Considering Opening A Hookah Lounge In The Uk

[mr.shisha]

Hey guys,

So as many of you may know there is a smoking ban in in London in all public areas and indoors for places such as restaurants and cafes. This has made many popular hookah cafes in London close down business and has lost a huge market for hookah smokers. After some research and looking around Namenone1 and myself have found a cuple of exemptions from the smoking ban which we believe we could "exploit" to open up probably London's only legal indoor hookah lounge.

We have really no legal experience and are unsure on a couple of things. The main exemption we have found being that we would be legally allowed to smoke indoors IF the premise is a "members club" and at least half of the sales made are from tobacco sales. There is also the exemption that the premise can be a "tobacco specialist" a term which we are not exactly sure what it is.

Here are links to those exemptions:

Read: Section 4 Part 2 and Section 7
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2007/uksi_20070765_en_1#pt2-l1g7

and also

Read: Section 6 Part 2
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/ukpga_20020036_en_1

We are unsure whether hookah tobacco can be classed as "specialist" and whether we could potentially exploit any of these exemptions to open an indoor hookah lounge in the UK (or at least London )

We would greatly appreciate any input, especially from fellow lounge ownders in the US who may have any advice, experience, knowledge.

Thanks,
Mr. Shisha

[Namenone]

Yeah! i stumbled upon this just today! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as i have no idea what hookah tobacco comes under!

[tinyj316]

As far as I can tell, hookah tobacco would fall under the category of pipe tobacco, as it is smoked out of a water pipe (hookah).

Granted, I am not a lawyer, attorney, barrister, have any legal background whatsoever...

[Thermo]

You could try the argument that it falls under whatever category chewing tobacco does, since it is never burned, and produces no actual smoke.

See what the legal definition of 'smoke' is, and if 'combustion of leaf matter' (or something like that) is mentioned, jump all over that. The only thing 'combusting' is usually the coal. If that becomes a stickler, make a mint on electric coals, or an electric bowl heater - that way nothing is ever burned at all.