Scotland's Anti-Smoking 'Enforcers'

Scotland's almost two-week-old smoking ban, which last week claimed its first victim, is suspected of leading to a blaze that damaged a new $20 million hotel/bar/restaurant complex early this morning.

Firefighters suspect a "fly" smoker -- the term used to describe someone violating the smoking ban, and perhaps also someone uninterested in braving a cold Edinburgh evening that saw temperatures in the 30s -- started the fire in a restaurant bathroom by, presumably, discarding a cigarette butt in something other than an ashtray, that relic of the past.

But even if the damage to the complex is minimal, the economic costs of the nationwide smoking ban that will be borne by taxpayers is staggering.

Consider that, since the smoking ban took effect, Edinburgh's 22-man team of anti-smoking "enforcers" has already "made round-the-clock visits to more than 2000 premises in Edinburgh," but has issued just four warnings. That means they're on pace for 40 warnings a year -- or just under 2 warnings per enforcer. Assuming -- allow me to hypothesize -- an annual cost to taxpayers (including salary, benefits, transportation, etc.) of $45,000 per enforcer, Scots are looking at a tab of $1 million per year for the city of Edinburgh to enforce its ban, and an unfathomable cost of $25,000 per enforcement warning. And that's just one large city.

Love. War. President Bush's monomaniacal campaign against terrorism. So-called public health. The list of things for which all's fair is growing.