Local hookah shop owner continues hunger strike
Posted May 3, 2015 1:52 pm.
Last Updated May 3, 2015 1:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A man who has operated a hookah shop in Vancouver for 17 years is continuing his hunger strike as his legal battle with City Hall heats up.
It’s been two and half weeks without food and Hamid Mohammadian is losing energy. “What I have to do. I have to shut down and sell marijuana?”
“I am 68 years old,” he adds.
The city of Vancouver’s anti-smoking bylaw means there are trying to shut down his cafe on Davie Street.
Mohammadian is waiting for a judge to hear his case and wonders if he will have to get a marijuana licence to operate. Under provincial law hookah shops are legal if they don’t serve tobacco, which his doesn’t.
Vancouver’s bylaw goes a step further, banning smoking of any kind inside businesses, even the herbal blend offered at the Persian Teahouse.
