Ali Alsudani has been in the hookah bar business in Boise for six years, and he believes the lounges were targeted by the city’s new smoking ban. “I came to the U.S. for freedom because in Iraq we have a dictator who tells you, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that,” he said. The new Boise regulations are limiting his freedom, he said, and he plans at the end of January to relocate his Ali Baba Hookah Bar, currently on Broadway Avenue. Two anti-smoking ordinances took effect Jan. 2, prohibiting smoking in parks, bars and varied other public spaces.

The smoking ban exempts “exclusive retail tobacconists” — businesses with sales that are 95 percent tobacco and tobacco products, with no more than four seats for customers.

Hookah bars could fall under that definition, city spokesman Adam Park said, “though perhaps on a more limited scale than they currently operate.”

Alsudani and two other Boise hookah bar owners say they can’t afford to operate if they’re limited to serving four customers at a time. They said they did not testify against the new city ordinances or seek an exemption.

WHAT WILL LOUNGE OWNERS DO?

Alsudani plans to move his business to smoker-friendly Garden City.

Maher Mirdas, owner of Babylon Hookah Lounge in a strip mall at 5805 Franklin Road, said he is confused by Boise’s new smoking ordinances and plans to keep operating as he has for the past six years until he is told otherwise.

If the business has to shut down, Mirdas said, “I wouldn’t know what to do.”

Ahmad Abdulrhaman never got a chance to open his business.

In August, Abdulrhaman and his business partner leased a space at 1505 N. Liberty St., where they planned to open a hookah bar. They began renovating in September, spending $35,000 in upgrades and furnishings.

Abdulrhaman told the Statesman he had conversations with city officials, including a city inspector, who told him he could not open under the new ordinance.

“I came to America to find a good life,” he said. “What’s wrong? I have no one to teach me how to get out of this. … I don’t know the language very well.”

The decision about what to do is up to the hookah bar owners, Park said.

“Following the passage of the smoke-free ordinance, hookah bars must make a business decision as to whether they wish to attain the status of exclusive retail tobacconist and offer hookah or become a social club where smoking is not allowed,” he said.

A MIDDLE EASTERN IMPORT

Hookah bars, brought to the U.S. by immigrants, are lounges where customers pay to smoke tobacco out of a water pipe with a flexible tube. Flavored tobacco smoke is drawn through a vase or bowl of water, which cools the smoke.

These smoking lounges cater to 18- to 20-year-olds who are old enough to smoke, but too young to go to bars.

“I would say that is 97 percent of my business,” said Alsudani.

Hookah bars have been on Boise officials’ radar for several years. After receiving noise complaints, city officials in 2009 amended city code to require tobacco establishments, including the smoking lounges, to be closed from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.

That limited the hookah lounge business, because some traditional bar patrons would filter over to the lounges after the bars closed at 2 a.m.

ENFORCEMENT PLANS

The Boise smoking ban aims to protect the public’s health, advocates say.

“Secondhand smoke is the issue — where employees are subject to it and can’t escape the damages,” Boise City Council President Maryanne Jordan said.

Boise police are in the process of training officers how to enforce the new smoking ban.

For the first 30 days under the new ordinance, officers are issuing only warnings — unless a violator persists or a citizen insists on signing a complaint.

“No citations have been written so far,” Boise Police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower said.

The city mailed information to business owners summarizing the ordinance and telling them who to call with questions.

Hightower said business owners should get their questions answered before the grace period is over. Citations for businesses that violate the smoking ordinance will be $119.

“If any business, including hookah bars, are allowing smoking that shouldn’t be under the ordinance, they will be issued a citation,” she said.

A measure passed by the state legislature in June and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo shortly afterward that took effect on Sunday, January 1, prohibits the sale of hookahs, water pipes and flavored tobacco, or “shisha” to minors. While the law does not specifically require hookah bars, many of which have sprung up on Steinway Street in Astoria in the past seven or so years, to ban teenagers from their premises, there appears to be no standard practice among the establishments’ owners and operators as to checking the ages of their patrons.

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Noncompliant hookah bar and café owners could receive points on their business licenses and face fines of up to $1,000. Minors caught smoking in the bars will receive a summons. Their parents will be notified as well.

An article on the December 28 NY1 Web site indicated that while some of the hookah bars allow minors to engage in the practice of drawing flavored smoke through a water pipe, or hookah, others do not allow teens inside. Many teens have taken to indulging in the habit at home and some hookah bar owners and patrons said they thought the new law would have little or no effect on teens’ actions.

