SMOKING LAW PASSED
 

For those of you traveling to Washington state, leave your cigarettes behind...as of Dec 8, all public venues of all types...that means bars, etc...will be smoke free.

I grew up in Seattle and as an ex-smoker, i'm glad to hear they passed the law. Honestly after I quit smoking, I became one of the people who gagged when stale smoke was lingering on my clothes and hair after clubbing or hanging out at a bar. I had to take a shower before I could go to bed.

I'm in Atlanta now and they have the same law for all public restaurants and bars here. But if you're persistant, there are ALWAYS some joints that will still allow a smoke or two.

Agreed..there are certain bars in San Fran, where I lived for 15 years, that still allow people to light up clandestinely.

My experience has been, based on the period right after California's landmark 1998 law, is that you will have the "adjustment" period, where some "damn them all" bars will allow smoking willy nilly, some will choose not to enforce the law for fear of upsetting customers, and some will live with the law. However, eventually everyone comes into compliance...all it takes is a couple of four figure fines and a liquor license suspension to get the point made.

We are still waiting for them to pass that law here (chicago), I wish they'd hurry up with that.

The SF bar is not necessarily breaking the law if the owner runs the bar himself at all times. The anti-smoking law was passed to protect employees

The same thing is happening here in Austin. They just passed a no smoking law but there are still some renegade bars. You can't really blame them...it takes time to get used to new things. I really wouldn't care so much if bars weren't smoke free; I just want smoke-free restaurants.

On my last visit to NYC it was the accepted rule in bars I visited that you could smoke after midnight.