Hookah hangs on

It’s been nine days since the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect, but Chapel Hill’s Hookah Bliss is still open for business.

Its owner, Adam Bliss, has been fighting the legislation, which prohibits smoking in most restaurants and bars, since it was passed last May.

Bliss and his colleagues around the state failed to get an exemption passed for hookah bars, similar to the exemption granted to places like cigar bars and country clubs. But he’s not accepting defeat.

“I’m waiting to get in trouble,” he said. “I’m literally waiting to get my citation, which according to the way it’s being enforced, could take a while.”

Enforcing the law

Local health departments will make routine inspections, but enforcement of the new law is mostly a complaint-driven system, said Sally Herndon Malek, head of the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of the North Carolina Division of Public Health.

Anyone can make an anonymous complaint about a business allowing patrons to smoke, either by visiting smokefree.nc.gov or calling the local health department directly.

Bliss said based on what he’s been told by officials, the health department gives businesses three warnings before they visit the business to validate the complaints. After that, each citation for a business carries a fine of up to $200.

But if Bliss does get a citation, he’ll appeal it.

“I still don’t think the law applies to us, due to the definition of smoking, which is a lighted tobacco product, as it says in the law,” he said. “Hookahs are vaporized. They’re not lit.”

Bliss said he stopped serving any tobacco that has to be directly lit. He said he “never has and never will” allow cigarette or cigar smoking in his bar.

Seeking exemptions

Exemptions have been granted to some cigar bars and country clubs or organizations with selected membership.

“Why were the exemptions granted? That’s a good question,” said Hal Rubin, owner of Empire Cigars in Raleigh. “I would say because half the senate and congressmen in North Carolina go to country clubs.”

State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, said she did all she could to help Bliss in his fight to save the state’s hookah bars. But now it’s out of her hands.

“I can only do so much,” she said. “It was a hookah bar, and everyone thought it was a little bizarre and eccentric. They expect that out of Chapel Hill and Orange County, and they just discount it.”

She said most legislators had never heard of hookah before.

Despite his methodical plan to appeal and ultimately gain an exemption, Bliss admits he is worried. He said he could lose his business and not be able to make payments on his house.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said. “You never know how things will go.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.