CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- More than 50 Kanawha County bar owners and patrons marched through the streets of Charleston this afternoon, protesting the county's month-old expanded smoking ban.

Bar and gambling parlor owners said their sales have dropped significantly since the anti-smoking regulations took effect July 1. They want the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to rescind the smoking ban.

"It's ungodly what it's doing to me," said Leroy Johnson, who owns No. 8 Sports Lounge in Marmet. "You tell my customers they can't smoke, they won't come in."

The protestors stopped at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, Charleston City Hall and Kanawha County Courthouse.

The bar owners are planning additional protests. They also have threatened to file a class-action lawsuit.

Health board members say the pickets won't persuade them to repeal the regulations.

Read more in Tuesday's Charleston Gazette. 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- More than 50 Kanawha County bar owners and patrons marched through the streets of Charleston this afternoon, protesting the county's month-old expanded smoking ban.

Bar and gambling parlor owners said their sales have dropped significantly since the anti-smoking regulations took effect July 1. They want the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to rescind the smoking ban.

"It's ungodly what it's doing to me," said Leroy Johnson, who owns No. 8 Sports Lounge in Marmet. "You tell my customers they can't smoke, they won't come in."

The protestors stopped at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, Charleston City Hall and Kanawha County Courthouse.

The bar owners are planning additional protests. They also have threatened to file a class-action lawsuit.

Health board members say the pickets won't persuade them to repeal the regulations.

Read more in Tuesday's Charleston Gazette.