State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn) and Assemblymember Alec Brook Krasny (D-Brooklyn) sponsored the legislation in response to concerns from parents in their Brooklyn districts. “It is a fact that smoking can seriously damage one’s body and health,” Golden said when Cuomo signed the bill into law on July 15, 2011. “By widening the ban on certain smoking products, this new law will help prevent minors from purchasing these items and keep them from caving into the pressure to smoke, protecting them today and in the future. As hookah bars become more popular amongst teenagers, parents have raised significant concerns and I believe this legislation properly addresses those apprehensions.”

“No matter if you are smoking tobacco, shisha or herbal cigarettes, this habit is extremely hazardous to the health of all smokers,” Brook Krasny said. “We have made great strides in educating young people about the dangers of cigarettes. However, in our community, hookah and water pipes are a dangerous and unfortunately available alternative means for smoking tobacco and this bill will help block access for minors to these products and keep the health of more New Yorkers safe.”

“This bill will make it more difficult for minors to purchase smoking products and it protects their health in the long run,” Cuomo declared in signing the bill. “Smoking has caused serious health repercussions for users of all ages and underage smokers are especially vulnerable to these dangers. I thank Senator Golden and Assemblyman Brook Krasny for their work in securing passage of this legislation.”

On Oct. 27, 2010, Councilmember Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn) and cosponsors, Councilmembers Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) and Annabel Palma (DThe Bronx), introduced a piece of legislation in the New York City Council seeking to make the 2002 Clean Indoor Air Act similarly consistent. The bill would ban the smoking of non-tobacco smoking products inside of most restaurants and bars. The legislation, Int 0386-2010, was referred to the council Health Committee the same day. There has been no word on its history since then. Gentile hailed the passage of the state level legislation.

Smoking shisha through a water pipe is a practice at least 400 years old and is common throughout the Middle East. Patrons of several Steinway Street hookah bars pointed out that hookah use is a phenomenon unique to these cultures and does not necessarily promulgate tobacco use. In fact, several persons interviewed said the practice is more healthful than smoking regular cigarettes because the flavored tobacco has fewer tars and carcinogens. Gentile’s legislation considers anything that comes through a hookah or can be rolled in a rolling paper is equally as harmful as the tobacco found in cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco.

Opinions are divided as to whether the state-level legislation will have a deleterious effect on the city’s hookah bars. There are, however, exemptions to the New York City Clean Indoor Air Act. Smoking is allowed in bars or cafes if it can be shown that the establishment draws at least 10 percent of its revenue from the sale of tobacco. But the exemption is also linked only to places that sell alcohol as well. The hookah bars do not sell alcoholic beverages, as the greater number of their patrons are Muslims whose religion does not permit alcohol consumption. Gentile’s legislation would prevent expansion of existing hookah bars.

I’m troubled — troubled by the inequity found in double standards and discrimination evident in Burbank demonstrated by its smoking ordinance. Within a specific parameter downtown, no one may legally smoke but for some apparent exemptions predicated on dubious justifications whose true cause can only be guessed. Two of the flagrant violations to equitable treatment are found at Café O and Gitana, two hookah lounges. They belch prodigious clouds of tobacco smoke into the very Burbank air the ordinance was created to render cleaner and healthier for all.

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The courtyard at Video Symphony between these hookah lounges — which sports not one but three signs indicating no smoking in Burbank — has, instead, become a smoker’s Mecca that is entirely ignored by law enforcement.

You can’t walk past these establishments without lungs full of cancerous vapors — vapors the retirees living above these businesses have no chance to escape from.

San Francisco health officials have moved to shut down hookah lounges because they recognized that tobacco smoke from any source is equal in its destructive effects on human health; not to speak of the fundamental inequality that allow one to smoke where another is forbidden.

Such apparent double standards in Burbank erode regard for government, law and authority, as much as baseless discrimination sows the seeds of discontent that grate upon the sense of individual and communal peace, harmony and fairness.

No smoking in Burbank ought to mean just that, for all. For the sake of healthy citizens, I ask the leaders of our city to enforce the law equally.

Titanic has sunk again. Only this time it is a hookah bar in the city. Fate of Titanic restaurant along with 40 other hookah bars has been sealed with Gujarat high court ruling that the police commissioner’s decision of canceling their licenses was legal and correct. The police commissioner had issued closure notice to owners of hookah bars as per the provisions of Bombay Police Act on the ground that the restaurants were not following rules and regulations laid down by the authority.

The prohibitory orders were also issued under section 144 of CrPC. The police decided to close down hookah bars for violation of conditions on which the licenses to run the bars were issued to the owners. The objection was two fold that the hookah bars did not abide by the anti-tobacco laws and give access of hookahs to even teens from schools, and the ingredients used in the hookahs are also not permissible under the law.

