If it’s disingenuous to imply that smoking flavored tobacco in a public establishment is in any way related to being blasted out of your skull with your buddies, well ok, but it’s just flat-out dumb to not secure an exemption from N.C.’s smoking ban and then complain that the country clubs and cigar bars which did their homework as “unfair” after the bill has passed. Yet that’s exactly what Chapel Hill’s Hookah Bliss owner did! Speaking to the Winston-Salem Journal, Adam Bliss raged against the NC Leg, saying “They have exempted every place that affluent, older folks like to go.”

But what about where affluent, younger folks like to go? Who’s standing up for the 18-to-20 set’s right to stave off boredom on Hillsborough St.? No one in the General Assembly, apparently, as State Rep. Cullie Tarleton (D-Watauga) was unable to use his hippie Boone logic on fellow lawmakers for a bill allowing exceptions for hookah lounges and has since withdrawn support.

It’s odd that boosters of the bill relied on crying foul (”unfair” was used FOUR times in the article) about the potential restrictions legislators wanted instead of just admitting that hey, for some reason we never considered the effects a state-wide restaurant smoking ban would have on our smoking-based business and c’mon the economy’s bad please help? and now, unless some 11th hour bill is passed, they will have to live with it come January.

Raleigh Hookahries:

Marrakesh Lounge (Hillsborough St.)

Casablanca Hookah Lounge (Glenwood Ave.)

Ali Baba Cafe & Hookah Bar (Capital Blvd.)

[W-S Journal] Hookah bars give up fight for ban exemption