After reading a few articles in English about this development, it appears that pretty much all smoking will indeed be banned in public places in Spain, starting with the new year. How interesting that the entire country will have this ban in place, rather than have it be enacted region by region like is it done here.
I wonder how the enforcement aspect will take place. Will there be special Spanish "smoking police?" What are the penalties for lighting up in inappropriate places?
I hate smoking as much as Torbe appears to, but it is a lot easier to enact laws than it is to enforce them. I can't wait to see how this one turns out.
Easy, anyone can report to the police. And they do inspections, too. The fines are very high so breaking the law is not a good idea.
ReplyDeleteSpanish, on the contrary of americans, are usually very submissive to the public powers. Here to resist against an abusive law is not an option.
Cliente X, very interesting. Here, where communities have smoking bans in place, enforcement is lax. But people usually comply anyway, not out of any sense of submission...more out of laziness. You might get kicked out of the restaurant, and it would be a pain to have to go eat somewhere else. :-)
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