Smoking

I have found that in the USA smoking has now become something that is not acceptable in public.  Sure there are still a large number of people that smoke (14% in the USA) but at least for me I don't see it in public very often.
I was a little shocked to see how prevalent smoking is in the cultural here is Spain.
The picture to the left is a group of teachers at the elementary school that get together and have smoke right before school starts,  I have seen them out during the recess hours doing the same thing.  The people often stand around and smoke.  It is a prevalent part of the culture that I have seen.
So I asked about it...
The person I asked is the Principal of the school, we have become good friends, she does smoke, but I knew I could ask her without her getting offended.

She told me that back in 2006 Spain passed strict new laws about smoking in public places and other laws that sounded similar to the kind we have in the US.  For about 4 or 5 years she noticed a large drop in the amount of people she saw smoking  (she was not smoking at the time, she quit for 7 years and then started back up again when she served as the Mayor of Chucena because of the Stress)
After a few years the old habits started coming back and the laws were not really enforced so it all became part of the everyday life again.  In some circles they stand around and smoke and offer each other a cigarette etc so it can be hard to stay away from.  For the most part they still seem to not smoke inside at all but I still find it rather strange.  According to the stats I looked up 28% of Spaniards smoke.