MIDDLETOWN — It’s been eight months since a law went into effect banning smoking in most Ohio public indoor places. Some businesses say the ban has beefed up business, while others say it hurts.

At Jay’s Lakeside Inn on Tytus Avenue, not too many patrons were at the bar at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“This bar used to be packed this time of day,” said owner Jimmy D. Valentine.

“Guys who used to come in and drink two or three bottles of beer, now they go home and drink,” he said.

Valentine blames the smoking ban for losing $4,000 a week. He’s cut positions and pay to keep his business afloat, he said.

{The article then tells how it appears to be good for a bowling alley. So this reporter found two whole businesses to report on. Wow, that’s some impressive reporting.}

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DISGRUNTLED pub landlords in Nuneaton are set to challenge the government over the new smoking laws.

They say the smoking ban is doing more harm than good – and is threatening Britain’s pub culture.

He said: “It is causing a mass of problems – noise, mess, glass and bottles on the street, crowds of people drinking outside pubs rather than inside, and many other issues.”He said: “Noise is a big problem, because the doors are onstantly open there’s noise from inside and outside the pub.

Mess on the streets is another problem.

Mr Burlingham said: “At least inside the pub you can keep emptying ashtrays to keep the place clean.

“When you go outside at the end of the night, it looks like all the ashtrays have been emptied in one place.”

He said pub landlords feel the ban is changing the British way of life.

“Where pubs have created designated smoking areas, people are being herded into one place to smoke – but non-smokers are joining them, leaving the pubs half empty.

“Like it or not, Britain has a pub culture.

Source: Coventry Telegraph. Link

The smoking ban has already produced some surprising consequences. Take smells. Tobacco smoke may have been unpleasant but it masked a myriad odours. Since the ban, hundreds of pubs have been forced to steam-clean carpets stiff with years of beer spillage and other deposits. Nightclubs are now pumping perfume into their air-conditioning systems to mask the body odour given off by dancers.

There is a topsy-turvy feeling to many British pubs today, with scores of people crowding outside while bar rooms lie empty – even in cool weather.

In Ireland, which pioneered the smoking ban, the effects were far worse. Hundreds of pubs closed, particularly in rural areas.

Some pubs have gone already. Deejay Royall spent thousands of pounds transforming the interior of The Bush, in Wigan. He decided to pre-empt the ban and steal a march on rivals by prohibiting smoking from February. The result was a catastrophic fall in customers.

“People started to go to other pubs that hadn’t introduced the smoking ban, and then, when it came in last month, they stopped going out altogether. They are staying at home, buying cheap booze from the supermarkets and sitting in with their friends, smoking their heads off.”

Paul Jones, the landlord of the New Inn in Lower Cwmtwrch, in south Wales is another victim. “I’ve sold my lease because I can’t continue,” he laments. “About 40 per cent of our trade was cut by the smoking ban.”

Unless smoking in the open air is banned, Britain had better get used to night-time crowds. Terry Archer, the manager of the Lamb and Flag in London’s Covent Garden, has no option but to let his customers drink on the street.

Source: Tellegraph UK. Link

SMOKERS who are forced to pop outside pubs for a puff because of the smoking ban could be breaking street drinking laws, it has been claimed.

The new ban has also created a nuisance for people living near town centre pubs, who have complained about groups of smokers congregating on the streets.

People living in the town’s historic core said their lives had been blighted by smokers noisily congregating outside neighboring pubs with drinks in hand, which could break street drinking laws.

Source: EADT. Link