RALEIGH, N.C. — Apparently, state legislators don’t spend much time in hookah bars.

At least not the members of a House judiciary committee, which spent more than an hour yesterday debating the practice known as hookah smoking – a method of inhaling flavored tobacco through a long pipe, known as a hookah, which cools the smoke by drawing it through a bowl of water.

One legislator wanted to know if all of the “paraphernalia” used for hookah smoking is legal.

Another legislator joked that she had heard of topless bars before, but not hookah bars.

Despite their alien status around the General Assembly, about 20 hookah bars or lounges exist in North Carolina, mainly around college campuses. And they’re at risk of going out of business under the state’s recently passed law banning smoking in bars and restaurants.

The smoking ban will take effect in January. Before that happens, some legislators want to amend the ban by creating an exemption in the law that would allow existing hookah bars to continue to allow smoking.
State Rep. Cullie Tarleton, D-Watauga, is trying to get the exemption passed in the House. Tarleton was a strong supporter of the original smoking ban, but he said yesterday that the ban’s impact on hookah bars was unintended.

The trouble for Tarleton and supporters of hookah is that getting the exemption passed will require the legislature to revisit one of the most contentious bills of the year. And there’s not much time – depending on what happens with state budget negotiations, the 2009 legislative session could be in its final days.

“I am not interested in opening Pandora’s box here,” Tarleton said yesterday. “All I want to do is to save some 20 small businesses across the state that opened legally, legitimately, with the full intention of serving a population. (The smoking ban) is going to shut them down, and that’s an unintended consequence.”
The smoking ban – signed into law by Gov. Bev Perdue on May 19 – already contains an exemption for cigar bars, which get most of their revenue from the sale of cigars. But it has no such exemption for hookah.
Tarleton’s bill would allow existing hookah bars to continue to allow hookah smoking, but it would not allow any new hookah bars to open.

The House judiciary committee added a further restriction yesterday – it amended the bill to require that hookah bars that sell alcohol could not admit anyone under age 21. Hookah supporters said that amendment isn’t fair, because many other establishments are allowed to serve alcohol while still allowing patrons who are under 21.

About half of the state’s hookah establishments currently have permits to sell alcohol.

After adding the age-restriction requirement, the judiciary committee narrowly approved Tarleton’s bill. It now goes to the floor of the House.

Anti-smoking advocates and some social conservatives oppose the exemption for hookah bars. They said that hookah smoking is just as unhealthy as cigarette smoking, and they said that hookah bars entice young people to smoke.

But hookah supporters said that people use hookahs very differently from the way they use cigarettes. Hookah smoking is usually a social experience where a group of people shares a small amount of flavored tobacco while listening to music or eating food.

“They don’t go in to get a nicotine fix,” said Connor McGrath of Boone. McGrath and Jesse Kellogg are two students at Appalachian State University who recently opened a hookah lounge. They were in Raleigh yesterday urging legislators to allow their new business, and similar businesses around the state, to stay afloat.

Tarleton has taken up their cause, calling it an issue of fairness that could save 100 jobs at the state’s 20 hookah bars.

But other legislators were much more skeptical.

“I’m getting ready to vote on something I know absolutely nothing about,” said Rep. Johnathan Rhyne,

R-Lincoln, during yesterday’s committee meeting.

“I didn’t either until two weeks ago,” Tarleton replied.