Features Smoking Law Aftershocks Restaurant and bar owners explore the dimensions of the new law. G oing to your local bar for a drink after work, you probably know you might as well leave your cigarettes at home. Yet, some people are still sneaking a smoke and getting away with it. In lieu of the smoking ban, it is still odd for some smokers to step outside to smoke every time they enter a bar.
Enforcement is different depending on the bar and some smokers still enjoy lighting up in public.
At the beginning of the year, smoking in bars became illegal. Last February, the California Assembly voted with Assembly Bill 297 to repeal the law. The bill is currently tied up in Committee. Businesses claim the prohibition of smoking is bringing chaos and financial hardship to small California businesses. If smoking became legal again, Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration would adopt standards that would filter out the amount of tobacco smoke.