As our own correspondents inform us, a smokers’ underground is forming, here, there, and everywhere. Illegal bars, where one can smoke, are now commonplace on several continents. Occasionally official notice is taken. 
Here we have a news piece from Cleveland, Ohio.
"They have succeeded in creating this underground, sleazy, cash-only business that cannot be regulated, taxed or secured by police," says a lawyer who represents mainstream nightclubs.
"You put too many restrictions on people, they’re going to find someplace else to go for their entertainment," says a Cleveland police detective.
Not just tobacco smoking, but every manner of illegal activity thrives in the so-called "smokehouses," we are told.
The police say they have only fragmentary knowledge of the network of illegal clubs. They don’t expect to find out about them until fights or shootings break out.
This is simply evidence of the lesson of America’s alcohol prohibition era having gone unlearned.
Hooray for smokehouses. Remember the passwords, and watch your back, till happy days are here again.
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