Colorado bans stage smoking

Lighting up for dramatic effect is a no-no on Colorado theater stages. The Denver Post reports that the Colorado Department of Public Health is taking a hard line against the smoking of tobacco products or tobacco substitutes on indoor stages, following legislation enacted in 2006, now under appeal. “You simply cannot make unprotected conduct protected by dumping it into a theater context,” the paper quotes assistant attorney general Lisa Brenner Freimann as saying.