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· Hookahs/Shisha / Water Pipes
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· North Carolina
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Jump to full article: Independent Weekly (Durham, NC), 2010-07-21
Author: Joe Schwartz
Intro: Adam Bliss was drained from defying the statewide smoking ban for four months, facing $6,400 in fines, dwindling revenue and a $3,900 property tax bill when he snuffed the flame on Hookah Bliss at the end of April.
A new store, a head shop dubbed Smoke Rings, replaced it at 418 W. Franklin St., this week.
Bliss, the most outspoken opponent of the ban, was out of work for more than a month. He was saddled with debt from his first, and perhaps last, business, when he got a job working for the family of one of his former Hookah employees.
He now retrieves dead bodies from hospitals and dresses them for funerals. . . .
Fortunately, he won't have to pay the fines, which he accrued at $200 per day from March 22 to April 20, county records show. The Orange County Health Department waived the penalties when Bliss closed. . . .
The department also acknowledged that the law could have been confusing for hookah bar owners.
The smoking ban in restaurants and bars extended to Bliss' business. He had to stop selling alcohol or prohibit people from using hookahs. He chose neither at first, because he was angry that cigar bars and country clubs were granted exemptions while hookah bars were not.
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