In March 2006, Scotland became the first part of the UK to introduce a ban on smoking in enclosed spaces and last week I had the chance to talk to someone who was on the frontline when that first change was introduced.
He is a barman who was on duty by himself the first night of the smoking ban and remembers that evening clearly.
“It was a bit of a working man’s bar on the edge of town and all the staff had been a bit nervous about what we’d do if a customer lit up and refused to go outside to smoke,” he told me.
“So, nervously, I took over for the night shift at 6pm and waited for the first smoker to step out of line.
“By 9pm I was starting to think I’d been worried about nothing; the usual crowd of heavy smokers had arrived and everyone had quietly trotted out to the smoking area we had created a month earlier out the back.
“I was a smoker back then too and when I popped out to join them for a smoke, the conversation was about the new ban, the weather and the usual predictions that it would never last.
“Then, just after 9pm, the door opened and my nemesis walked in. Let’s call him “Archie”. He’d been out of prison this time for almost a year and everyone was anxiously waiting for the next time he lost control and put a handful of former friends in hospital.
“’Archie’, I called as he walked to the bar.
“’Vodka shandy’ was his usual dry reply and as I turned away to pour his vodka and lemonade, I froze when I heard the unmistakable sound of his Zippo snapping open and the flick as it lit a spindly roll-up.
“Filled with dread, I turned back round to see that two other drinkers at that side of the bar had suddenly decided a trip to the gents was called for.
“’Archie’, I began nervously. ‘You are remembering that the smoking ban has started today?’
“This was it, I thought. He’s going to explode now. I was suddenly grateful that I’d had the foresight to move the cordless phone to that side of the bar and I was ready to call the cavalry.
“But what happened next was incredible. Archie suddenly sat bolt upright on his bar stool, held his roll-up in front of his face and looked at it in horror. “Oh Sh*t! Sorry man,” he spluttered before running out the front door.
“He was back again within the minute and was eager to apologise and that was the last time I saw anyone light up in a public building in Scotland until about three months ago when I spotted a wisp of smoke rising from a table near the bar.
“I shot across to the table, by now I was an ex-smoker so my nose was twitching to detect the smell of an illegal cigarette but when I got there I was already puzzled that I couldn’t smell anything.
“’What’s that you’ve got there?’ I asked, to be told that it was an electronic cigarette. ‘Oh, I’ve heard of them. What are they like?’
“The ‘smoker’ was already enthusiastically telling his mates about his new e cigarettes and I joined in, eager to find out more.
“‘What does it taste like?’, ‘Coffee? What does a coffee cigarette taste like?’
“So for the next hour or so, a steady stream of punters trotted over to the table to ask him about his e cigarette.
“Some refused to believe that the ‘smoke’ had no aroma and bent down to try and sniff up the vapours as they escaped from the e cigarette.
“But before long the ‘smoker’ was getting fed up with all the attention and constant requests to borrow his e cigarette and refill it with different flavours.
“Three times I had to leave the bar and ask other drinkers to stop crowding the table or trying to snatch his e cigarette.
“Strangely, when he did agree for someone to borrow it for a taste, the first reaction was to take it outside, such is the power of the new smoking ban.
“By the end of the night, I’d already had to ask the smoker to put the e cigarettes out of sight and, following a string of similar incidents, the bar owners decided to ban e cigarettes inside the bar.
“Of course there were a few disgruntled comments but these soon faded away, especially when the e cigarette smokers realised just how much they missed smirting (smoking and flirting) with the opposite sex by the ashtrays outside.”
