A Chapel Hill hookah bar owner’s defiance of the state’s smoking ban now is costing him $200 a day. Fines began accruing Monday for Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss, when an official non-compliance ticket was hand-delivered by Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director.
“I’m going to try to fight it,” said Bliss, who has continued to sell hookahs since the ban took effect Jan. 2.
Bliss had encouraged people to file complaints against his bar to generate an administrative penalty for a possible legal challenge. He received warning letters from the county in late January and early February. Monday’s ticket is what he’s been waiting for — a third violation, which comes with a fine.
Konsler said Bliss has told the county he’s not going to comply. The result, Konsler said, is that the penalty grows by $200 every day Bliss is open until he notifies Orange officials that he is operating by the law.
“We can safely assume based on that, that every day he’s open, that there’s a violation occurring,” Konsler said. “The attorney general’s office has given guidance to counties that, rather than doing daily inspections and going in every day, that the onus is on the owner to notify the health director that he’s come into compliance and to allow for us to do a follow-up inspection to see that he’s in compliance.”
Bliss says he’s fighting the ban because hookahs aren’t a lighted tobacco product and the law doesn’t apply. The ticket he received says he has failed to comply with the ban in two ways: by allowing smoking in an enclosed area in which smoking is prohibited, and by failing to direct individuals to stop smoking.
Hookahs consist of tobacco mixed with molasses, glycerin, and flavorings, which go into a clay bowl. “You don’t actually burn the tobacco to smoke a hookah,” Bliss told Carolina Journal in January. “It’s designed as a giant vaporizer, so the heat from the top and the fact that the clay bowl also heats up volatizes the molasses and glycerin and flavorings without burning the tobacco.”
While Bliss consults an attorney on what to do next, Wilmington hookah bar Juggling Gypsy wages its own fight. Juggling Gypsy has received three $200 fines from the New Hanover County Health Department, said Manager Denny Best. The bar is appealing the fines.
Best said he believes the bar always was in compliance, but he has moved its hookah activity outside. He says the county considers the bar now to be meeting the law. “We’ve adjusted ourselves a little bit because we didn’t want to keep racking up fines,” Best said. “We have outside space where we can put our people.” Inside, the bar is offering herbal shisha. Best said herbal products don’t fall under the ban.
On Friday, Juggling Gypsy will hold an all-day fundraiser, with proceeds headed to a legal defense fund, should the bar lose its appeal and decide to hire an attorney. Still, owner Sebastian Gomez said the ideal solution is for the industry to obtain an exemption from the General Assembly.
Tobacco shops, cigar bars, guest rooms in lodging establishments designated as smoking rooms, nonprofit private clubs, and performers acting in TV, film, and theatrical productions already are exempt.
Bliss is considering teaming up with Gomez and Best. “I may just say to hell with it here and just go and chip in on their lawyer and we can all chip in together,” Bliss said. “You kind of hope that once you get one county taken care of, the other counties will fall into line.”
Konsler said Hookah Bliss is the only Orange County business so far to be fined for violating the state’s ban.
Donna Martinez is a contributor to Carolina Journal.