Dec 21 2009
Freedom- It’s Spreading
Don’t make the hookah bar owners angry. You won’t like them when they’re angry.
On Jan. 2, a law extinguishing smoking in bars and restaurants statewide takes effect. There are a few exceptions, but none for bars that offer hookahs, the water pipes for smoking fruit-flavored tobacco that originated in the Middle East and are growing in popularity among young Americans.
Hookah Joe’s, the four-year-old lounge in downtown Asheville, plans to defy the smoking ban and carry on into the new year.
“Honestly, we don’t really know what to expect,” co-owner James Tsakonas said. “But we will definitely be serving.”
Local health directors can fine violators $200 a day after giving them two warnings.
Legislators who passed the law this year called it an effort to save lives of workers and customers that are put at risk by secondhand smoke. Customers at Hookah Joe’s this week said anyone who would enter a hookah bar wouldn’t be bothered by the smoke.
That last line is the key to this whole debate. If you don’t want to breathe in second-hand hookah smoke… don’t go to a freakin’ hookah bar! If you do want to smoke hookah, who the hell is Hugh Holliman or anyone else to tell you that you can’t? Oh wait… they’re elected. That makes them waaaay smarter than your or me.
Good for Hookah Joe’s and anyone else who chooses to defy this junior-grade fascism. I hope our Asheville readers will stop in and have a few puffs in honor of freedom.
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