Smoke 'em if you got 'em at Ore. bars - until midnight tonight

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - When the clock strikes midnight this New Year's Eve, the lights on all cigarettes and cigars inside Oregon's bars are supposed to go out.

Oregon will join California, Washington and other states that ban smoking in bars. State lawmakers passed the law in 2007, and it's been an 18-month countdown to the end.

But don't expect a smoke squad to suddenly start busting lawbreakers. It's up to business owners to make sure people don't light up. And if a bar isn't smoke free, it's up to smoke-hating patrons and employees to file a complaint with the Oregon Department of Human Services, said Cathryn Cushing, a spokeswoman for the department's tobacco prevention program.

"There will be no smoking police out there running around and putting out cigarettes," Cushing said.

The penalty for a businesses that violates the new law is as much as $500 a day and $2,000 a month. The state Department of Human Services is responsible for overseeing enforcement.

Only if there is an incident where a bar owner is taken to court will the justice department intervene, said Pete Shepherd, a deputy attorney general in Oregon.

In 2001, the Legislature passed a measure that outlawed smoking in businesses but exempted bars, taverns, bar areas inside restaurants, bowling alleys and bingo halls in most places.

Businesses exempt from the new smoking ban will be smoke shops and cigar bars. Also, hotels can designate up to a quarter of their rooms as smoking rooms.

Under the technicalities of the new law, Cushing said, bar and tavern owners should be prepared to enforce the ban promptly at 12 a.m. Thursday when their clients are ringing in the New Year.

"If a business doesn't ask people to put out cigarettes then, they'll risk complaints," Cushing said. "In general, enforcing this law is not very difficult. It means posting signs, removing ashtrays and letting customers know smoking is not allowed."

Some bars around the state decided to ban smoking before the law went into effect. One of them is Magoo's Sports Bar in Salem. Owner Jim Eastridge decided to make the bar smoke free in September 2007, two months after state lawmakers approved the bill.

He said the regulars who smoked quit stopping by for drinks, and he saw few new customers at first. But about eight months after Magoo's became smoke-free, business picked up and food sales increased by about 20 percent, he said. The bar's video poker and lottery play, however, never bounced back, he said.

"We're hoping having no smoking statewide will level the playing field," he said. "I think people who enjoy the smoke-free atmosphere found us."

Since the law was passed 18 months ago, retailers have expressed concern that the ban could reduce the money the state rakes in from lottery play and uses to help fund schools, economic development and some conservation efforts.

Gamblers who smoke might spend less time - and as a result money - playing at machines inside bars.

At The Lotus Cardroom and Cafe, a smoke-hazed lounge in downtown Portland, patron Patty Hampton sat at a video lottery machine smoking a cigarette. She shrugged off the notion she would gamble less come Jan. 2, when the bar reopened after the New Year's Day holiday.

"I hope not," she said. "I'm not worried about the smoking ban."

Lotus bartender Krista Marsh said Tuesday that employees will place "No Smoking" signs throughout the following day, but the ashtrays scattered on the tabletops and counters probably won't be tossed until Lotus' New Year's Eve bash ends well after midnight on Thursday.

Marsh said the ban worries her. She works nine-hour shifts on weekdays, and said she expects to lose some clients because many of the bar's lunchtime regulars stop by on their lunch breaks to eat, drink and smoke.

"I'm sure my income will go down for a while, because if you look around in here right now, everyone in this section has had a cigarette," she said. "But I'm excited not to have people blowing smoke in my face. I'm excited to throw ashtrays into the garbage and be done with it."

One of Marsh's customers on Thursday afternoon was Joshua Thornton, who had a pack of Parliament cigarettes lying in front of him as he drank a glass of Stella Artois beer.

"Nothing is better with a coffee or a drink than a cigarette," said Thornton, who smokes a half pack each day. "I'm sure if my need for a cigarette becomes that bad I'll find a place where I can smoke."

Down the street and around the corner from Lotus, former commercial fisherman David Wilkinson sat at the bar of the Yamhill Pub, a crowded dive bar that smelled like an ashtray.

He said he doubts bars will enforce the new law right at the stroke of midnight Thursday, and he expects smokers celebrating the New Year at drinking place would still light up in 2009's earliest hours.

"I think everyone is smoking anyway," he said. "There's no sense in all of it."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)