There’s been a half-hearted attempt to ‘celebrate’ the 15th anniversary of the smoking ban in Scotland.
According to The National:
Scotland’s smoke-free legislation has “radically” improved people’s health, an expert has said, 15 years on from the day it was introduced.
Dr Sean Semple, of the University of Stirling’s Institute for Social Marketing and Health, said the laws – introduced on March 26, 2006 – transformed culture and encouraged many smokers to reduce their tobacco intake or stop altogether.
ASH Scotland's Sheila Duffy was quoted as well (with no counter argument) so for a more balanced report it's best to read the Scotsman ('Smoking in Scotland 15 years after ban').
In addition to Semple and Duffy, the Scotsman features quotes from, among others, Paul Waterson, spokesman for the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, and Ruth Mackenzie, co-owner of the The Pipe Shop in Edinburgh.
According to Waterson, who was and remains a consistent opponent of the smoking ban:
"We were told that, after the ban, there would be an influx of new customers. We said at the time that was nonsense, and it was true ...
"At that time, 80 per cent of people who frequented a pub three to five times a week smoked. There was a massive impact on trade.”
Mackenzie told the paper:
"Cigar customers would come in, spark up and talk about the experience with other customers. It was really, really sad to lose that.
“If you are a smoker, society can make you feel like you are a bad person. People of age should have the choice."
Interestingly it seems that business at The Pipe Shop has grown in recent years as people look for speciality products.
“We don't have a target audience, it is a bit of everybody and that makes the customer service side so exciting.
In around 2004 and 2005 you had this more gentrified fashion coming in and people came in wanting to buy a pipe.
"Now our staff are much younger too and they have really good knowledge of the products.
“And you would be surprised at how any women smoke cigars."
Smoking may be a minority activity but evidence suggests there will be always be a market for tobacco, regardless of our pettifogging laws.
And as long as there are adults who choose to smoke that choice must be respected.
See also: Hundreds of Scots pubs closed since smoking ban (BBC News, September 2010), Scots support smoking rooms in pubs, poll says (The Times, March 2016)
Update: I have just remembered that I visited The Pipe Shop with Brian Monteith in February 2009 and wrote about it here (Scotland's tobacco Taliban march on).
The following week I mentioned The Pipe Shop again when I described being 'bowled over by the choice of tobacco available'. And that was a non-smoker speaking!