Tucson imposes new limits on hookah lounges

Starting Dec. 8, hookah bars will not be allowed to operate between the hours of 12 a.m. to 7 a.m., unless they have a liquor license, in which case they can close at 2 a.m. under state law.

Additionally, minors under the age of 18 will not be allowed to “enter, work at, or patronize” a Tucson hookah bar.

The sale, possession or consumption of alcohol “shall not be permitted at any hookah bar,” if it doesn’t have a liquor license; nor will “any person obviously under the influence of any intoxicating drug or beverage” be permitted “to enter or remain in a hookah bar.”

Violating any of the new requirements would be a class 1 misdemeanor, according to the ordinance language. It passed Thursday night by a vote of 6-0. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero was not in attendance at the meeting.

City attorney Mike Rankin said having the ordinance go into effect in 30 days will give the city “an opportunity to give individual notice to hookah lounges about the new requirements.”

The ordinance was requested and brought to the table by Ward 6 Councilwoman Karin Uhlich and Ward 5 Councilman Richard Fimbres.

Such regulations were discussed starting in September as a reaction to an Aug. 11 incident outside Arizona Hookah Lounge near East Speedway and North Swan Road, in which about 200 rounds were fired in a gun battle and four people were injured, two with life-threatening injuries.

Ahead of that September council discussion, Tucson police looked into all calls for service at six hookah lounges in the city. Police analyzed data within a quarter-mile radius of the six locations and compared them “against 6 comparable smoke shops and 6 comparable bars.” The department found that hookah lounges experience four times more police activity “in and around their location compared to bars. Smoke shops are just behind.”

Additionally, there has been an upward trend in police activity, “especially violent crime” around hookah lounges, “whereas bars have seen no change in trend,” Tucson police said in their September analysis.

The Aug. 11 shootout was not the first shooting stemming from disputes that started at a hookah lounge. In 2018, Dominic Blount killed Avrum Diaz in an exchange of gunfire in what was then known as the Casablanca Hookah Lounge, next door at 4627 E. Speedway.

This is not the first time the City Council has looked to limit the hours of operation of Tucson businesses. In December of last year, the council passed an ordinance that limited the hours of operation for Tucson smoke shops. That ordinance limits where a smoke shop can be built as well as its operating hours, but only applied to any new smoke shop opened within city limits, not to smoke shops already open.