Metro Council Debates Proposed Smoking Ban in Bars

A bill proposed by Metro Councilmember Jeff Syracuse aims to ban smoking from most of the remaining establishments in Nashville that still allow smoking indoors. 

While a statewide smoking ban passed in 2007, a provision in the bill excludes age-restricted venues and bars from the ban. Later changes in the state legislature allowed cities to make their own decisions on whether to prohibit smoking in age-restricted venues. Syracuse’s bill, which he has amended since first reading to exempt hookah bars, would affect the small number of dive bars and venues that still allow smoking.

“This bill is a public health bill,” Syracuse tells the Scene. “It protects our hospitality workers [and] musicians who have to make a decision whether to take a job or take a gig or protect their own health. This is actually a pro-business bill. The data is crystal clear that when you do away with smoking in an establishment, your revenues will go up.”

Following feedback from local bars and venues, Syracuse has added an amendment prior to tonight's second reading that pushes the bill’s effective date to March 1 of next year in an effort to give the businesses time to make changes to their establishments. But some still don’t feel this is enough of a concession, and a proposed amendment from Metro Councilmember Sean Parker would grandfather in the bars that do allow smoking while still banning new establishments from allowing smoking. 

“These are places that people have gone for years, in some cases decades,” Parker says. “It's part of the culture, it's part of the atmosphere, and we're talking about a small handful of establishments at this point."

Parker says he will support the bill if his amendment is added. 

Also affected by the bill are dab bars and other hemp-related establishments such as Buds and Brews, a cannabis bar and restaurant that opened in Germantown earlier this year. And while Syracuse references a carve-out in the state law for businesses that get a significant portion of their revenue from the sale of e-cigarettes and other forms of smoking, Joey Fuson, an attorney who runs Hemp Law Group and represents a number of hemp companies and dab bars, says this exception would likely not be applicable to most businesses like Buds and Brews. 

“I know that I've got a colleague tonight who's got a bill to carve them out, but I also think it's kind of a slippery slope,” says Syracuse, who explains that such an exemption may be overinterpreting what the state legislation allows cities to do. 

The third and final vote on the bill will take place in two weeks following tonight's second reading.