The Barometer Online

Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Annie Miles Wendy Eick and Claire Oslund smoke hookah Wednesday afternoon during the Smoke Out in MU Quad event. The event was hosted to protest the closing of Tony's Smoke Shop due to the Oregon Smokefree Workplace law.

Media Credit: Annie Miles Chris Leniger blows smoke under the tent.

The smell of hookah greeted anyone walking through the MU Quad yesterday as students met to protest a new anti-smoking law.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) held their first event Wednesday to help students get interested in repealing a change to Oregon's Smokefree Workplace law.

Students were able to sign petitions that stated their disapproval of the new law. In addition, Tony's Smoke Shop set up several hookahs, water pipes used to smoke tobacco, for anyone interested in smoking.

"The petition is saying we want to change the exception of the law, so you don't have to be a stand-alone business [to operate a hookah lounge]," said Will Rogers, a sixth-year student in mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as the president of OSU's AFP chapter.

Contact information for Oregon lawmakers, such as Governor Ted Kulongoski, State Representative Sara Gelser and House Majority leader Peter Courtney, was also provided at the event to allow students to call the lawmakers' offices and voice their disapproval of the law.

The updated Oregon Smokefree Workplace law will require a smoke shop, such as Tony's, to be a stand-alone business and not be connected to any other business or residence, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services' website, http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/smokefree/thelaw.shtml#workplaces

The updated Oregon Smokefree Workplace law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2009.

Though tobacco use was the attraction of this event, in a previous interview, Rogers stated that AFP was not promoting smoking.

"We're just doing this as a pro-business standpoint," Rogers said.

Tony's employees were at the event to lend support and prepare hookahs.

"I want to keep the lounge open," said Monique Edwards, a junior in animal science and an employee of Tony's. "There's no reason to shut us down for not doing anything wrong."

Eleven different hookahs were set up at the event and were filled with many different flavors of tobacco, such as blueberry/white grape, double strawberry and tequila sunrise.

After showing ID at the entrance to prove that they were over 18, any interested person was welcome to smoke.

"It's a free-for-all," Edwards said.

Disposable plastic tips were available to cover the ends for sanitary purposes.

The event's setup caught a lot of attention from passers-by and students such as Jonathon Wymore, a freshmen in pre-veterinary sciences, who stopped by the tent as he was "just walking by."

"It's totally legal to [smoke] hookah," he said, adding that he signed the petition. "I don't think it's a bad thing."

Rogers was hoping for 300 attendees at the event.

"Hopefully, we can get enough people to send the message to them that it's a really simple fix and that we can prevent the loss of these jobs," Rogers said.

Gail Cole, senior reporter

news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231

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