Smokeless !

For nearly a quarter of the populations of New South Wales and Victoria today heralded a new era. It is no longer legal to light up a cigarette in any club or pub in those states.
The ban has been creeping into existence slowly. For the past year smoking has been restricted to a single area - and in most venues this has been associated with the TAB and gaming section. Now you can no longer sit at the bar, play a poker machine or have a flutter on the horses - and have a smoke at the same time.
The ban has been greeted with apprehension by most pub and club management with the expectation of a drop in trade - and therefore of profits.
Huge sums have been spent to provide an area where smokers can legally indulge. It took some time to get a definition of what constituted legal " open air " but in the end the definition became any area where twenty-five percent of the walls had no barrier. This definition aptly described any verandah - and that was what most venues settled on.
We are apt to see some strange sights. Those venues unable to adapt a smoking area will probably be likely to have a congregation of smokers in the street outside their front doors - having a few quick puffs before hurrying back to their poker machines of waiting ales.
The ban will probably influence a few to quit smoking and there will probably be a jump in bottle and can sales as some smokers relinquish licensed premises in favour of their own kitchen table.
In the short term there will be anguished complaints - and some will try and disregard the law - but six months down the track non smoking in clubs and pubs will be accepted as normal. Just as we no longer smoke in supermarkets, coffee shops, milk bars, banks - or doctor's waiting rooms - areas where in the long past communal ash trays were commonplace !