Eleven bar owners moved high court with grievance that the commissioner could not have ordered for closure. Defending the commissioner’s action, government pleader Prakash Jani submitted that all restaurants and eateries including hookah bars are bound to follow the rules defined by police. The decision to close down the bars was taken in public interest. He also argued that nearly a million people die in the country every year due to tobacco consumption every year.

Senior counsel Yatin Oza argued on behalf of the bar owners, but failed to convince the court that commissioner’s decision was illegal. On part of bar owners, it was contended that commissioner had in an arbitrary manner modified conditions of license and made it more stringent. They denied any violation of rules on their premises. They also challenged commissioner’s order to close down the bars on legal grounds that he does not have prohibitory powers and his decision is violative of their fundamental rights.

However, the bench of justice A L Dave and justice J B Pardiwala dismissed bar owners’ plea and upheld commissioner’s decision.

A proposed hookah bar at 1351 W. Belmont Ave. is in limbo as the two partners consider community support for their business and work to renegotiate a lease for the space. The proposed smoker’s haven came to prominence as the partners confronted a buzz saw of opposition at a community meeting last September. “We put everything on hold after we had the meeting with the neighborhood group. It’s a side project for both of us,” said Nihad Avdic, who has partnered with long-time friend Ali Eli on the project.

Avdic is the general manager of a South Side trucking firm while Eli is finishing business school.

The contingent lease on the Belmont space, the former Paper Boy store next to Shuba’s Tavern, is set to expire soon, so Avdic and Ali are working to renew the lease with the leasing agent. They must have a signed lease in order to request a special use permit, which has been required in Chicago for new smoking lounges since the 2008 smoking ban was put into effect.

In addition, the city requires locations for new smoking lounges to be free standing buildings, says Avdic. “We did a lot of research. We looked at a lot of areas. These freestanding buildings are hard to come by. We were happy when we found the place,” he said.

“Hopefully in a few weeks we can get the lease renegotiated again and move forward. We need to talk to Alderman [Scott Waguespack (32nd)] to hear his thoughts. We’ve talked to his staff but not him,” said Advic.

After raiding more than 23 hookah and pool parlours and clubs on Sunday, city cops raided 11 places in different parts of the city on Monday. The cops also picked up 14 persons from two hookah and pool joints at Ambazari. City police chief Ankush Dhanvijay aims to conduct sweeping raids on hookah and pool parlours to check whether illegal activities are being carried out at these joints. Police claim to have received information about nefarious activities in such joints.

A senior officer said customers would be taken to police station and their statements would be recorded. “We would also conduct medical examinations and send blood samples for chemical testing to ascertain presence of contraband or alcoholic substances,” said the officer.

On Monday, police found three hookah parlours at Nandanvan and one at Sadar closed. An officer said there was no one at a hookah parlour in Sadar. “Five more joints were raided at Ambazari,” he said. “Three parlours at Ambazari were found closed but police raised two operating ones. We have sent 14 people for medical examination from Ambazari police station. We would take action against them after their medical report is received,” said the officer.

The Kush Katariya kidnapping and murder case has prompted action against hookah smoking or pool joints. This was the outcome of the revelation that Kush’s killer Ayush Pugliya was addicted to pool parlours.

Dhanvijay said police faced tricky legal issues in taking action against hookah and pool parlours. “The challenge is to understand the applicability of laws regarding these joints and invoke suitable provisions. We had to do a lot of research with our senior officers and legal experts,” he said. “Police provide licence for eating houses. We would serve them notices to repeal their licenses if the restaurants with eating house permits are found allowing hookahs,” said Dhanvijay.

Additional commissioner of police Ravindra Kadam told TOI that action is underway at several joints. “Many joints opted to keep shops closed after the raids on Sunday,” said Kadam. “The owners and customers would be booked under relevant sections after getting reports of blood samples collected from them,” he said.

Dhanvijay has asked officers of deputy commissioners of police rank to supervise the raids.

A growing trend has now found a home here in Yakima. A hookah lounge just opened on North 1st Street. Babylon Hookah Lounge is thought to be one of the largest in the state. Hookah is the name for the middle eastern pipe used to smoke flavored tobacco. It is a members-only lounge and you must be 18 to join. There was a lot of discussion on our Facebook page about it, but most we talked in person have no problem with the lounge moving in.

“I don’t think it’s bad because they sell cigarettes,” said Krystal Valdez. “I mean it’s just a different form of smoking it, so you know I think it’s a person’s choice.”

The lounge is open every night and a membership is $12 a year.

