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You are here: Home Life in Blogs & photos MadridMan: Smoke 'em if you got 'em

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21/01/2011MadridMan: Smoke 'em if you got 'em

MadridMan: Smoke 'em if you got 'em MadridMan shares his 2011 predictions on what the newly instated smoking ban holds for the future cigarette culture in Spain.

This article is reprinted with permission of MadridMan.

“Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”

The Spain-wide smoking ban went into effect for all indoor establishments including bars, restaurants, discotheques, and party rooms this month. And it doesn’t stop there! Outdoor accesses to schools and hospitals will be smoke-free as well.

(Thank goodness they’re letting prisoners and psychiatric patients smoke in their respective places of "activity".)

Outdoor areas such as terraces/terrazas, stadiums, and bull rings will still be smoky, however, but give those poor nicotine addicts someplace to blacken their lungs!

Since my first visit in 1995, smoking seemed to give Spain part of its rich character. They seemed to be a rebel population and for that I admired them even more from my “Don’t do this” and “Don’t do that” American perspective.

Have we no respect for those whom can’t control themselves?
Shouldn’t we take pity on them?
Should we treat them instead of make their activities illegal? Don’t smokers have rights too?
Can’t we all just get long??



Shouldn’t we allow smokers their bars and non-smokers their bars too? Oh, wait, we tried that in the last smoking-ban go-around a few years ago and, well, it didn’t “go around” too well. Frankly, it flopped.

Then they offered bars the option to be smoke-free or allow smoking. Guess what: nearly all chose a smoke option. Doesn’t that tell you something?

Many smokers say that nothing goes better with a coffee or a caña than a good cigarette. I guess I believe them as I, a non-smoker, have no reason to doubt them.

Personally, I liked the way it was before. Spain wasn’t all that smoky. Sure, you had some bars where, by chance, the majority of the patrons were smokers and the easily-bothered non-smokers would leave in a huff to avoid the puff, seeking cleaner-air establishments (which isn’t all that difficult).

I’m not a smoker, and being next to someone whose smoking doesn’t bother me much. Still, it’s no fun having them turn and accidentally blow smoke in your face or nearly get burned by the red-hot ashes of someone who’s talking in one direction and holding “the smoking gun” in the opposite direction.

Smoke generally rises above plate-level so when I’m seated in a restaurant I’m (probably) not eating tobacco particulates.

Now I feel so assimilated into the smoking culture of Spain that I really don’t notice all that much anymore. And this month I probably won’t even notice the lack of smoke – at first.

Will smokers simply quit smoking because they can’t have a beer or a wonderful coffee at their favorite bars? Not bloody likely, but I hope they can quit. Secondary smoke isn’t healthy either, but it's only a small fraction as dangerous as the super-heated firsthand smoke drawn through a cigarette.

This whole smoking ban could have not only grave social consequence but economic consequences as well. Let me explain…


Smokers love bars and cafés. Heck, we ALL love them. It may come to pass that smokers will be so ticked off they’ll simply stop patronizing these establishments, sending the entire industry into a tailspin – and this in times of worldwide economic crisis.

Then comes the panic on behalf of the owners. They’ll start thinking how they can recover this lost income. “I guess we’ll just have to raise the price of a cup of coffee and a caña to make up the difference.” And the higher the prices go, the fewer people will patronize them.

Or they’ll enlarge/create terrace/terraza space to accommodate those in exile. If you’re a non-smoker and wanting to relax with some summertime drinks in the “fresh air” you might find the “fresh air” to be less “fresh” as you’ll be surrounded by smokers.

And imagine the wait-times to snag one of those terrace tables. And you thought things were bad now.

Lines will be longer, and it might turn out that non-smokers will be forced to have their drinks indoors 365 days a year –- which totally goes against the whole Spanish need to be “outdoors”.

And terraces won’t close in the winter either, no way. Bars will set out those awful greenhouse gas-emitting patio heaters, further destroying our environment –- and the rabid anti-smoker will say, “Let them destroy the environment outside. At least my air will be fresh indoors.”

Recently, a few “members only Smoking clubs” have opened up, where members pay an annual fee and they –- and only they –- can enter these particular clubs, smoking to their black-lung’s content. And the clubs must be non-profit, so members would pay an annual fee (but not by the sale of drinks, food, or products).


Establishment owners caught not adhering to or not enforcing the smoking ban will be met with STIFF fines between EUR 601 and 10,000. The government has teams of inspectors to start working tomorrow and you can be sure we’ll be getting an ear-full from not only the bar owners but also patrons from both sides of the aisle.

It’ll be interesting how the ban evolves but the government is holding firm this time around; no exceptions for indoor public spaces whatsoever.

So how can Spain retain its Spanish flavor without cigarette or cigar smoke? It’ll be tough, I say. Sure, we’ll be healthier and there’s little else more valuable than that. But this price may be steep. The trickle-down effects may profoundly change the entire Spanish culture as we know it – and I’m not so sure I’m ready to let go of that just yet.

MadridMan / Expatica

MadridMan is from America and has lived in Madrid for five years.


1 reaction to this article

New York Bill posted: 2011-02-02 14:28:27

When we stopped the smoking in bars and restaurants in NYC within 3 months bar and restaurant revenues INCREASED by 20 %. Anyone who smokes any place at all is an idiot. This ban in Spain was long overdue. Imagine what your' lungs look like after working 20 years in a smelly bar in Madrid?? Give it up before it kills you. Hasta luego

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1 reaction to this article

New York Bill posted: 2011-02-02 14:28:27

When we stopped the smoking in bars and restaurants in NYC within 3 months bar and restaurant revenues INCREASED by 20 %. Anyone who smokes any place at all is an idiot. This ban in Spain was long overdue. Imagine what your' lungs look like after working 20 years in a smelly bar in Madrid?? Give it up before it kills you. Hasta luego

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