying to kill the tobacco industry, the orange-button "I support smoke-free bars" campaign may be snipping at the wrong one.

Taking the lead from smoke-free bars in New York City and their soon-to-be smoke-free counterparts in Washington, D.C., the Penn State Students for Tobacco Awareness aims to make a positive change. But if you look at the streets outside of bars in New York City, plumes of poison circulate outside instead of staying in their assigned stool at the bar.

Wouldn't it make sense to contain the smoke in a place where it can be controlled instead of forcing a cloud of carcinogens into public domain? When most people enter a bar, they know smoking comes with the territory.

Stitched into the fabric of the tavern scene in America are cigarettes. Between friends over a drink, between the fingers of a bass player during the drum solo, between the Constitution and the interpretation of it that says it is our right as citizens to make questionable decisions, and it is in the right of private enterprise to facilitate them.

Besides, taking drags in bars absolves the cardinal sin of smoking: Exhaling second-hand smoke into the lungs of innocent bystanders, which kills about 38,000 people each year according to the Center for Disease Control.

Going to a bar is not a necessity; like smoking, it is a choice.

In cars with children, at bus stops with an unsuspecting crowd, at eating establishments where the smoke invades a meal, those are the places the buttons should be staring down.

Children aren't allowed in bars. No one has to live there, file their taxes there or take classes there. They willingly choose to go there. If someone doesn't want to come home smelling like smoke they don't have to go to a bar that allows it.

Smoke-free campaigns should be aimed at anywhere but bars. Would you rather have your plate of waffles getting hit on by a smoke cloud or your pitcher of Yuengling? The idea of a "smoking section" in a restaurant is laughable: Clouds of smoke can't read signs.

Vote with your dollar and stop patronizing places that provide ashtrays. When the dollar speaks, the business listens. There is beauty in the market driving the culture, not the government; all interests can be represented. The result will be that certain bars will allow it and certain bars won't. And if it ends up that customers really don't want smoking in the bars, I guess we'll probably all end up breathing easier.

But the more rules we make, the more we trap ourselves. It's a slippery slope that can bring changes quickly.

And by asking for protection in exchange for our liberty, we will slowly lose rights we didn't even realize we had. The next thing you know that other harmful drug will be removed from the social landscape.

Then before you know it, bartenders will be limited to pouring pitchers of Shirley Temples instead of Bloody Marys.