The end of smoking in restaurants and the growing popularity of non-smoking bars is leading to a rebound in the cigar bar business. Birmingham’s latest entry in the fast-growing market, Highland Cigar Lounge & Hookah Bar, is expected to open Friday behind the popular Highland Package store. Owner Jimmy Gorji and his brother David spent three months building out an old storage room at the back of their store into a posh bar.

Patrons will be able to buy cigars from a selection of 30 to 40 brands ranging in price from $6 to $20, David said this week. The bar will offer liquor and beer from the selection of 55 brands the package store sells on tap.
The brothers expect to capture customers who have just had dinner at the nearby Hot & Hot Fish Club and Bottega restaurants, and to grab a share of Birmingham’s hookah-loving immigrants from all over the Middle East.
The hookah, for the uninitiated, is that octopus-looking water pipe from which Middle Easterners have smoked flavored tobacco for centuries.
The brothers, who spent 20 years working in construction after immigrating to the U.S. from Azerbaijan, did the work themselves to keep costs down, David said.
“The space was there, so we put it to use,” he said. “We might as well do something with it.”
The new bar will be managed by Luke Hampton, who has worked at Marty’s and the Wine Loft.

When you walk into Pavel Bhowmick’s lounge on Circle Drive, it looks like almost any other drinking establishment in the city. Patrons sit at the bar sipping from bottled beer; there are booths, a pool table, a hardwood dance floor and a room full of VLTs. The only real difference? There are people smoking from large water pipes. “From afar, if you don’t know the culture, it almost looks like a bong,” Bhowmick said in an interview. “Some (people) come in are, like, ‘Uhoh. What is going on here?’”

Bhowmick’s 306 Lounge is the only dedicated hookah lounge in Saskatoon, offering a huge selection of flavoured herbal shisha. Patrons can come in, sit down, order a beer and light up.

“Before, people used to like having a beer and a smoke and they can’t do that now, but they can have a beer and some shisha,” he said.

Originating in India over a century ago, hookahs are glass-bottomed water pipes in which fruit-flavoured shisha is covered with foil and roasted with charcoal. The smoke is inhaled through long octopus-like tubes after being filtered through the water.

Most shisha is still made with tobacco. But in light of laws banning tobacco use in public places, herbal shisha, made from plant leaves or sugarcane extract, have been gaining popularity. A handful of other Middle Eastern restaurants in Saskatoon offer hookah. Those restaurants focus more on traditional hookah smokers.

“They actually do it because that’s what they do back home. They sit around and drink a cup of tea because they don’t drink alcohol, they smoke hookah,” Bhowmick said.

While some of his costumers are older people who smoke shisha as part of their culture, there are more and more young people doing in for the social aspects.

“The younger people do it because it’s trendy, it’s cool. And there are the people who want to learn more about it, they want to be part of this trend,” he said.

There are no specific laws banning the use of herbal shisha in Saskatoon. Bhowmick said he has been visited by city inspectors on two separate occasions since opening the lounge last year. And each time, they have found nothing wrong with his operations.

Herbal shisha is free of nicotine and tobacco, and Bhowmick claims his shisha is also tar-free.

“It’s still smoke, I shouldn’t say that it’s not harmful. You are still inhaling smoke that will go to the avails of your lungs,” he said.

Jill Hubick from Saskatoon Lung Association said her organization wants more regulations when it comes to people smoking anything inside a public place.

“Any time you are inhaling anything into your lungs, whether it be tobacco or not, there is a potential risk for it to be an irritant or to do harm,” she said in an interview.

Hubick would like to see stronger health warnings on shisha products, and she is also concerned about its connection to tobacco use.

“Having the sweetness and the flavour, it appeals to the young people. We find that people aren’t just going to the bars to use the hookah, they are taking it to home parties and then adding tobacco. We are worried about becoming a gateway for young people using tobacco.”

While other cities like Vancouver have been debating the legality of hookah bars, Saskatoon has no plans to implement bylaws specific to hookah or shisha, and it is clear that hookahs have been gaining in popularity. They are commonplace in almost all major Canadian cities. And when Bhowmick first moved to Saskatoon from Montreal a year ago, he was surprised that there was no hookah lounge in the city.

“It’s so popular, so fashionable, so trendy – every major city has one,” he said.

Bhowmick, a University of Saskatchewan student who does not smoke cigarettes, says shisha is a great way to help him relax.

“I had a terrible exam, and I was like, man I need to relax and chill out it. And I looked around and there were tons of pubs, tons of bars and clubs but no place that was a lounge where you could just sit down, have a few cocktails, something to munch on and smoke some shisha. It is pretty relaxing,” he said.