I don't smoke, dip or inject tobacco. I've probably "smoked" about ten cigarettes in my life, mostly before I turned 21 (college is a time for experimentation). And that pretty much consisted of trying to figure out the cool way to hold a lit cigarette. I've puffed on a couple of cigars and pipes. But never enough for a habit.

I've been watching music in bars since I turned 21 (fourteen years and counting). And I've been playing in a band in bars for almost four years. Until a week or so ago, bars were pretty much the only places in Albuquerque you could smoke indoors (other than your own home). But on June 15th, New Mexico began the statewide indoor smoking ban. Now, if it's a public building (non-residence), you can't smoke inside. There are exemptions: casinos, cigar shops, hookah parlors (seriously, they smoke tobacco in those things) and other places that cater exclusively to smokers.

To go along with the statewide ban, the mayor of Albuquerque proclaimed an executive order to include any public property outside as non-smoking places. This includes bus stops, parks, sports stadiums and other city funded outdoor events and areas. It was supposed to include public golf courses, but, mysteriously, on the day this executive order went into effect, golf courses were proclaimed safe havens for smokers.

The executive order does not have any legal punch behind it, by the way. It merely means people can tell you to put out your cigarette. So it's a license to bitch. Apparently it's not fair to tell the fat cats smoking cigars on the golf course to put out their cubans.

I will say this right off. It's nice to come home from a bar not reeking of smoke. I used to have a "smokey clothes" pile in my room because of this.

That's the good news.

I played with my band Tuesday night, the first time since the smoking ban went into effect. A girl I'll call "the one who takes tons of pictures but never emails them to us" because I'm bad with actual names came over to our table before we played. She was smoking a hand rolled cigarette (and, yes, it was tobacco). She got through about half of it before looking at it, then looking around the bar and saying, "I'm not supposed to do this anymore, am I?" We kind of shrugged, and I told her I'm not a cop.

I have no use for citizens trying to tell others what to do. DWI hotlines? Snoopers-R-Us? Rats? Spooks? Kids turning in parents for smoking a doobie after a late night bonk? These things disgust me more than someone smoking a cigarette.

So she put out the cigarette without any of us wagging our fingers or shaking our heads.

I found out Tuesday that most of the people who like listening to loud rock in bars also smoke. Which means they have to make a choice. Will they stay in the bar and listen, or will they go outside and smoke?

Guess which one most of them chose?

So after playing to about five people (there were at least twenty on the sidewalk outside the bar), we threw down our instruments and began packing up. My bassist and I shot down our customary post-playing whiskey while one guitarist raced outside for a cigarette. About a minute later, there was a ruckus near the bar and I saw a guy getting pushed out of the bar by his neck. Looking over at the bar, I saw another guy holding the back of his head. Only five non-musicians/bar workers left in the bar, and one knocks another over the back of the head with a bar stool. The night ends with cops, paramedics and firefighters.

Apparently this kind of thing has been happening every night since the smoking ban began. Shots fired at cars, tens of people in a brawl, bouncers tossing patrons left and right. Bouncers pulling cigarettes out of people's mouths as they go into the bars. Arguments about who knows who and how it's really okay if I smoke because I'm somebody. And big crowds outside the bars smoking (not buying drinks or listening to the bands). There are no trash cans on the street outside the bars, but there are big concrete planters. I'm not sure how long the plants will last with all of the trash and cigarette butts stuffed into them.

I'm not saying not being able to smoke while you drink is causing all of this violent behavior, but I'm not not saying it either.

I guess there will be a bit of a transition to this whole non-smoking thing. And, maybe, it will make some people stop smoking. Or maybe they just won't go out as much. Hard to say. It's not cold at night yet (being summer), so they'll probably continue to hang outside the bars until it gets really cold when fall rolls around. And then, who knows?

But it is rather apparent that golfers and gamblers who smoke have more political clout than rockers and drinkers who smoke.

Matt Worley is now the worst smelling guy in the bar at the end of a gig.