I'm not British and no longer a smoker (marked my 5-year quitting anniversary in June), but I've lived in four American states as they enacted their individual smoking bans. New Hampshire just went through this ritual last month.

There's always a lot of handwringing beforehand. Bar owners fret that everyone will stay home and drink there. Resturant owners are peeved because they've always provided a nonsmoking section and diners should have 'choice.' Dire predictions about what this will do to your favorite local are made.

But here's what happens: mostly nothing.

Some bars do worse. A very few. Those are the pubs that had nothing going for them anyway but the ability to provide a room where someone could sit and have a beer poured to them while they were smoking. The kinds of places that have a shitty clientele, no dartboard, no jukebox, a lame bartender, no food, and are in a lame neighborhood. In my view, these limp-alongs weren't trying anyway, and the marketplace will kill them if they don't adapt.

Some places do a whole lot better. These include places with live music and places with great food. Those places usually have bunches of people who say "I would love to go there, but I can't handle the smoke." When the smoking ban goes into effect, those people come out again, and the places get a shot in the arm.

Most places see no lasting effect after a couple of months to adapt. The playing field is level. If you go to a bar because it's your local, your friends are there, you like the atmosphere/food/activities, you're still going to go there. Smokers don't really let anything get in the way of either their entertainment life or their smoking. Stepping outside every few minutes isn't that big a deal, and can be a fun way to meet people and form those weak nicotine bonds.

This, in my view, is the only real downside of the smoking ban. It turns the street into an ashtray with a perpetual clutch of hanging-around people clustered around doorways. The noise levels increase a bit and there's a fair amount of litter. But it's a small price to pay for being able to go out and not have your hair and coat and clothing reek of cigarettes until the next morning.

Thanks, Miko. I always like reading your replies.

I'm also an ex-smoker, and I love the ban (other than the fact that I can now smell other things which are unpleasant).

I'm a 'never smoked' and I'm finding the smoking ban a joy. I used to hate going in pubs, ending up stinking of smoke and having to shower and wash my hair before going to bed because I couldn't bear the smell. The last couple of meetups I've been to have been noticeably far more pleasant due to the smoking ban.

Also, I watched "Thank You For Smoking" again last night, and loved it more than when I saw it the first time. It's a great movie.

I would drink more if we had a smoking ban. As it is, I hate going to bars because I come home reeking of smoke and have to take a shower before I can go to bed. They've been talking about a ban here for years and actually tried it at a county level last year but the court struck it down after about two days.

Many restaurants here don't even bother to have non-smoking sections. Even the little breakfast counter around the corner from me allows smoking in the whole place. Bleh.

Actually, one negative consequence is the hideous garish no-smoking signs that are required everywhere now, even on ancient buildings where they stand out like sore thumbs.

That apart, I like the smoking ban. I think cigarette sales fell by about 10% when the ban was first introduced, though I expect sales are highly dependent on the weather so it may take a while longer to see the ultimate effect.

octothorpe, where is this?

We have had a smoking ban in place for a while now and the effects are pretty much as Miko says - the biggest change is that the street smells worse and the insides smell better and that's about all. Smoking is not only banned inside all these places here, but within four metres of any entrance, so you get this ring of people standing exactly four metres away from entrances during cold weather (and the smart places stand patio heaters outside for the smokers).

We do get a lot more complaints about smokers being inconsiderate by forcing pedestrians to walk through their clouds, because they are now more "in the way", but nobody seems to worry too much about that. For me, it's either a chance to have a tiny taste of the habit I miss so much or a reminder of why I quit, depending on my mood at the time.

chuckdarwin: the smoky city itself, Pittsburgh. I think that the natives miss the pollution from the long-gone steel mills and are trying to re-create it indoors.

Pittsburgh

I know it well, being an ex-WV boy (my cousin lives there). I didn't go to WVU (which is a few miles away), but I hung out in Morganhole enough to have a strong memory.

NYC has a ban on smoking in bars. And Miko is right: before it was enacted, everyone cried and wrung their hands. But it's mostly business as usual. And for those of us who don't smoke, it's such a blessing. When I'm in other places where they allow smoking inside, it always shocks me for a moment (at the restaurant in VA Beach, I was like, huh, that guy is smoking!)

I'm a smoker and for me it's business as usual. Going out into the cold for 5 minutes is hardly a discomfort. I think pub business is down, but not by much. The main people who seem to be staying away from the pubs is old people, and I'm not sure I like that.

I'm a never-smoked Brit and I love the ban - true, there is the new phenomenon of little huddles of cold people smoking outside pub entrances, but I've never noticed any trouble because of it, and generally I like the fact that there are more people on the street in the city centre, as it makes me feel safer. (I live in a city centre so my experience of more suburban/rural areas is limited).

my local took the opportunity to repaint the (yellow/brown) ceiling and replace the (beer-soaked, smelly) carpet when the ban came in. So when the old smell died down, the underlying pub smell wasn't given a chance to reappear.

I've never noticed any trouble because of it
I have. I saw a fight kick off just last week. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been quite so violent or it may not have happened if people were inside and more spread out. As it was, it kicked off pretty bad. As well as the usual, one guy got glassed in the head and a woman got smacked in the face. One week later, there's still a dark patch on the pavement where it happened.

In Buffalo a lot of bars have closed or are on the verge of doing so. It's a big part of why our local goth club shut their doors after 25 years in business. A friend of mine's dad owns a bar, his grandfather opened it, and it's been in the red since the ban. The NY law is such that cigar bars could remain in business, and they're booming. Regular smokers go to them, too. They also have a complex appeal process where if a bar can prove a loss of business due to the ban they can get an exception. It's expensive and complicated, but it saved a few bars from closing.

A few restaurants have sued the state, too. The county smoking ban was such that they could have separate areas for smokers, enclosed with ventilation. The state's, which went in a year or two later, is a total ban. Many restaurants that had spent a lot to meet the county ban hadn't even paid their enclosures off yet by the time the state ban was placed.

I suspect our problems are because Buffalo has a lot of smokers. I'd say, among people who frequent bars, smokers are actually the vast majority. Sports play into it, too. You can go out to watch the game. Miss some every time you want a smoke, have to ditch your drink or leave it unattended since there's a no-open-container law here, or, well, watch it at your house with your friends and smoke when you damn well want to without missing any hockey. I'm sure the weather doesn't help, either. It's tough enough getting people to go out when the wind chill is negative ten, add in telling them they'll need to go outside if they want a smoke and you have a huge rise in house parties.

Most dance clubs are doing OK, but the corner bars, the ones that used to make their money on hockey days, are now a dying breed. It's pretty lame. Moreso since the big argument was "staff shouldn't have to breathe that in all day" and now you just wait longer for drinks since the staff is outside smoking.

Oddly enough, the smoking ban has ushered in a resurgence in cocaine use, though.