BREAKING: City Council Unanimously Approves Smoking Ban in Bars

This may seem like the end times for many a dive bar, and a very happy day for second hand smoke haters. New Orleans City Council has unanimously approved a ban on smoking inside bars and casinos, Jeff Adelson of The Advocate reports, with potential "additional tweaks" to come before the ban goes into effect (90 days to smoke it up, yo!). Vaping will be allowed in E-cig stores and the new law doesn't apply to hookah and cigar bars (but they can't allow cigarette smoking).

As for those "addtional tweaks," amendments were already offered today "by Councilwoman Latoya Cantrell - who sponsored the measure - and by council members Jason Williams, James Gray and Nadine Ramsey" to restrict the law's scope," especially concerning the "25-foot buffer zones around entrances and doorways that would also be no-smoking areas" as that wouldn't make sense in the Quarter. So, likely you won't have to smoke in, say, a van down by the river. Another amendment "also removed prohibitions on smoking in parks, at public events and at bus stops."

Richard Rainey also reports that "council members Jared Brossett and Nadine Ramsey expressed concern about not having enough information on what the economic impact of this ban would be, but ultimately decided to support it."