Oklahoma Smokers

It has been 1 year since the smoking ban went into effect at restaurants in Oklahoma. In looking back over the course of the past year, what if anything has changed?

In our family we still dine out, although not as often as prior to the ban. Also we now spend our money only in those restaurants with a ’smoking room’.

Prior to the smoking ban we frequented a wide variety of restaurants both with and without smoking sections.

Sometimes we frequented the mom and pop - down home style places were the majority of the customers were smokers. At other times we frequented the yuppie style places where smokers if they were welcomed at all were in the minority. And on occasion we frequented the upscale places most of which had a bar and therefore a sizable customer base of smokers.

Since the ban went into effect the biggest difference we have noticed is that we no longer frequent the places that cater to the ‘yuppie crowd’ and we try to frequent the smaller mom and pop places that went to the extra expense of adding a ’smoking room’. We still on occasion frequent the upscale places, but not as often, as we are trying to help support the mom and pop operations that went the extra mile to cater to us smokers.

We have noted a few restaurants, mostly yuppie style, that have gone out of business in the past few months. Whether the loss of smokers contributed to their demise or not would only be speculation. The only mom and pop operations we have noted closing were those which would not or could not install a ’smoking room’ meeting the requirements of the smoking ban.

In reality not much has changed for us, as we live in Tulsa with a variety of smoker friendly restaurants within easy driving distance. From what I have heard from friends in Oklahoma City the scenario is similar there, not much different than before the ban. If one wants to find a smoker friendly restaurant they can.

Of course there are a lot of smokers living and dining in the many small towns across Oklahoma where there is not much variety in the way of restaurants and we have not heard much from their customers as to how they are dealing with the issue. Hopefully there were at least some restaurants able to set up ’smoking rooms’ in towns in every county. If anyone would like to share their experiences in this regard, please let us know.

Prior to the increase in tobacco taxes and the smoking ban we purchased tobacco products when we needed them and with little regard to where. Since the tax increase and smoking ban we have purchased exclusively at tribal ’smoke shops’. This as our little ‘pay back’ to the state of Oklahoma. It only amounts to a couple of hundred dollars in tax savings a year at best, but it is money in our pockets rather than in the tax coffers of a state doing its level best to discriminate against smokers at every opportunity.

All in all not much has changed for us living under the smoking ban for a year, except for the fact that we have more money in our pockets from dining out a little less and purchasing tobacco products only in tribal ’smoke shops’…