Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe MELBOURNE, May 30 (UPI) -- Brothel owners in the Australian province of Victoria, arguing that sex and cigarettes go together, say their businesses should be exempt from a smoking ban. The Australian Adult Entertainment Industry, a group that represents about half the sex businesses in Victoria, wrote Health Minister Bronwyn Pike, the Melbourne Herald-Sun reported. Advertisement "These smoking laws are going to drive women back on to the streets courtesy of the Health Minister," said William Albon, the group's spokesman. "People smoke when they drink, and people smoke when they fornicate." Victoria already bans smoking in enclosed workplaces and on train platforms and at bus and tram stops. The ban will be extended in July next year to include licensed premises like taverns and Melbourne's 87 legal brothels. Only prison inmates and high rollers at the Crown Casino will be exempt. Ben Hart, a spokesman for Pike, said that a change of policy is unlikely, telling the newspaper that "no one is going to be marching in the streets" for the right of prostitutes and johns to smoke indoors.
