From Eddie Glenn, Talequah Daily Press:

According to state health officials, smoking among Oklahoma adults decreased significantly in the first six months of 2005, compared to 2004.

“Conservatively, the latest findings show that there are at least 30,000 fewer smokers in the state than last year, said State Health Commissioner Dr. Mike Crutcher. “Not only are more Oklahomans quitting smoking, many who still smoke are smoking less and are making more quit attempts.”

Of course, those statistics are for cigarettes.

According to cigar retailers in the area, business is pretty darn good.

“There’s been what the cigar industry calls a ‘mini-boom,’” said Cathy Brown of The Tobacco Shop in Fayetteville, Ark. “We thought it was just us, but in talking to other retailers from around the country, it seems to be going on everywhere.”

It’s a mini-boom, she said, compared to the not-so-mini-boom of the mid- to late 1990s, when cigar sales skyrocketed.

The timing of this most recent upsurge in the popularity of cigars is a bit ironic, considering the passage of smoking laws and ordinances across the country.

About 250 cities ban smoking in restaurants. Twelve states have statewide laws that do the same. Eight states - California, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Montana (where a ban will begin in 2009) - have laws that prohibit smoking not only in restaurants, but bars as well.

In March of next year, Oklahoma’s smoking ban will go into effect, eliminating smoking in restaurants that don’t have separately ventilated rooms for smokers, and banning smoking outside restaurants within 15 feet of any door. The 15-foot rule already applies for most businesses, but enforcement is expected to be stepped up.

Jeff Greiner, manager of Fogue and Bates Cigars in Tulsa, isn’t sure what effects the ban will have on cigar sales, but he thinks it will definitely hurt restaurants where customers will no longer be allowed to light up a cigar after a meal.

“I think it should’ve been left up to the restaurant owners [to allow smoking or not],” said Greiner. “They shouldn’t have to spend $20,000 or $30,000 to set up a separate smoking area.”

Greiner said one of his favorite hangouts, a restaurant that also serves alcohol and allows cigar smoking, will have to ban smoking come March 1.

He expects the ban may cut into cigar sales - although, like Brown, he’s seen an increase in business the past two to three years. But most likely, cigar aficionados will just find other places to smoke - like retail cigar shops, which are exempted from the new law.

“I haven’t really seen very many cigar bars opening up. Overall, it’s just getting harder and harder to find a place to smoke cigars - even in some of the bars,” he said. “I guess people will be hanging out more in cigar shops, since they won’t be able to smoke in too many other places.”

But according to Brown, who sells cigars across the border in Fayetteville, Greiner need not worry.

Since Fayetteville’s citywide smoking ban went into effect two years ago, business at the Tobacco Shop has actually taken an upturn.

“We’ve had people come in and say, ‘I’ve never smoked before in my life, but this non-smoking thing has me p—ed-off, and I’m gonna smoke a cigar,’” said Brown. “Last year was one of the best years we’ve ever had, and this year is beating last year so far.”

Brown said that last Friday, the store hosted a a little cigar-tasting soiree for the Ashton cigar brand, and the turnout included the stereotypical professorial types, as well as long-haired college students - and their girlfriends.

“’We had a great turnout, and there was quite a variety of people,” she said. “Old, young, and everything in between.”

So are cigars a healthy alternative to cigarettes? Not if you believe the warnings on the boxes.

But, as cigar smoker Jeff Perkins pointed out, few people chain-smoke really good cigars.

“You can get a good cigar for $5 or $6, and they go up from there,” he said. “I wouldn’t tell a kid to go out and start smoking cigars, but if they’re going to smoke something, cigars are better than cigarettes. Plus, a kid would have to go out and get a pretty good job just to buy them.”