Palatine rejects store's plan to sell hookah pipes

Citing village ordinances against drug paraphernalia, Palatine's village council this week denied a tobacco store's request that it be allowed to sell glass pipes and hookah pipes.

Al Husain, an attorney for Golden Tobacco, said the business was making the request in part because not being allowed to sell the pipes has led to a precipitous drop in monthly sales.

"The business has been hurting because of this directly," Husain said. "The demand is there, that's for sure, or else they wouldn't be sold everywhere else."

Husain argued that the pipes should be eligible for sale in the town because of changing attitudes on marijuana. The village's Zoning Board of Appeals voted 5 to 3 in June to allow the sales, Husain said.

He also noted the state's decision to allow the sale of marijuana for medical uses.

However, Councilman Brad Helms said he didn't think medical marijuana patients lacked ways to buy the kind of pipes Golden Tobacco wanted to sell.

"I can understand if there was some sort of shortage and these poor folks weren't able to take their medicine because they weren't able to have the pipes or so on and so forth," Helms said. "But everything can be purchased in the (medical marijuana) dispensary."

Councilman Scott Lamerand said the most important factor is what the village code says.

"No matter how many times you explain it that it's not a big deal and everybody else offers it ... it is still drug paraphernalia as determined by our codes," Lamerand said.

The council voted against the plan unanimously.

Golden Tobacco has operated at 545 E. Dundee Road since 2003, according to village documents.