KITTERY (AP) -On a frigid weeknight, smokers huddled outside the Corner Pub despite the temperature plummeting to zero, two weeks after a new state law made all Maine bars smoke-free.

Bartender Heather Morin, herself a smoker, said she actually likes breathing cleaner air at work since the law went into effect. But, she said, the ban is driving away her customers who smoke.

“It’s been dead,” Morin said. “Business has gone way down.”

January is always slow for bars in Maine, owners and managers said last week. But business is down even more than usual at some bars near Maine’s borders, a half-dozen managers reported, and they blame the state’s new smoking ban more than the subzero weather that has gripped the state.

They say many longtime customers are traveling from Maine to bars in New Hampshire or Canada, where they can still have a cigarette.

“Six months from now I’ll be lucky if I’m in business,” Corner Pub manager Centula Abrams said.

Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Bureau of Health, said the cold weather has hurt sales across the board, not just in bars, and she believes the law will draw new customers – nonsmokers who eschewed smoky bars in the past.

She heard the same arguments when Maine’s smoking ban took effect in restaurants in 1999. If anything, the ban helped business, she said.

“I think they’re going to find that people in New Hampshire are going to drive to Maine,” she said. “In other states and cities there’s not been a sustained drop in business.”

Two bars in Kittery, on the New Hampshire border, are doing light business this January, while those in Portsmouth, N.H., just across the state line, are seeing more Maine customers than usual.

“There are a few people that I haven’t seen in a while coming across the bridge” from Maine, said Jason Stiles, manager of the Daniel Street Tavern in Portsmouth. “I would assume probably during the summertime there will be a big difference.”

On Jan. 1, Maine became the fifth state to ban smoking in virtually all public places, including bars. Individual violators face fines of $100 per offense, and bar owners face fines of $100 for each day they are not in compliance.

Running afoul of the smoking ban also violates state liquor law, and bar owners who fail to stop indoor smoking could see their liquor licenses revoked.

At least one Maine bar has closed because of the ban.

Paul Beaulieu owned Jackie’s Bar in Madawaska for 19 years and shut his doors in October before the smoking ban went into effect. He will reopen later this month as a discount store, Dollar Deals and More.

“I knew this was coming into effect, and I didn’t bother staying around. I knew this was going to hurt me,” Beaulieu said. “Everyone in Canada has poker machines and they’re allowed to smoke, so we knew that our customers would just go across to Canada.”

Some bar owners are investing in windbreaks and other ways to let customers smoke in relative comfort.

At the Navy Yards Bar and Billiards in Kittery, smokers can stand inside a small plywood and plastic shelter, just outside the bar’s front door. During last week’s cold snap, some customers left their cars or trucks running outside so they could sneak out to smoke in the warmth of their vehicles.

“We won’t pollute the bars, but we will pollute the environment,” said Jules Caouette, of Lyman.

The six regulars sitting at the bar were uniformly opposed to the smoking ban.

“You can’t legislate morality, they proved that with Prohibition,” said John Nickerson. “It’s the small business owners that are suffering.”

Former state Rep. John Michael agreed. He is advising bar owners to consider filing a class-action lawsuit to stop the state from enforcing the smoking ban.

“It’s a typical active Legislature bullying one group of people, in this case smokers, with absolute disregard for how difficult it is to keep a business running,” said Michael.

Bars on Maine’s borders are not the only ones that say they’re seeing a dip in sales. Steve Harris, who owns two bars in Portland, said nighttime business is down 10 to 15 percent this month. He said some of his customers have simply opted to join private clubs, like the Elks.

“It’s hard to deal with when the clubs are still allowing smoking and every other service that we offer,” he said. “It’s a really dumb law that’s hurting everybody.”

Not all Maine customers and owners are opposed to a ban on smoking in bars, though.

Peter Grace, a nonsmoker from South Berwick, said he was glad to see the state take steps to protect people from secondhand smoke.

“Why should people that don’t smoke be inconvenienced by somebody’s habit that affects their health?” he said. “I think they made the right decision for the best interest of the people.”

And one bar owner, also a nonsmoker, sees a silver lining in the smoking ban: no more cigarette burns in his carpets and no dirty ashtrays.

“I’m so glad it’s over with,” said Bob Bouchard, who has two bars in northern Maine near the Canadian border. “Yesterday I compared my books and it was the same as last year in the first two weeks, if not a little bit better.”

AP-ES-01-19-04 1313EST