North Dakota Legislators to Once Again Consider Allowing Smoking in Cigar Bars and Lounges

A invoice has been launched into the North Dakota Legislature that when once more seeks to create an exemption to the state’s restrictions on smoking indoors and in locations of employment, which might then enable cigar bars and lounges to function legally.

HB 1229 was launched by Rep. Dan Ruby, R-Minot, and has already been co-sponsored by 10 of his fellow representatives and senators. As a way to qualify for the exemption, cigar bars and lounges would want to satisfy a number of necessities:

• Have a legitimate certificates from he tax commissioner.
• Have a humidor on premises.
• Be enclosed by stable partitions or home windows, have a ceiling and a stable door
• Have a air flow system by which exhausted air just isn’t recirculated to nonsmoking areas and smoke just isn’t back-streamed into nonsmoking areas.
• Not enable the smoking of every other supplies aside from cigars that have been bought on the premises.

To qualify as a cigar bar, an institution must generate two p.c or extra of its annual gross revenue from the sale of cigars, whereas a cigar lounge must be devoted in complete or partially to the smoking of cigars, whereas producing at the least 20 p.c of its annual gross revenue from the sale of cigars.

The same proposal from Ruby was defeated in March 2021, failing to cross the State Senate by a 24-23 vote after being accepted by the Home of Representatives with a 48-45 vote.

Ruby contends that there’s a need to amongst cigar people who smoke within the state to have such locations accessible to them, whereas opponents contend that creating an exemption for cigar bars can be a step backwards within the state’s push for wholesome workplaces.

The invoice has been assigned to the Home Committee on Trade, Enterprise and Labor for its first spherical of discussions.