American Cancer Society drops appeal over convention center smoking

By Cy Ryan

Friday, Aug. 5, 2011 | 4:38 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The American Cancer Society has dropped its appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court in a fight over allowing smoking in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The American Cancer Society, which opposes smoking because of the health hazards, signed a stipulation this week with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to dismiss its 2009 suit due to a law approved by the 2011 Legislature.

The Legislature passed and the governor signed a bill this year permitting smoking in the convention center under certain conditions.

The law allows smoking in the convention center if an event is closed to the public, if it was produced by a business with ties to tobacco or a professional association for convenience stores, or if it has displays of tobacco products.

The Legislature in 2009 passed a similar exemption, but it was combined with a bill on stalking. The Cancer Society challenged that law, arguing that it violated the constitutional prohibition of having two subjects in one bill.

But Carson City District Judge James Wilson rejected the argument of the Cancer Society, which then appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Cancer Society and the LVCVA filed opening and answering briefs earlier this year, but the Legislature in the final two days of the session in June approved the smoking exemption bill that deals with only one subject.