After marijuana decriminalization, CT Senate tackles fake pot and hookah smoking

id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620249728032245650" />

Two days after approving a bill that decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of pot, the state Senate passed one bill that bans synthetic marijuana and another that calls for new regulations of hookah lounges.

The hookah bill was initially drafted to ban all new hookah lounges, but it was amended as part of an effort to improve its chances of passage. The compromise directs the state Department of Health to draft regulations overseeing hookah lounges. The department has to devise the new regulations by Jan. 1, 2013--in the meantime, no new hookah lounges can open in the state.

Hookah smoking is a centuries-old tradition in the Middle East. Patrons gather in lounges to talk, drink tea and puff on hoses connected to large water pipes whose bowls are filled with flavored tobacco. In recent years, several such businesses have opened in the state.

But some public health experts say hookah smoking is a risky endeavor. "People mistakenly believe that smoking a hookah...is not dangerous to your health and nothing could be further from the truth,'' said Sen. Gayle Slossberg, vice-chair of the legislature's public health committee. She cited research that links hookah smoking to tuberculosis, Legionnaire's disease and perhaps even cancer.

Sen. Rob Kane, a Republican from Watertown, had expressed strong opposition to an outright ban on new hookah lounges largely on philosophical grounds. "The government should not protect us from ourselves,'' he said. "If we chose to go to a hookah lounge, then that's your right, that's your choice. We as a legislative body should not control what activities people partake in."

But Kane helped work on the compromise measure, which he said "makes more sense.''

The bill was approved on a vote of 34 to 2--Senators Joe Markley and Anthony Musto voted no.

The state Senate also voted unanimously to ban synthetic marijuana and salvia divinorum. However some senators noted what they viewed as the inconsistency of prohibiting fake pot just days after decriminalizing the real thing.

"When you set a penalty for fake pot at any level of possession of $1,000 and a year in jail but then set a penalty for real pot at a fine or violation, people are going to scratch their heads,'' said Senate Republican Leader John McKinney. "Should we ban this?...it should be. For the life of me I don't know how I'm going to explain to my constituents one penalty for the fake pot and another for the real pot."