Hookah and cannabis are holding up Nashville’s smoking ban in bars

A Metro Council proposal to ban smoking and vaping, even in 21-and-up bars, makes an exception for cigar bars. But hookah lounges and a new cannabis restaurant could be forced to change their businesses if the ordinance passes.

Anyone who works at or patronizes Alladin’s Hookah Lounge & Bar on Elliston Place in Nashville knows they will be surrounded by tobacco smoke. Bar manager Amy Abrecht says communal smoking is the whole point.

“You are jeopardizing our business, our livelihoods, our family’s livelihoods, for what?” she asks. “You’re worried about people who may or may not want to be around cigarette smoke or hookah smoke? There are an obscene amount of options that they can go and they can work.”

Health advocates, including NashvilleHealth and Musicians for a Smokefree Tennessee, have been pushing the measure, citing the risk of secondhand smoke to employees and performers in 21-and-up establishments.

Health concerns aside, members of the Metro Council acknowledged in a hearing this month that hookah bars were an oversight. Sponsor Jeff Syracuse also said a new cannabis restaurant called Buds & Brews that offers vaping as part of the experience raised concerns.

“I don’t want to drive out of business new businesses that weren’t expecting this,” Councilmember Freddie O’Connell said at the meeting Aug. 16, when the ordinance was deferred to Sept. 20. “I don’t want to have this conflict emerge that we can’t work around.”

The problem is the Metro Council can’t simply amend the proposed ordinance. The city had to get legislation passed at the state level to be granted authority to ban smoking in 21-and-up bars. So adding an exception beyond cigar bars will take an act of the General Assembly too, which isn’t scheduled to meet again until next year.