Originally Posted by: Azraelas much as i hate smoking, i think public smoking bans are not so great.
lets take austria for example - we had that discussion about public smoking bans in a political tv-duell. well - the next day i talked to some gastronomers and they all said that it would be a catastrophy. alot of peeps are goin out at night into all sorts of pubs and restaurants, chilling with a cold beer and a cigarette. ALOT of smokers will rather stay at home having a beer and a smoke infront of their TV than spending a few hours in a pub without having the possibility to inhale their holy smoke. thus gastronomy will seriously suffer and alot of the smaller pubs and restaurants will close down. just go figure - more than 60% of the peeps hanging out at night are smokers!
plus tobacco industry is a very vital part of our economy sice it earns us alot of taxes. ...

Look around!

The state of California has had a total ban on public smoking for years now, and it works. Since it was imposed on every place at the same time, there was no problem with smokers moving to different venues. There was no point in abandoning a restaurant in favour of the local pub, for instance.

In Ottawa, Ontario, there is a public smoking ban, and business has actually increased at the pubs and restaurants. There was a lot of worry that customers would all go across the river to Hull, Quebec, but it didn't happen.

Here in Calgary, the local council didn't have the balls to ban smoking everywhere, so now it's OK in some places, and banned in others. That's exactly the wrong approach, because it does not have all businesses operating under the same rules.