North Carolinas smoking ban becoming puzzle.

Its looking like this could get messy.

As we’ve reported at Ed Hardy Smoking, the Smoking ban in North Carolina took effect on January 1st. 2010.  The law mostly said that cigar bars could stay open, but all indoor smoking had to cease.

Picture posted by David Forbes of the Mountain Xpress

Originally The Bill was accompanied by a softer tone and his date MS. Loopholes.

The state is not looking for indoor smoking. They have set up a line that can be called anonymously. If a phone call comes in then a state office sends out the letter. It takes two letters to get a ticket. Some Hookah bars wondered if anyone should even worry about the smoking ban. Other Hookah bars closed.

For North Carolina cigaret smokers this rule may not be as severe.

Remember, California outlawed smoking back around 1997. But because cigarets are a person’s property and compact and mobile people have become accustomed to smoking quickly outside. But hookah bars are still running in CA, most likely, due to exemptions written into the law.

In North Carolina the hookah bars were not able to get this exemption. By not being written into the law, the Hookah bars are widely believed to be in violation of the law because these Hookah bars are serving Shisha inside of an establishment.

What can make this hard to report is that its all speculation. Some hookah bars have devoted themselves to pooling their money together and defending the first Hookah bar that has to go to court. Other Hookah bars have moved their Hookahs outside into the cold North Carolina elements and appear to be fully within the boundaries of the law.

Days before the law went into effect one hookah bar tweeted “F the smoking ban … We are still smoking … I am right now!!” Yet this same Tweeter who owns The Hookah Bar in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, actually said he complies with the smoke ban because he is now serving a tea based Hookah not tobacco.

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Hookah Bliss, has begun begging for a ticket so that they can take the state to court. Hookah Bliss bases its argument on accusations of hypocrisy. The cigar lounges were exempted. According to Hookah Bliss’s owner, Adam Bliss, this is because legislators and rich men smoke at the cigar lounges. And in this Bliss calls foul.

Juggling Gypsy also has all types of state. And now smoking a Hookah is truly an art

In Wilmington, North Carolina, a hookah bar, Juggling Gypsy, changed itself into an entertainment parlor and believes it complies to the Smoking ban because it places everyone smoking on a “stage,” to be filmed by an internet camera making them a performer. If everyone is a performer, say the Juggling Gypsy, then they are exempt though the loophole that says smoking is allowed on a stage and during a performance.

But the state has received 400 +complaints concerning state wide smoking violations. The state met with the Juggling Gypsy last week and says the ball is in their court now.

Oh and “Besides owners, individuals who refuse to snuff their smokes also could be fined $50.”