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Hookah bars give up fight for ban exemption
Legislator withdraws bill at owners' request
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Published: August 1, 2009
RALEIGH
A proposed exemption of hookah bars from the new statewide smoking ban has gone up in smoke.
State Rep. Cullie Tarleton, D-Watauga, had been pushing a bill that would have allowed hookah bars to stay in business after North Carolina's smoking ban for restaurants and bars goes into effect in January.
But Tarleton said yesterday that he has withdrawn the bill, effectively eliminating any chance that the General Assembly would act this year to carve out an exemption for hookah bars. Tarleton pulled the bill at the request of owners of hookah bars, who complained that amendments to the bill would have put new, unfair restrictions on them.
"That would have just been a slow death as opposed to a quick, clean death," said Adam Bliss, the owner of Hookah Bliss in Chapel Hill. "We'd rather go out clean than be bled to death."
A hookah is a pipe used to smoke flavored tobacco. The pipe contains a long tube, which draws the smoke through a bowl of water in order to cool it. Hookah smoking is popular among young adults, and North Carolina has about 20 hookah bars or lounges, mainly in college towns.
Without a legal exemption, hookah bars will have to either stop allowing hookah smoking, or stop serving all food and beverages. As a practical matter, either of those actions would put them out of business, some owners of hookah bars say.
The problem stems from the smoking ban that was passed by the legislature in May. The ban will take effect Jan. 2. It outlaws smoking in indoor areas of nearly all bars and restaurants.
The law allows a few exemptions. Cigar bars, country clubs and nonprofit fraternal organizations -- such as Elks lodges -- may continue to allow smoking. But no such exemption was granted for hookah bars.
Bliss sees that as unfair and inconsistent.
"They have exempted every place that affluent, older folks like to go," he said.
When the issue came up this week in a legislative committee, anti-smoking advocates urged legislators not to grant an exemption for hookah bars. They said that hookah smoking may lead young people to take up regular smoking. And they said that hookah smoking is just as unhealthy as smoking cigarettes.
Hookah supporters dispute both of those points. Hookahs are generally used very differently from cigarettes, said Ameen David, the owner of Mooney's Mediterranean Cafe in downtown Winston-Salem.
"It's a social thing more than anything else," David said. "You'll have two to five to even more people sharing a hookah at one time over the course of 30 or 60 minutes. They're just sitting back and enjoying the evening."
Mooney's is primarily a restaurant, but it allows hookah smoking at night, after it stops serving food.
Hookah smoking accounts for less than 10 percent of the business at Mooney's, David said -- a potential loss of revenue that wouldn't put him out of business, but would hurt.
At other places, where the primary attraction is hookah smoking, the smoking ban will likely force them to shut down.
Tarleton said that's not fair. He is a strong supporter of the smoking ban, but he said that its effect on hookah bars was unintended.
Tarleton's bill would have created an exemption in the smoking ban that would have allowed existing hookah bars to stay in business.
As the bill made its way through legislative committees, opponents amended it to add new restrictions on hookah bars. Owners of hookah bars said that those restrictions may have put them out of business anyway, so they asked Tarleton to simply withdraw the bill.
One restriction added to the bill would have required that hookah bars serving alcohol could not admit anyone under 21. Hookah-bar owners said that would be unfair, because many other bars and restaurants serve alcohol but are still open to underage patrons.
Bliss said that about half of his hookah-smoking business comes from 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds.
Another restriction would have prevented any new hookah bars from opening in the state.
Now that Tarleton has pulled his bill -- and the idea of a legislative exemption is dead for the year -- hookah bars do have one option to remain in business. If they stop serving all food and drinks, and exist solely as shops that sell tobacco and hookah pipes, they would not be covered by the smoking ban, and they could continue to allow smoking in their establishments.
But most hookah-bar owners say that's not a viable business model.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com
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